Jamie Shear, Torah Scribe, Artist and Educator in Jerusalem

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Some people spend a lifetime with words. Jamie Shear (Zalman Leib) has spent more than thirty years with letters, each one formed with a quill on parchment, according to the laws, traditions and beauty of Jewish scribal art. He has completed 13 Sifrei Torah for communities in Canada, the United States, Israel and Hong Kong. For ten years he served the Montreal Jewish community, and since 2005 he has lived and worked in Jerusalem with his family.

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Torah and Tefillin

Jamie writes Torah scrolls and Tefillin himself. He also offers a Torah commissioning service: for communities who need a Torah on a particular timeline or budget, he matches them with the right sofer and guides the whole project from start to finish. His Tefillin With an Experience lets a Bar Mitzvah boy and his family see how his own Tefillin are written and made, in Jamie’s Jerusalem studio or by Zoom.

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Art that grows out of the sources

Jamie’s art brings the letters off the scroll and into the home: ketubot, micrography, life-cycle art and Kabbalah art. Each Kabbalah painting begins with study, and Jamie gathers the sources behind every work so collectors can learn the ideas they live with. Custom commissions begin with a chevruta, studying the sources together.

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Teaching the scribal arts

When he isn’t writing, Jamie is teaching. He has led hands-on workshops in schools, shuls and communities across Israel, North America and Hong Kong, and has toured the US as a shaliach from Israel. Families visiting Jerusalem are welcome at his studio gallery in the Jerusalem House of Quality, Hebron Road 12.