Funding to microfilm portions of the collection provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities

 

 

Jewish Publication Society Records

 

1877-2020, bulk 1888-1993

 

SCRC 38

 

Jewish Publication Society

 

336.47 linear feet (577 boxes)

 

Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

 

Materials in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and French

 

 

The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally founded in 1888 as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is a nonprofit publisher which promotes Jewish heritage and culture through the publication and distribution of literary works of Jewish content in the English language. Works produced by JPS include two English translations of the Hebrew Bible, biblical commentaries, translations of rabbinic works, children’s literature, biographies, and books on Zionism and Jewish history and thought. The JPS records include board and committee meeting minutes, administrative correspondence, reports, financial records, member correspondence, publication files, manuscripts, book reviews, galley proofs, illustrations, photographs, newspaper clippings, awards, and preserved versions of the Jewish Publication Society’s website.

 

The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally founded in 1888 as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is a nonprofit publisher which promotes Jewish heritage and culture through the publication and distribution of literary works of Jewish content in the English language. Works produced by JPS include two English translations of the Hebrew Bible, biblical commentaries, translations of rabbinic works, children’s literature, biographies, and books on Zionism and Jewish history and thought. JPS books have received numerous awards including the National Jewish Book Award, American Library Association's Notable Book of the Year Award, and the Association of Librarians' Book of the Year Award. Notable JPS authors include S.Y. Agnon, Martin Buber, Louis Ginzberg, Yitz Greenberg, David Hartman, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Mordecai Kaplan, I. L. Peretz, Chaim Potok, Nahum M. Sarna, Solomon Schechter, Lawrence Schiffman, Gershom Scholem, Joseph Soloveitchik, Elie Wiesel, and Avivah Zornberg.

 

On June 3, 1888, scholars, laymen, and rabbis gathered together in Philadelphia to formally draft the constitution and bylaws of the Jewish Publication Society at a meeting of American Jewish intellectuals organized by Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf known as the Society of Knowledge Seekers. JPS was initially guided by community leaders such as Mayer Sulzberger, a Philadelphia lawyer and jurist and the society’s first Publication Committee chairman; businessman Jacob H. Schiff; Cyrus Adler, scholar and president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning; and Henrietta Szold, who served as the society’s first secretary to the Publication Committee and was chiefly responsible for the editorial duties from 1893 to 1916.

 

The Publication Committee has served as the primary decision making body of the organization, determining which works are produced under the JPS imprint. The committee was originally composed of religious and academic scholars from all branches of American Judaism, as well as educated laymen, and evaluated manuscripts for quality using a method of consensus of volunteer readers. Initially, JPS was a membership society deriving sales directly from its members who received a copy of each publication produced. At the end of the first fiscal year of operation, there were over 1,000 members and within fifteen years, membership had reached 4,700. Membership fluctuated over the duration of JPS’s existence with significant declines in membership occurring in the 1930s and 1950s, but numbered as high as 15,000 individual, library, and organization members.

 

JPS’s first published title in 1890 was Lady Katie Magnus's Outlines of Jewish History, a popular British textbook revised with supplemental chapters on American Jewish history. This was followed by Heinrich Graetz’s History of the Jews, a six volume translation from the original German.  In 1893, JPS commissioned an English translation of the Hebrew Bible for American audiences. The translation, published in 1917, was the work of two editors responsible to a committee of biblical and rabbinical scholars. The resulting Bible was distributed to the more than 14,000 society members at the time and eventually became the most popular English language translation of the Hebrew Bible worldwide.

 

From 1899 to 1907, JPS was the exclusive publisher of the American Jewish Year Book, an annual on Jewish matters in North America with directories of local and national Jewish organizations, obituaries, population estimates, and a Hebrew calendar for religious and devotional purposes. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) assumed responsibility for production in 1908 while JPS remained the publisher until 1994, when AJC became the sole publisher of the yearbook.

 

In response to declining membership in the 1930s, JPS Secretary Maurice Jacobs increased distribution of books to garner broader readership within the Jewish community. To further distribution, Jacobs reprinted best sellers on inexpensive paper and offered copies at a lower cost to society members. Jacobs also increased the annual production of newly published books from six per year in the 1930s to twelve per year by 1944.  During World War II, JPS began publishing popular histories and novels. In the years following the war, JPS sought to avoid controversial issues by limiting their publications to literature which presented positive views of Jewish life.

 

In the 1950s and 1960s, Jacob’s successor Lesser Zussman promoted co-publication projects with commercial publishers on a large scale. Commercially successful books with Jewish content were published under the JPS imprint, assuring an additional 5,000 to 10,000 readers per title. In return, JPS books were distributed through commercial presses, insuring greater distribution at lower production costs. In February 1954, the first issue of the JPS Bookmark was printed. Intended as a bi-monthly bulletin, Bookmark communicated the society’s plans and achievements to its members. 

 

In 1952, JPS initiated a second Bible translation project, conceived as a revision of the 1917 Hebrew Bible translation. Following Christian biblical scholars and theologians who felt the need to revise the King James and standard versions of the Christian Bible, JPS sought to modernize the scriptures for American Jews. A committee known as the Advisory Editorial Committee or AEC was assigned to the project. The committee was composed of biblical scholars and rabbis including Max Arzt, Solomon Grayzel, Louis E. Levinthal, Harry Orlinsky, Bernard J. Bamberger, Harry Freedman, E. A. Speiser, and H. L. Ginsberg. The AEC met frequently from 1955 through the mid-1970s, first translating The Torah, published in 1962 and then the writings of the major and minor prophets, Nevi'im, published in 1978.

 

A second committee was formed in 1965 to translate the Kethubim. This committee was composed of scholars Nahum M. Sarna, Moshe Greenberg, and Jonas C. Greenfield, and rabbis Saul Leeman, Martin S. Rosenberg, and David S. Shapiro, with Chaim Potok acting as JPS liaison. The Writings: Kethubim were published in 1985 with the combined edition of the full Hebrew Bible translation, Tanakh: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text finally completed in 1985.

 

Prior to the 1960s, the Publication Committee rejected modern poetry and short stories as being insufficient for book length publications, only changing this policy with the rising popularity of anthology literature during the 1960s and 1970s. JPS embraced the notion of publishing works with more controversial content as American Jewish feelings about the Holocaust began to change with the publication of Elie Wiesel's Night. Prior to this period, only one JPS book, Leon Poliakov's Harvest of Hate, and one chapter of Solomon Grayzel's History of the Jews, dealt with the Holocaust. 

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, JPS published two commentary series, the five volume JPS Torah Commentaries and the JPS Bible Commentaries. Each page in the commentaries contain the original Hebrew text with vocalization and cantillation marks, the JPS translation of the Holy Scriptures, aliyot breaks, Masoretic notes, critical commentary by scholars, and supplementary essays.

 

In 2005, JPS partnered with the Jewish Welfare Board for the JPS Mitzvah Project Campaign to raise money to send free copies of the JPS Torah and Book of Psalms to Jewish military service personnel. The project was expanded into a program to provide free copies of its Bible to various hospitals, prisons, and remote Jewish communities in Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

 

On January 1, 2012, JPS entered into a publishing partnership with the University of Nebraska Press which assumed responsibility for all business operations including production, licensing, marketing, and sales. The Jewish Publication Society continues to be responsible for the development and sponsorship of new manuscripts.

 

References:

Sarna, Jonathan D. JPS: The Americanization of Jewish Culture, 1888-1988. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989.

 

The Jewish Publication Society Records document the activities of this nonprofit publisher dating to its founding in 1888. The collection includes board and committee minutes, administrative correspondence, reports, financial records, member correspondence, publication files, manuscripts, book reviews, galley proofs, illustrations, photographs, newspaper clippings, awards, audio cassettes and preserved versions of the Jewish Publication Society’s website. The administrative and financial records provide documentation of the business and financial activities as well as policy changes that affected the society’s operations. The publishing records provide insight into the editorial functions, the publication decision-making process, and the development of manuscripts. The collection also includes author submitted manuscripts for works published from the 1940s through the 1990s and translation manuscripts and production material for the society’s two Hebrew Bible English translation projects completed in 1917 and 1985. Documents in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and French can be found throughout the collection.

 

The collection is arranged in five series, three of which have been further arranged in subseries as follows:

 

          Subseries 1.1: Organization histories, 1928-1973

          Subseries 1.2: Annual meetings, 1910-1960

          Subseries 1.3: Board of Trustees, 1888-1965

          Subseries 1.4: Correspondence, 1922-1969

          Subseries 1.5: Editor’s correspondence and organization files, 1944-1966

          Subseries 1.6: Publication Committee Chairman’s correspondence, 1889-1895

          Subseries 1.7: Publication Committee Secretary’s correspondence and personal papers, 1877-1971

          Subseries 4.1: Publication Committee, 1888-1983

          Subseries 4.2: Classics Committee, 1913-1966

          Subseries 4.3: Covenant Committee on Juvenile Literature, 1912-1964, (bulk 1955-1964)

          Subseries 4.4: American Jewish Year Book Committee, 1905-1981

          Subseries 4.5: Book releases and reviews, 1890-1950

          Subseries 4.6: Published books author correspondence, 1906-1979

          Subseries 4.7: Unpublished manuscripts author correspondence, 1906-1979

          Subseries 4.8: Unpublished manuscript submissions, circa 1918-1973

          Subseries 4.9: Production matter, 1890-1987, bulk 1945-1987

          Subseries 5.1: The Holy Scriptures, 1896-1959

          Subseries 5.2: Advisory Editorial Committee, 1944-1982

          Subseries 5.3: The New Jewish Version, 1955-1976

          Subseries 5.4: Kethubim Committee, 1965-1975

          Subseries 5.5: Bible production matter, 1919-1985 

          Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records, 1891-2001, bulk 1963-1991, undated

          Subseries 8.2: Publishing records, 1892-1994, bulk 1961-1993, undated

          Subseries 8.3: Photographs, 1898-1988, undated

 

Series 1: Administrative records, 1877-1973, contains Board of Trustees and committee meeting minutes, administrative correspondence, financial reports, and member and subscriber correspondence. This series is arranged in seven subseries. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Series 8: Accessions 1765 and 2263.

Subseries 1.1: Organization histories, 1928-1973, contains an undated copy of the bylaws, several newspaper articles on the Society, a history of the Bible translation projects, and reports on policies and functions of committees, editors, and fundraising that reflect the changes that JPS adopted during the first 100 years of operation.  

 

Subseries 1.2, Annual meetings, 1910-1960, is arranged chronologically and includes the president's formal address at the annual meeting, meeting agendas, and officer election results for the bulk of meetings held between 1910 and 1960. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records.  

 

Subseries 1.3, Board of Trustees, 1888-1965, is arranged chronologically and consists of board meeting minutes, joint meeting minutes of the board and the Publication Committee, Executive Committee meeting minutes, with general correspondence at the end of the subseries. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records. 

 

Subseries 1.4, Correspondence, 1922-1969, is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically with correspondence regarding rejected manuscript submissions and permission to publish requests filed at the end of the series. This subseries was acquired from the office of the Executive Director, which was formerly known as the Secretary of the Jewish Publication Society. The correspondence primarily concerns administrative and business matters, but also publishing issues. Notable correspondents include Cyrus Adler, Simon Miller, Jacob Solis-Cohen, Isaac Husik, Louis Levinthal, and Solomon Grayzel. Other topics covered in the correspondence include editorial policy changes, negotiations with the American Jewish Year Book and the society’s editorial rights, and correspondence with fundraisers during a nationwide membership drive during the 1920s. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records.

 

Subseries 1.5, Editor’s correspondence and organization files, 1943-1964, consists of correspondence produced by Solomon Grayzel during his tenure as JPS Editor. The bulk of the series contains materials documenting Grayzel’s involvement with regional and national Jewish organizations including the Board of Jewish Education, Gratz College, Jewish Book Council of America, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. This subseries is arranged in two groupings, with correspondence arranged chronologically at the beginning of the subseries, then organizations arranged alphabetically by name at the end. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.  

 

Subseries 1.6: Publication Committee Chairman’s correspondence, 1889-1895, is arranged chronologically and consists of handwritten correspondence and transcribed copies of dictated letters by Mayer Sulzberger as chairman of the Publication Committee. Additional Publication Committee correspondence is located in Subseries 4.1.  

 

Subseries 1.7: Publication Committee Secretary’s correspondence and personal papers, 1877-1971, contains correspondence to and from Henrietta Szold and is arranged chronologically with correspondence to Cyrus Adler at the beginning of the series, followed by outgoing correspondence, then incoming correspondence addressed to Szold, with miscellaneous personal materials and articles written about Szold filed at the end of the series. The correspondence from Szold to Adler concerns editorial policies and the production of the American Jewish Yearbook, of which Szold was co-editor from 1899 until 1907. Much of the incoming and outgoing correspondence consists of personal letters to and from family members and acquaintances. Some of the personal correspondence is written in German, a portion of which was composed after Szold left her position as secretary of the Publication Committee in 1916 to devote her life to Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America she founded in 1912.  

 

Series 2: Financial records, 1912-1963, is the smallest series in collection and includes correspondence, reports, statements, and fundraising statistics. Much of the correspondence is between the society’s Secretary or Executive Director and the Treasurer concerning the dispersal of checks from the general operating funds. Reports on national fundraising campaigns conducted in the 1920s to generate a general operating fund of $100,000 are also included. The arrangement of the series is generally alphabetical and then chronologically. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records.

 

Series 3: Membership records, 1924-1964, consists primarily of correspondence regarding membership renewals, book selection, and dues payments.  The membership correspondence is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. This series also includes fundraising correspondence for a major membership drive conducted in the 1950s filed alphabetically by state or city followed by reports created by the Advisory Commission on Membership from 1949 to 1959, with agency membership correspondence files at the end. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records. 

 

Series 4: Publishing records, 1888-1987, contains committee meeting minutes and correspondence, book reviews, author correspondence, manuscripts, and materials generated during the book design process. This series is the most comprehensive in terms of date coverage within the collection. This series is arranged nine subseries. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.

 

Subseries 4.1: Publication Committee, 1888-1978, contains committee and subcommittee meeting minutes arranged chronologically, followed by correspondence arranged chronologically. 

 

Subseries 4.2: Classics Committee, 1913-1966, consists of meeting minutes, subcommittee reports, and correspondence concerning the translation of classical works of Jewish scholarship into English.  This subseries is arranged chronologically.  

 

Subseries 4.3: Covenant Committee on Juvenile Literature, 1912-1964, bulk 1955-1964, consists of correspondence arranged chronologically and contracts made between JPS and authors, translators, and other publishers concerning the publication of juvenile literature. The earliest dated materials in this subseries are contracts with translators and co-publishers for publications reviewed by the Classics Committee.  

 

Subseries 4.4: American Jewish Yearbook, 1905-1981, contains correspondence related to the American Jewish Committee's editorial functions and JPS related articles submitted for inclusion in the yearbook. The Hebrew calendar year and the Gregorian calendar year are listed for each volume in the container inventory below. This subseries is arranged chronologically by volume.  

 

Subseries 4.5: Book releases and reviews, 1930-1960, is arranged alphabetically by author last name and then chronologically by date of release or review. This subseries contains press releases issued by JPS and printed in various publications, as well as critic reviews from newspapers, independent journals, and commercial presses of Jewish and Non-Jewish organizations. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records. 

 

Subseries 4.6: Published books author correspondence, 1906-1979, consists of correspondence primarily generated by the editorial office regarding author contract negotiations, editorial changes to manuscripts, and permissions to use material from other publications. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name of author and then by book title. The bulk of the correspondence is dated after 1930. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.  

 

Subseries 4.7: Unpublished manuscript author correspondence, 1890-1970, contains correspondence with authors including poets, playwrights, and short story writers who submitted manuscripts to the Publication Committee, but were ultimately rejected for publication. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by last name of author in two alphabetical runs of author last names, followed by a miscellaneous alphabetical run of correspondence from 1979 filed at the end. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.  

 

Subseries 4.8: Unpublished manuscript submissions, circa 1918-1973, consists of manuscripts submitted to the Publication Committee for review, but never published. Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by last name of author. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.  

 

Subseries 4.9: Production matter, 1890-1987, bulk 1945-1987, consists of original artwork and illustrations, manuscripts, corrected galley proofs, photographs, mechanical design layouts and dust jacket mockups for books published by JPS. This series also includes author and printer correspondence particularly when major revisions were made during the design and printing process. This subseries is the largest in the collection and is arranged alphabetically by last name of author with photographs of authors, JPS staff, and events filed at the end. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.

 

Series 5: Bible translations, 1896-1985, contains material related to the society’s multiple projects to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into English. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Series 8: Accessions 1765 and 2263. This series is arranged in five subseries. 

 

Subseries 5.1: The Holy Scriptures, 1896-1959, consist of correspondence and translation manuscripts for the 1917 edition of the JPS Bible, as well as correspondence regarding the Children’s Abridged Bible published in 1931, a 1956 Hebrew-English edition, and Bible commentaries. This subseries is organized chronologically by project. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records. 

 

Subseries 5.2: Advisory Editorial Committee, 1944-1982, contains committee meeting minutes arranged chronologically, followed by committee correspondence arranged chronologically.  

 

Subseries 5.3: New Jewish Version, 1955-1976, contains annotated English translations of the Torah by Harry Orlinsky with AEC members’ comments, draft revisions, and corrections. There are also original translations and the committee's notes on the Haftaroth, the devotional readings used in religious services. This subseries is arranged according to the names of the books in the order they appear within the Hebrew Bible.  

 

Subseries 5.4: Kethubim Committee, 1965-1975, consists mainly of editorial and production correspondence, corrected galley proofs, and translation manuscripts. This subseries is arranged according to the names of the books in the order they appear within the Hebrew Bible.  

 

Subseries 5.5: Bible production matter, 1919-1985, contains manuscript pages and galley proofs related to the JPS Bible including Harry S. Linfield’s unpublished manuscript, Helps to the Study of the Holy Scriptures, and Notes on the New Translation of the Torah edited by Harry Orlinsky. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by name of book or author. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records.  

 

Series 6: Publicity and awards, 1913-1983, consists of newspaper clippings collected by Maurice Jacobs, JPS Secretary, in scrapbooks as a means of documenting publicity and news coverage of the society’s activities. The bulk of the newspaper clippings span the years 1940 to 1960 and consist of articles published nationwide, largely obtained from clipping services. Many of the clippings duplicate content in press releases issued by JPS. Also included in this series, are a small number of publicity photographs and awards presented to JPS from other organizations, either for particular publications or for the society’s publishing work.  This series is arranged alphabetically by type of record and then chronologically. This series contains records similar in scope and content to those found in Series 8: Accessions 1765 and 2263. 

 

Series 7: Website versions in Archive-It, 2014-2020, contains preserved versions of the Jewish Publication Society’s website. To access these sites, see the Temple University Special Collections Jewish Archives Archive-It web page: https://www.archive-it.org/collections/4280

 

Series 8: Accessions 1765 and 2263, 1891-2001, bulk 1961-1993, consists of a continuation of records contained in series 1 through 4 and are of similar scope and content. Included in this series are administrative files; financial records; Board of Trustees and committee meeting materials; business and editorial correspondence; memberships records; catalogs and promotional materials; materials related to production and printing; photographs; and several audio cassettes. The bulk of these records are dated between the early 1960s through the 1990s. Also included in this series are records related to those contained in Series 5: Bible Translations which were created during the production of the JPS’s 1917 and 1985 Bible translations. Series 8 is arranged in three subseries: Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records; Subseries 8.2: Publishing records; and Subseries 8.3: Photographs.

 

Subseries 8.1: Administrative and business records, 1891-2001, bulk 1963-1991, undated, details the day-to-day operations of the JPS. The bulk of the material does not directly pertain to specifics of the work written for or published by the JPS. That material can be found in Subseries 8.2: Publishing records. Documents include Board of Trustees and committee meeting minutes; committee reports; business correspondence; treasures’ reports; fundraising material; budgets; royalty statements; contracts with authors; interoffice memoranda and notes; inventories; promotional and sales materials such as catalogs and mailers; permissions to publish or reproduce; bylaw revisions; files on personnel matters; building floor plans; scrapbooks; press releases; and newspaper clippings. Correspondence is not limited to the folders labeled “correspondence” and may also be found in the folders labeled by subject. The correspondence is both incoming and outgoing and correspondents include the JPS offices in New York City and Israel, subscriber and member institutions, printers, other publishers, and many prominent organizations and writers in the Jewish theological and literary world. A significant amount of the documents in this subseries originated in the offices of the executive director Lesser Zussman and executive vice presidents David C. Gross, Bernard I. Levinson, Nathan Barnett, and Rabbi Michael A. Monson beginning in the early 1960s continuing through the early 1990s. The nature of these documents closely resembles that of the records contained in Series 1: Administrative records, Series 2: Financial records, and Series 3: Membership records. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject.

 

Subseries 8.2: Publishing records, 1892-1994, bulk 1961-1993, undated, contains files arranged alphabetically by author last name that document the creation, publication, and release of material both published the JPS as well as work submitted for consideration but never published. Included within the files are manuscripts; annotated and corrected drafts and galleys; research material; jacket layouts and design; artwork, photographs, and illustrations for inclusion in books; printing specifications; authors’ headshots; promotional material; book reviews, and clippings. Also included are correspondence folders containing material generated and collected by editorial staff such as interoffice correspondence regarding editorial, thematic, and programmatic direction and emphasis; requests and replies for permission to use material from other publications; rejection letters; submissions for potential publication; and additional press, reviews, and promotional material. While the author’s files contain much of the direct correspondence between editors and authors, some is also included in the correspondence folders. The bulk of this series was created and collected during the tenures of editors Chaim Potok, Maier Deshell, David Rosenberg, Barbara Spector, and Sheila Segal and dates from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s. Items of note include material surrounding the JPS Bible translations published in 1917 and 1985 in addition to documentation of the JPS’s significant Torah commentary project. The original manuscript and notes for Stephen S. Wise’s translation of the Book of Judges is also included here. The nature of these documents closely resembles that of the records contained in Series 4: Publishing records. The Bible translation material is a continuation of Series 5: Bible translations.

 

Subseries 8.3: Photographs, 1898-1988, contains photographic prints, negatives, contact sheets, and slides of subjects corresponding to published material in which they were used along with images that were used on dust jackets, advertisements, and for promotional purposes. Some author head shots are included here but can also be found in the author files in Series 2: Publishing records. Also included are some layout mockups and notes along with the photographs used within the body of published materials. Photos pertaining to JPS administrative business, functions, and personnel can be found here as well. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject.

 

 

All documents in Series 1, Subseries 4.1-4.8, and Subseries 5.1-5.4 are available on microfilm. Corresponding reel and frame numbers are indicated at the folder level in the collection inventory for all microfilmed content.

 

A selection of photographs from this collection has been digitized and is available online on the Temple University Digital Collections website. http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15037coll15 

 

A record for this collection is available in Temple University’s online library catalog: https://librarysearch.temple.edu/catalog/991006328369703811

 

Collection is open for research.

 

This collection may be housed off-site at the Library Depository, and require up to two business days to retrieve. Please review the finding aid and be prepared to identify specific materials to be retrieved. Contact the Special Collections Research Center in advance of your visit, so that materials may be relocated to the reading room for research. 

 

Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.

 

Additions to this collection are expected. Websites are captured using Archive-It periodically, and the latest additions may not yet be included in this finding aid. For information on material-physical and digital, including captured websites-that may have been added since the last finding aid update, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.

 

The Jewish Publication Society Records are on deposit with the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. The donor has not assigned their rights to Temple University Libraries. Other creators’ intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to them or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.

 

[Description and date of item], [Box folder number], Jewish Publication Society Records, SCRC 38, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

 

Placed on deposit by the Jewish Publication Society between 1973 and 2016. A portion of the collection previously administered by the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, acquired by Temple in June 2009.

          

The Jewish Publication Society (JPS) Book Collection has been cataloged separately and is accessible via Temple University’s online library catalog.

 

In 2014, the 1990 and 1993 finding aids were merged into a single finding aid according to contemporary archival standards with enhanced description. Select series and folder titles were revised to more accurately reflect the contents including the addition of dates. All containers in the collection were renumbered and relabeled. Although the general arrangement within series and subseries was retained, the arrangement hierarchy was altered slightly to more closely parallel the activities of the organization’s functional units. All description revisions, arrangement, and rehousing activities for series 1-7 completed in January 2015 by Jessica M. Lydon, Associate Archivist. Series 8 processed and finding aid revised in January 2020 by Casey Babcock, Project Archivist.

 

 

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the Temple University Libraries’ electronic catalog.

 

Adler, Cyrus, 1863-1940

Arzt, Max

Bamberger, Bernard J. (Bernard Jacob), 1904-1980

Cohen, J. Solis (Jacob Solis), 1838-1927

Ginsberg, Harold Louis

Grayzel, Solomon, 1896-1980

Greenberg, Moshe

Greenfield, Jonas C. (Jonas Carl), 1926-1995

Husik, Isaac, 1876-1939 

Jacobs, Maurice

Levinthal, Louis E. (Louis Edward), 1892-1976

Linfield, H. S. (Harry Sebee), 1889- 

Miller, Simon

Orlinsky, Harry Meyer, 1908-

Potok, Chaim

Sarna, Nahum M.

Schiff, Jacob R. 

Speiser, E. A. (Ephraim Avigdor), 1902-1965

Stern, Horace, 1878-1969

Sulzberger, Mayer, 1843-1923

Szold, Henrietta, 1860-1945

Wolf, Edwin, 1911-1991

Zussman, Lesser

 

Jewish Publication Society

Jewish Publication Society of America

 

Bible -- Commentaries

Bible -- Publication and distribution

Bible -- Versions

Book industries and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Booksellers and bookselling -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Jewish booksellers

Jewish business enterprises -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Jewish literature -- Publishing

Jewish publishers

Jewish publishing

Jews -- United States

Publishers and publishing -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

 

Philadelphia (Pa.) 

 

Administrative records

Audiocassettes

Books

Booksellers’ catalogs

Born digital

Bylaws (administrative records)

Clippings

Correspondence

Drawings

Financial records

Manuscripts

Membership lists

Minutes (administrative records)

Negatives

Newsletters

Photographs

Poems

Press releases

Proofs

Publications

Reports

Scrapbooks

Sound recordings

Web sites

 

 

Collection Overview