Hebrew Publishing Company

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77 Delancey St, New York NY, former Bank of United States building and home to the Hebrew Publishing Company for over forty years

Hebrew Publishing Company was an American Jewish publishing house based in New York City. The company published a range of Hebrew prayerbooks and other religious works, as well as many Yiddish publications.[1][2] The company was founded in the early 1900s in the Lower East Side of New York, and later was situated at the former Bank of United States building for over forty years.[3][4] The company was described as having the greatest staying power of any Yiddish publisher.[2]

Overview[edit]

The predecessor to the Hebrew Publishing Company was originally formed in 1883 as Rosenbaum & Werbelowsky, Inc.[5][3] The current company was founded in 1901 by Joseph Werbelowsky and his son David Werbelowsky.[6][7][8] The company also operated a bookstore.[2]

The company was founded in the Lower East Side of New York circa 1924.[3] They were located at 50-52 Eldridge Street in 1924, and 632-34 Broadway from 1928.[9][10] After the collapse of the Bank of United States in 1932, Hebrew Publishing Company took over the bank's headquarters building at 77 Delancey Street.[4] In 1976, after over forty years at the Delancey Street location, the company moved out from its Lower East Side location.[3]

Among their perennial publications were the prayer books edited and translated to English that the company comissioned from Paltiel (Philip) Brinbaum.[11] These books led the New York Times to describe him as "the most obscure bestselling author."[12]

In 1980, the company was acquired by Charles Lieber (1921–2016) from the Werbelowsky (Werbel) family. Lieber was a protege of Alfred Knopf, had been an executive at Random House, and was owner of textbook publisher Aldine Atherton.[13][14][15]

Hundreds of the company's publications have been digitized by the Yiddish Book Center research institute.[2]

In its early years, the company geared its productions to newly arrived Orthodox Jewish immigrants who were fluent with Yiddish and Hebrew. The company produced books, educational textbooks, greeting cards, and sheet music.[2] The company also offered a range of books to assist the new immigrants with integrating into American society.[16] The first publication of the Hebrew folk song Zum Gali Gali was released by the Hebrew Publishing Company in 1939.[17] The company is thought to be the first to publish a Yiddish-English dictionary.[8]

In popular culture[edit]

Hebrew Publishing Company was the title of an award-winning novel by the Israeli writer Matan Hermoni [he].[18] In the book, the novel's protagonist, Mordechai Schuster, a newly arrived immigrant to the United States, works for his uncle at the Hebrew Publishing Company. The novel describes the lives of Jewish immigrants in Manhattan in the early 20th century as they engage in petty trade or work as laborers, living in poverty and overcrowded housing. The immigrants read the cheaply produced literature (known as shund in Yiddish) and sentimental stories published by the Hebrew Publishing Company.[19]

Gallery[edit]

Early publications by the Hebrew Publishing Company

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Hebrew Publishing Company (New York, N.Y.) [WorldCat Identities]".
  2. ^ a b c d e Baker, Zachary (2016). "The Storied History of Yiddish Publishing". PaknTreger.
  3. ^ a b c d Shenker, Israel (August 1, 1976). "It's Onward and Uptown For Hebrew Publishing" – via NYTimes.com.
  4. ^ a b Sanders, R. (2013). "Delancy, Grand & Essex Streets". The Lower East Side. Dover Publications.
  5. ^ "Publishing". Encyclopaedia Judaica.
  6. ^ Greene, Victor (1992). The Ethnic Music Business. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520911727. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  7. ^ Madison, C. A. (1976). Jewish Publishing in America: The Impact of Jewish Writing, p. 77.
  8. ^ a b "D. Werbelowsky publisher, dies". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 18, 1937.
  9. ^ "Looking for more information about this "Megillah"". Mi Yodeya. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  10. ^ Oppenheimer, M. (2007). "We're all Jews now". Thirteen and a Day. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  11. ^ Lindell, Yosef (September 6, 2021). "Why a High Holidays prayer book is still going strong after 70 years". The Times of Israel.
  12. ^ Goldman, Ari L. (March 22, 1988). "Philip Birnbaum, 83, Author of Books For Jewish Liturgy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  13. ^ eulogy, Karrie Allen Columbia-Greene Media With information from his son’s (May 4, 2016). "Family shares patriarch's 95-year-old story". The Daily Gazette Family of Newspapers. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  14. ^ Lieber, Charles D., New York Times, April 19, 2016.
  15. ^ "Hebrew Publishing Company". OpenSiddur.org.
  16. ^ Sarna, J. (2007). "Two Ambitious Goals. Jewish Publishing in the United States." In Print in Motion: The Expansion of Publishing and Reading in the United States, 1880–1940, pp. 376–91.
  17. ^ "Zum Gali Gali". Zemereshet.
  18. ^ Yudilovich, Marev (August 28, 2012). "The winners of the Bernstein Prize for Literature have been announced". Ynet.
  19. ^ Lev-Ari, Shiri (March 24, 2011). "What is troubling about Mordechai Schuster". Ynet.
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