ArtScroll: Difference between revisions

In 1975,<ref name="press">{{cite web |url=http://elucidation-not-translation.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-nosson-scherman.html |last=Resnick |first=Eliot |title=Our Goal is to Increase Torah Learning |work=[[The Jewish Press]] |date=6 June 2007 |access-date=23 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131201437/http://elucidation-not-translation.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-nosson-scherman.html |archive-date= 31 January 2011 <!--DASHBot-->|url-status=live}}</ref> Rabbi [[Meir Zlotowitz]], a graduate of [[Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem]], was director of a high-end graphics studio in New York.<ref name="Zeit">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010713/artscroll.shtml |title=In 25 Years of Publishing, Artscroll captures Zeitgeist |last=Ephross |first=Peter |work=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |date=13 July 2001 |access-date=23 December 2010 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609111257/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010713/artscroll.shtml |archive-date=9 June 2011 }}</ref> The firm, ArtScroll Studios, produced [[ketubah|ketubot]]s,<ref>[https://agudathisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/1972/12/JO1972-V8-N09.compressed.pdf#page=34 The Jewish Observer, December 1972, p. 34 full-page advertisement]</ref> brochures,<ref name="ny">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/books/10talm.html?pagewanted=print&position= |title=An English Talmud for Daily Readers and Debaters |last=Berger |first=Joseph |date=10 February 2005 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=23 December 2010}}</ref> invitations, and awards.<ref name="press" /> Rabbi [[Nosson Scherman]], then principal of Yeshiva Karlin Stolin [[Borough Park, Brooklyn|Boro Park]],<ref name="press" /> was approached by Zlotowitz who had helped him write copy for brochures and journals in the past,<ref>{{Cite web |title=What's Bothering Artscroll?: Interview with Nosson Scherman |url=http://elucidation-not-translation.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-nosson-scherman.html |access-date=2023-02-13 |language=en}}</ref> and they collaborated on a few projects.<ref name="scherman">{{cite web |url=http://matzav.com/the-artscroll-revolution-5tjt-interviews-rabbi-nosson-scherman |title=The ArtScroll Revolution: 5TJT interviews Rabbi Nosson Scherman |last=Hoffman |first=Rabbi Yair |date=3 December 2009 |access-date=23 December 2010 |publisher=Five Towns Jewish Times}}</ref>

In late 1975, Zlotowitz wrote an English translation and commentary on the [[Book of Esther]]<ref name=Z.obit /> in memory of a friend, and asked Scherman to write the introduction. The book sold out its first edition of 20,000 copies within two months.<ref name="women">{{cite web |url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/feminists_object_artscroll_rolls |title= Feminists Object, But ArtScroll Rolls On |last=Nussbaum Cohen |first=Debra |date=11 October 2007 |work=[[The Jewish Week]] |access-date=23 December 2010 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165315/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/feminists_object_artscroll_rolls |url-status=dead }}</ref> With the encouragement of Rabbis [[Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman]], [[Mordechai Gifter]], [[Moses Feinstein]], [[Yaakov Kamenetsky]],<ref>Cf. his position that quality English-language sefarim will be used by Jews in the Messianic era as, like Yiddish in its time, "today English has become a language of Torah." (Rabbi Nosson Scherman in ''The Mandate to Communicate Torah in the Vernacular: Excerpts From a Presentation to an Eleventh Grade'' published in [https://agudathisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/JO1998-V31-N04.pdf#page=27 The Jewish Observer, April 1998, p. 27]).</ref> and others,<ref name=ami>{{cite magazine|last=Gantz|first=Nesanel|date=15 September 2013|title=Lunch Break with Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz|magazine=[[Ami (magazine)|Ami]]|issue=136|page=90}}</ref> the two continued producing commentaries, beginning with a translation and commentary on the rest of the [[Five Megillot]] ([[Song of Songs]], [[Ecclesiastes]], [[Book of Lamentations|Lamentations]] and [[Book of Ruth|Ruth]]), and went on to publish translations and commentaries on the [[Torah]], [[Nevi'im|Prophets]], [[Talmud]], [[Passover Haggadah]], [[siddur]]s and [[machzor]]s. By 1990, ArtScroll had produced more than 700 books, including novels, history books, children's books and secular textbooks,<ref name="Zeit" /> and became the largest publisher of Jewish books in the United States.<ref name=ami/>

ArtScroll's English explanations and footnoted commentary in the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud are based on the perspective of classical Jewish sources. The clarifying explanation is generally based on the viewpoint of [[Rashi]], the medieval commentator who wrote the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud. The Schottenstein Edition does not include contemporary academic or critical scholarship. The overall guidelines follow a pattern defined by the late Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm, "a Monsey, N.Y., scholar who died in 1993."<ref name="ny"/> The total cost of the project is estimated at US$21 million,<ref name="ny"/> most of which was contributed by private donors and foundations. Some volumes have up to 2 million copies in distribution, while more recent volumes have only 90,000 copies currently printed. A completed set was dedicated on February 9, 2005, to the [[Library of Congress]], and the [[siyum]] (celebration at the "completion") was held on March 15, 2005, the 13th [[yahrzeit]] of Jerome Schottenstein, at the [[New York Hilton]]. The blue-covered Hebrew Talmud set, which like the English counterpart is 73 volumes, has a [[Haskama|HasKaMa]] (approbation) from a [[Bobover]] Rebbe, Grand Rabbi [[Naftali Tzvi Halberstam|Naftali Halberstam]].<ref>printed inside</ref> A French language set was begun.<ref>copies have been sold in the USA. The first volume was in memory of Mr. [[Safra Group|Safra]] of the eponymous bank.</ref>

Mesorah and the Schottenstein family have also printed a Hebrew version of the commentary and have begun both an English and Hebrew translation of the ''Talmud Yerushalmi'' ([[Jerusalem Talmud]]). The- blue-coveredthe Hebrew/Aramaic Talmudside set, which likeof the English counterpart is 73 volumespage, hasas awell [[Haskama|HasKaMa]]as (approbation)the frompagination, ais [[Bobover]]based Rebbe,on Grand Rabbithe [[NaftaliOz Tzvi Halberstam|Naftali HalberstamVehadar]].<ref>printed inside</ref> A French language set was begun.<ref>copies have been sold in the USA. The first volume was in memory of Mr.edition), [[SafraMidrash Group|SafraRabbah]] ofand theother eponymousclassical banksources.</ref>

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