Pseudo-Hebrew

Pseudo-Hebrew is the artistic use of symbols meant to appear like Hebrew script but that are not in fact Hebrew letters. The related phenomenon of the use of actual Hebrew letters in ways that do not represent actual language may be called "nonsense Hebrew". Gary Schwartz, an art historian, notes that the use of pseudo-Hebrew in 15th-century art is not distinctive, as other works of the time also contain pseudo-Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.

History

In medieval European artworks, faux-Hebrew was used in paintings to identify and portray Jewish people or as a reference to Jewish people, often in a negative light. Following the Renaissance, the frequency of faux-Hebrew increased in artworks and was often used to signify its status as a holy language for Christians.