The nick on this Hebrew type is on the “wrong” side of the body, and for a reason. That is because the type was cast from Linotype matrices, which would have been composed into lines by an operator at a keyboard—and Hebrew is composed and read right to left. Because of this and the mechanics of the machine, the matrices were in effect cast inverted. When foundry type is cast from these, it therefore casts with the characters inverted, and thus the nick is on the opposite side from the normal position.
This from Dr. Noam Sienna at the University of Minnesota, an authority on Hebrew typography:
According to a Linotype chart that I received via the Museum of Printing, the Linotype Hebrew Condensed typeface was first introduced in 1913 (meaning 12Δ81, 16Δ7, 20Δ7, and 28Δ9), indeed intended for Yiddish newspaper headlines. This corresponds with what I’ve found in my research so far, in which it seems that this Hebrew Condensed was first used in handset metal type around 1908-1910, and then reproduced in Linotype matrices shortly afterwards, it seems.