The Jewish Zine Tradition Lives On
In the years after the Shoah, Jews turned to zines—small, home-printed booklets—to express themselves, document their lives, and share messages of resilience in the face of catastrophe. In Displaced Persons camps, these booklets were often printed on the cheapest paper available. They were a lifeline—an act of self-expression, solidarity, and survival.
Under the Soviet regime, when Jews faced cultural erasure and brutal repression, forbidden Jewish literature circulated underground through Samizdat. These handmade pamphlets were precious. People didn’t just read them—they collected them. Shared them. Hid them. They became tokens of Jewish resistance, treasured by everyday people and artists alike.
Jewish identity has always found a way to survive—and even flourish—on the printed page, even under the most oppressive conditions.
We’re not there. But the clouds are dark again.
Enter the Hatikvah Sticker Collective Zine Library
In the spirit of 20th-century Jewish underground publishing, the Hatikvah Sticker Collective is building a homegrown library of Jewish activist zines. Printed on thermal label printers, bound by hand, and passed from one Jew to another—these booklets carry an authenticity that can't be mass-produced.
We invite you to join us.
Submit your zine to: hatikvahcollective@gmail.com
How to Make a Hatikvah Zine
1. Print your file on a thermal printer
(See our [Thermal Printing Guide]). We recommend using secondhand UPS thermal labels—easy to find on eBay and great for zine production.
2. Use 4x6 labels, with an even number of pages.
For proper formatting, flip the back cover so it prints in reverse (it will appear upright once folded).
3. Bind and seal your zine
Use a small sticker to bind the top edge—your zine should open like a flipbook.
4. Share freely.
Print as many copies as you like. Distribute them at your synagogue, Hillel, reading group, or activist meetup.
These little booklets carry weight.
They’re not just stickers—they’re modern artifacts of Jewish hope and strength.
Collect them. Gift them. Keep them close.
The faces of all 24 living Hostages by the artists of the Windows of Hope Prioject along with the names of all 36 fallen Hostages ז"ל Keep them close as a reminder to keep fighting for their freedom.
The Sticker Art of @ Yiddish Feminist. Spiritual and biting.
Use these facts to gird yourself and spread the word in hostile places. A 4x6 sticker Israel Museum in your pocket.
A dream collected from the Sticker Campaign, an excerpt from an upcoming Oral History of Jewish visual activism, to be published and distributed soon.
The founding Jewish declaration of freedom, illustrated with the work of 20th-century Jewish printmakers
Aphorisms to respond to casual antisemitic microagressions--in conversation and internally.
