Books published by Jewish Publication Society

Presents an original translation of the Holy Scriptures into contemporary English, based on the Masoretic (the traditional Hebrew) text.

The commentary, which accompanies the Hebrew biblical text and the JPS translation, approaches the Book of Esther from a fresh literary point-of-view. It includes essays entitled "When and Where Was the Book of Esther Written?", "Sex and Spies", and "Rabbinic Interpretation".

The first comprehensive volume to teach about America’s response to the Holocaust through visual media, America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History explores the complex subject through the lens of one hundred important documents that help illuminate and amplify key episodes and issues.

Modern Musar explores the diverse ways Jews understand ten virtues: honesty and love of truth; curiosity and inquisitiveness; humility; courage and valor; temperance and self-restraint; gratitude; forgiveness; love, kindness, and compassion; solidarity and social responsibility; and justice and righteousness.

In A Year with Martin Buber, the first Torah commentary to focus on his life's work, we experience the fifty-four weekly portions and eleven Jewish holidays through Buber's eyes.

Sanctified Sex draws on two thousand years of rabbinic debates to address competing aspirations for loving intimacy, passionate sexual union, and sanctity in marriage.

Published to mark the 100th anniversary of The Jewish Publication Society, this book presents the personalities and the controversies, the struggles and the achievements behind a century of publishing by the oldest English-language publisher of Jewish books in the world.

A unique four-part commentary on the Jewish heritage, The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary orbits each Torah portion through four central pillars of Jewish life-the Torah, land, people, and thought-illuminating how they enrich one another.

Culling the finest thinking of renowned historian Jonathan D. Sarna, Coming to Terms with America examines how Jews have long "straddled two civilizations," endeavoring to be both Jewish and American at once, from the American Revolution to today.

Investigating how Jewish thinkers from the biblical to the postmodern era have approached questions about God and highlighting interplays between texts over time, Rabbi Kari H. Tuling elucidates many compelling-and contrasting-ways to think about God in Jewish tradition.

The first all-encompassing book on Israel’s foreign policy and the diplomatic history of the Jewish people, The Star and the Scepter retraces and explains the interactions of Jews with other nations from the ancient kingdoms of Israel to modernity.

Smart and savvy Melissa Jensen's life takes a wrong turn when her father accepts a teaching assignment in a small town in the remote Midwest, far from her home in New York City.

Rethinking the great literary prophets whose ministry ran from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE-Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, and Job-Thinking about the Prophets examines their often-shocking teachings in light of their times, their influence on later thinkers, and their enduring lessons for all of us.

Jews and Germans is the only book in English to describe the history and challenges of the German-Jewish relationship from before the Holocaust through today. Were the Weimar Republic years (1918-33) truly reciprocal for Jews and Germans? In the aftermath of the Holocaust, how has that complex relationship evolved?

A collection in which readers can find important works of Jewish tradition and culture. It includes literature that spans many genres, from fiction and poetry to legal, ethical, and midrashic works; from responsa and Biblical commentary to histories and letters.

Unbinding Isaac assembles multiple strands of thought and modern knowledge of ancient human sacrifice to offer an original reading of the Akedah.

Come, take your seat as a juror on the Cain v. Abel trial. The prosecution and defense attorneys-angels from Jewish legend-will soon call Cain, Abel, Sin, Adam, Eve, great commentators of Jewish tradition, and God to the witness stand to unpack the emotional, societal, and spiritual influences underlying the world's first murder.

Of the more than fifty monarchs who sat on the throne of the Jews for over 1000 years, most of us can recall only a few. What we do remember about them has been coloured by legend and embellishment. In Kings of the Jews, Norman Gelb tells us the real stories of them all. And in doing so, he reveals how a remarkably resilient people whi survived divisions, discord, and conquest.

How do we expand health care coverage to more Americans? Are hate crimes legislation and affirmative action fair? What sacrifices must we make to protect the environment? Is the death penalty morally acceptable? Contributors include Jill Jacobs, of Jewish Funds for Justice; Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center; and TV commentator and UCLA law professor Laurie Levenson.

Suitable for political figures and journalists, business professionals and authors, this title deals with some of the most critical moral issues of our time. It takes a hard look at important and controversial topics of our time.

These seventy-one firsthand stories from survivors of the Holocaust teach us to choose to remember for life, for their words are not about hatred and death but about ethics, decency and love. Although the stories are arranged to accompany the weekly Torah readings and many of the Jewish holidays, they are just as meaningful when read on their own, in any sequence.

Part of the "JPS Guides" series, this title provides access to important facts and Bible basics: how the Bible became the "Bible"; its origins, content, and organization distinctions between the Jewish Bible (the TANAKH) and Christian Bibles, a short history of Bible translations, and more.

Examples of such postcards, largely from the pre-Holocaust era, are reproduced here for the first time - selected, translated, and historically contextualized by one of the world's foremost postcard collectors.

A book that American Jews and particularly American Reform Jews have been waiting for: a clear and informed call for further reform in the Reform movement. It argues that rather than focusing on the importance of loyalty to community, Reform Judaism must determine how to engage the individual in a search for existential meaning.

Presents the history and dramatic rescue of the oldest Hebrew Bible in book form. In Crown of Aleppo, Hayim Tawil and Bernard Schneider tell the incredible story of the survival, against all odds, of the Aleppo Codex - one of the most authoritative and accurate traditional Masoretic texts of the Bible.

These six short books of the Bible, each read in connection with a Jewish holy day, constitute a literature unto themselves - a poetic, spiritual, and literary treasure. This volume includes The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Jonah.

Set in the fortified city of Bethlehem and the mountainous towns of Moab, this young adult novel imagines the life of the biblical Naomi and her deep friendship with her daughter-in-law Ruth. It traces Naomi's suffering at the hands of warring tribes; her struggles as a woman of low rank in the ancient world; and Ruth's and Naomi's perseverance, both individually and together.