As a former trustee of JPS, I applaud the move. JPS played an invaluable role in the development of the American Jewish community by sponsoring and promoting both the translation of classic texts and encouraging critical research and literature when no one else was doing so. It is a tribute to JPS that their success rendered them an anachronism.
Once the Jewish community came into its own and there were many for profit Jewish publishers and mainstream academic institutions able and willing to perform the role that had previously been performed by JPS. Jewish scholars no longer needed to turn to JPS to publish their works when Penn, Harvard, Brown, Brill, Schocken and others were available to them. What justification could there be for JPS to use charitable funds to compete with other publishers - especially where the other publishers had better distribution and marketing networks? (As to those works for which there was no other publisher, one has to question the value of the work.) The JPS had, at one time, created monumental works of lasting importance, the Tanakh being just one shining example. Today the monumental works are being produced by others - Matt's Zohar translation, the Schottenstein Talmud, the Yerushalmi and the Steinsaltz Talmud for example. The academic works are being done by academic publishers who have a greater cachet on an academic c.v. than JPS. The popular works are being done by either Jewish or standard publishers and are much more widely distributed than any JPS popular work. As to new Jewish literature, even JPS's own, such as Chaim Potok turned elsewhere when it came to publishing their own Jewish literature. Let us praise the founders of JPS for their success and applaud the current trustees for their wisdom. Zachary L. Grayson, Esq. Kfar Sava, Israel --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
