ArtScroll
ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York. Its general editors are Rabbis Nosson Scherman and Meir Zlotowitz.
Publications
ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish subjects. The best known is probably the translated Siddur (the best-selling "The Artscroll Siddur"), its Torah translation and commentary, the line of Bible commentary works, and the Hebrew-English translation of (and commentary on) the Babylonian Talmud. Other publications include works on Jewish Law, and novels and factual works based on Jewish life or history.
Editorial policy
Works published by Mesorah under this imprint adhere to a perspective appealing to most Orthodox Jews, but especially to Orthodox Jews who have come from less religious backrounds, but are returning to the faith.
In translations and commentaries, ArtScroll works traditionally accept midrashic accounts as factual, generally ignoring (and occasionally disagreeing with) modern Biblical criticism.
Criticism
This line of books has come under extensive criticism from many scholars (both Orthodox and non-Orthodox) on a number of points.
- "My Uncle the Netziv" is a biography about the author's uncle, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, known as the Netziv, head of the Volzhin Yeshiva. Mesorah Publications published an English translation of the original, but censored the text to remove any trace of moderation or modernity. Their English translation removed all references to the Netziv reading secular newspapers, which many Haredim view as unbecoming of a Torah scholar. While the Netziv's yeshivah was noted for allowing secular studies, this fact is removed from the English language version. His leanings towards Zionism were removed. Similarly, in the Mesorah English language translation of the biography of Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, his Zionist views were censored. This censorship triggered what became known as the "My Uncle the Netziv" affair, which led to an article by Rabbi J .J. Schachter's article on the existence of secular studies at the Volozhin Yeshiva and revisionism in general, which was published in the Torah uMadda Journal, 1991.
- Artscroll books demand that its readers believes a non-historical understanding of Jewish history, in which all rabbinic legends from the midrash literature are uncritcally accepted as historical facts. Traditionally, classical Judaism has not taught that Jews are obligated to accept most of the stories in midrashim as historically true; many classical rabbinic sages cautioned against such a view. Numerous statements within Artscoll book exist which state that Jews are obligated to have beliefs that the editors themselves have. As such, criticism of Artscroll books have since become a staple within parts of the Modern Orthodox and all of the non-Orthodox community.
- Non-Orthodox scholars and a few Orthodox scholars note that Artscroll deliberately ignores all facets of modern critical historical scholarship from the last 200 years.
- Artscoll editors have cropped photographs to remove rabbis that they do not view as sufficiently Orthodox. See their biography of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a leading Haredi rabbi. In the first edition of their biography, p.141, there is picture of Feinstein shaking hands with Rabbis Aaron Kotler, with Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who was associated with Modern Orthodox Judaism, sitting between them. However all of their later editions remove the photograph of Soloveitchik.
- A similar change was made in their biography of Rabbi Kaminetsky. The editors used a photograph supplied by his family, which showed him wearing a bowtie and colored shirt. However, the Artscroll editors decided that he did not look Haredi enough, so they faked the photo to show him wearing a white shirt and regular tie, without consulting the family.
In much of the Haredi and Modern Orthodox community, however, Mesorah Publications is credited with "spurring a movement that is arguably saving American Jewry".
See also
Bibliography
- Rabbi B. Barry Levy. "Our Torah, Your Torah and Their Torah: An Evaluation of the Artscroll phenomenon.". In: "Truth and Compassion: Essays on Religion in Judaism", Ed. H. Joseph et al. Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1983.
- B. Barry Levy. "Judge Not a Book By Its Cover". Tradition Spring 1981;19(1):89-95 and an exchange of letters in Tradition 1982;20:370-375.