NOVEMBER 18 • 2021 | 49

A

t age 30, Jay Saper of East Lansing is an old soul. Through
his art, writing and teaching, he keeps alive the beliefs and
history of progressive social/
political activists, including some
relatives, who preceded him by gener-
ations.
We met at “Freedom of the Press,
” a
printmakers’ exhibit at Eastern Market
in early October. He sat at his table
patiently, waiting for passersby to stop
and ask about his work. I was curious.
I saw Hebrew letters on notecards. I
saw an eye-catching letterpress poster
featuring a well-known statement
from Pirkei Avot about working to
bring about a better world, with the
word “organize,
” a more modern refer-
ence to labor unions, tucked subtly in
the background.
All his posters are printed on a tra-
ditional letterpress, using handmade
wood type set by hand. He calls his
endeavor Pashkevil Press, after the
Yiddish word for a poster pasted on
walls in Orthodox communities of
the past and still seen most typically
in Chasidic Jewish neighborhoods.
These posters can express political
commentary aimed at those in power,
convey other strongly held opinions or
announce basic funeral information
and more.
“I honor this vibrant Jewish print
culture by creating prints that engage
Jewish history and texts, as well as
support social movements,
” Saper says.
Yiddish is a big part of his link to
past generations. He not only learned
Yiddish to keep this Old-World
language alive but also teaches it.
Currently, he is translating a Yiddish
poetry book by Holocaust survivor
Rikle Glezer, “who leapt off the train
from the Vilna ghetto bound for death
at Ponar to take up pen and pistol
against the fascists, chronicling her life
as a partisan through poetry,
” he says.
This work, with Corbin Allardice, is
supported by a translation fellowship
from the Yiddish Book Center in
Amherst, Massachusetts.
“I am very interested in connect-
ing to my Jewishness by embracing
Yiddish, my grandma’s first language,
”
Saper said. “Her life was in Yiddish. I
didn’t hear it myself. When she died a
few years ago, I didn’t want her to be the last in my family to speak
Yiddish.
”

He participated in summer Yiddish programs in Warsaw,
London and Weimar, Germany. He has taught the language online
during the pandemic, and he’ll soon
teach an online course at Middlebury
College, the liberal arts school in
Vermont where he studied sociology.
Art also is part of his background.
As the son of Nell Kuhnmuench and
Roy Saper, founder and owner of the
highly regarded Saper Galleries in
East Lansing for more than 40 years,
he grew up around art. The gallery
features many Jewish artists, including
some in Israel. Since the pandemic
began, Saper moved back to his family
home, where he has set up a studio.
He grew up attending Shaarey Zedek,
a Reform synagogue in East Lansing.
As I talked to Saper, his old soul first
revealed itself in two stories involving
family members. His Aunt Sheri Saper
grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, where
her synagogue and her rabbi’s home
were bombed because the congrega-
tion held the first interracial service
when they visited freedom riders who
had been jailed.
“My aunt was part of integrating
public schools in Jackson and con-
tinued to do what was right even in
the face of violence,
” Saper says. “It’s
incredibly inspiring. I am interested in
what solidarity has historically meant
and how we can build that today and
come together with other communi-
ties with other experiences to build a
better world. Those stories have a lot
to lend to our present — a look back-
ward to see how to navigate moving
forward.
”
Another family story is influencing
an art series he is working on about
Henry Ford. “There’s a larger story on
growing up here and always being sur-
rounding by Ford and his legacy, even
though the Michigan Jewish commu-
nity knows another story [about his
antisemitism],
” Saper says. “I want to
create things that continue to engage
these things that are protected.
”
He tells of when Ford got agitated
by workers unionizing in Detroit, the
carmaker started sending parts to be
made in different little towns. One
was Manchester, Michigan, where his
great uncle stood up to Ford in those
early years. This great uncle, with the only Jewish family in town,
refused to sell his screw plant to Ford. Ford built a plant there and

continued on page 51

TOP: This statement
from Pirkei
Avot about making a
better world overlays
the more modern
statement: Organize!
ABOVE: A papercut
of ballerina Franceska
Mann from Saper’s
Radical Village
walking tour of
Greenwich Village.