Posen Library Press Release

7/29/2019 Posen Library Press Release

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Yale to Publish Inaugural Volume in the Landmark

Posen Library of

Jewish Culture and CivilizationFirst Book in Monumental Project Covers

Contemporary Period, 1973-2005

More than ten years in the making, The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization is a

landmark ten-volume series that collects 3,000 years of Jewish literature, artwork, and artifacts,

presenting the best of Jewish culture in its historic and global entirety.

This ambitious undertaking is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Yale University Press

and the Posen Foundation, which works internationally to support Jewish education. “Taken as a

whole, the series will underscore the vitality and variety of Jewish culture — religious and secular,

elite and popular,” says James E. Young, the project’s Editor in Chief. “It will provide future

generations with a working legacy by which to recover and comprehend Jewish culture and

civilization.”

The inaugural volume, Volume 10: 1973-2005, will be published November 20, 2012. Edited by

Deborah Dash Moore and Nurith Gertz, it is a richly illustrated guide to the momentous

contemporary period. “This exciting first volume brings Jewish culture alive,” says Yale UniversityPress Director John Donatich. “It beautifully showcases the depth and breadth of creative output

from this crucial time in Jewish history.”

The wide-ranging selections in Volume 10 — more than 800 in total — are drawn from literature,

poetry, memoir, children’s literature, intellectual culture, popular culture, and religion. Among the

hundreds of noted figures from the world of letters are Aharon Appelfeld, Saul Bellow, Judy

Blume, E. L. Doctorow, Jonathan Safran Foer, Rebecca Goldstein, Bernard Malamud, David

CONTACTS:

Victoria Meyer, VM / PR212-242-0866 [email protected] Lynn Goldberg, Goldberg McDuffie Communications917-282-9146 [email protected]

Liz Pelton, Yale University Press410-467-0989 [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]












Mamet, Amos Oz, Cynthia Ozick, Adrienne Rich, Philip Roth, Wendy Wasserstein, and A. B.

Yehoshua. From the visual arts, Judy Chicago, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, and Louise

Nevelson are among the many figures represented. From popular culture, the book includes comics,

travel guides, and cookbooks, with selections from writers and artists such as Ralph Bakshi and

Mimi Sheraton. For their influential role in defining intellectual or religious culture, Shlomo

Carlebach, Jacques Derrida, Alan Dershowitz, Thomas L. Friedman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

Susannah Heschel, Harold Kushner, Susan Sontag, Adin Steinsaltz, Avi Weiss, and Elie Wiesel are

among those included.

Some works were selected for being representative, illuminating, or unusual. Others were chosen

for being intriguing, influential, or simply excellent. “The range and particulars of the selections in

The Posen Library will assuredly give rise to much questioning about what makes Jewish culture

Jewish, and what makes Jewish culture,” says Deborah Dash Moore. “Editing Volume 10 brought

many surprises,” adds Nurith Gertz. “The chronological order by genre coincidentally highlighted

the themes that have dominated Jewish expression since 1973: Israel, the Holocaust, the fall of

communism, plurality, women’s expressions, assimilation, and reconciling old and new modes of

Jewish life throughout the world.”

In the coming years, Yale University Press will publish the remaining nine encyclopedic volumes of

The Posen Library, each covering a crucial period in Jewish history. The animating idea behind

the project is to demonstrate the incredible richness, complexity, and diversity of Jewish culture,

from biblical times to the present. More than 120 internationally recognized scholars have been

involved with the series, making it the most ambitious anthological project ever attempted by

Jewish studies scholars. Jews and Words, a companion volume by acclaimed novelist Amos Oz and

his daughter, historian Fania Oz-Salzberger, will be published simultaneously with the inaugural

volume to celebrate the series launch.

“We hope that The Posen Library will open the world’s eyes to the extraordinary contributions that

Jewish thinkers, writers, and artists have made as Jews to dozens of other national cultures around

the globe,” Young says. “In the process, The Posen Library will demonstrate that like Jewish

culture, all national cultures are composed of multiple, often competing cultures, formed through

the constant give-and-take and frisson between and within themselves.”

TITLES IN THE POSEN LIBRARY

From Biblical Times to the Present



Volume 1: The Second Millennium B.C.E. – 333 B.C.E., edited by Jeffrey H. TigayVolume 2: 333 B.C.E. – 800 C.E., edited by Carol BakhosVolume 3: 800 – 1096, edited by Menahem Ben-SassonVolume 4: 1096 – 1500, edited by Ora Limor and Israel YuvalVolume 5: 1500 – 1750, edited by Yosef KaplanVolume 6: 1750 – 1880, edited by Elisheva CarlebachVolume 7: 1880 – 1918, edited by Israel Bartal and Kenneth MossVolume 8: 1918 – 1939, edited by Todd M. Endelman and Zvi GitelmanVolume 9: 1939 – 1973, edited by Samuel D. Kassow and David G. RoskiesVolume 10: 1973 – 2005, edited by Deborah Dash Moore and Nurith Gertz

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Deborah Dash Moore is Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and director of the Jean andSamuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan. She is co-editor of Volume 10:

1973-2005 of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.

Nurith Gertz is professor emerita of Hebrew Literature and Film, the Open University of Israel,and head of the Department of Culture Creation and Production, Sapir College. She is co-editor of Volume 10: 1973-2005 of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.

James E. Young, Editor in Chief of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, isDistinguished University Professor of English and Judaic studies at the University of MassachusettsAmherst. He is the author of four books dealing with Holocaust memorials, narratives, and imagesin contemporary art and architecture, including The Texture of Memory, which won a NationalJewish Book Award. He was a member of the design juries that chose the National 9/11 Memorialin New York City and Germany’s national Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.

“THRILLING”*

COMPANION VOLUME TO POSEN LIBRARY Jews and Words by Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger

In conjunction with the publication of Volume 10 , Yale University Press will simultaneouslypublish Jews and Words by the acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos Oz and his daughter, historianFania Oz-Salzberger. Conceived as a companion volume, the book presents their personal take onJewish history — arguing that it has always hinged on written words and involved two or threegenerations deep in conversation. Oz and Oz-Salzberger write in their opening pages: “We feel that

this book belongs squarely and intimately with The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and

Civilization. Many fine scholars are at work on the Library’s ten volumes, and their work hasinspired ours. We share the Library’s broad vision, which is by no means a narrow agenda, of

Jewish history as a complex and multifarious trove of human voices crisscrossed by significantcontinuums. The wealth of cultural diversity does not trump the perseverance of unifying principles.”

“Ingenious . . . A wonderful book.”— Jonathan Safran Foer

*“Thrilling and entertaining . . . Challenges clichés and stereotypes at every page . . . Promises to bevery controversial and widely read.” — Mario Vargas Llosa



“Playfully instructive . . . Will appeal to lay readers interested in a nonreligious Judaism based oncontemporary readings of traditional and more modern Jewish texts.” — Publishers Weekly

“A provocative mixture of scholarship, sly observation and wry writing that often glistens.” — Kirkus Reviews

BOOK LAUNCH EVENT AT 92ND ST Y

What Is Jewish Culture?Amos Oz, Fania Oz-Salzberger, James E. Young,

Daniel Libeskind, Deborah Dash Moore

Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 8 pm

Venue: Kaufmann Concert Hall

Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, New York, NY

Information: www.92y.org

DIGITAL VERSION OF POSEN LIBRARY COMING INSPRING 2013, A “LIVING ANTHOLOGY”

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization will be made available to the public throughan online, searchable database beginning in spring 2013. All material for which Yale has electronicpermission will be available, including many original versions of translated materials. In addition tobeing easily browse-able by general readers, the online archive will be equipped with innovativetools to enable individual and collaborative study and research. Among the features beingdeveloped are discovery tools, curated selections, theme-based browse functions, personalizationcapability, and community forums. The public is invited to preregister at www.posenlibrary.com.

THE POSEN LIBRARY OF JEWISH CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

JAMES E. YOUNG, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Volume 10: 1973-2005Edited by Deborah Dash Moore and Nurith Gertz

To be published November 20, 2012 by Yale University PressPrice: $150.00, 1232 pages, 169 color + 58 black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 978-0-300-13553-4

JEWS AND WORDSBy Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger

To be published November 20, 2012 by Yale University PressPrice: $25.00 hardcover, 248 pages

ISBN: 978-0-300-15647-8, eBook ISBN: 978-0-300-15677-5

For author photos and jacket art, contact eitherVictoria Meyer [email protected] or Liz Pelton [email protected]

For more information, please visit www.posenlibrary.com and www.posenfoundation.com

THE GENESIS OF THE POSEN LIBRARY

http://www.92y.org/

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The Posen Library grew out of Felix Posen’s personal quest for Jewish knowledge and his

foundation’s commitment to education. The idea first began to take shape in the late 1990s, whenPosen, who was born in Berlin but lived in London for decades, retired from business and decidedto devote himself to foundation work, with an emphasis on Jewish history, culture, and ideas.“Many Jews believe that apart from religious texts and observance, Judaism has little to offer,”

Posen says. “Yet nothing could be further from the truth.” Raised Orthodox, Posen spent decadesdrifting from the Judaism he learned as a child and abandoned as a young adult. Having found hisway back to Jewish life, he reasoned that others, given the chance, might do the same. The key wasa different kind of education than he — and most Jewish students — received.

The main obstacle, he thought, was a lack of good literature about Jewish history and ideas. “I was

frustrated,” Posen says. Even the renowned Encyclopaedia Judaica contained some serious gaps.To be an educated Jew, he believed, one needs good resources. “There was no single source,” herecalls, “so I decided to create my own anthology.”

As he conceived it, The Posen Library would include most of the important Jewish texts, artifacts,and works of art ever produced. With its enormous breadth, it would provide a panoramic view of Jewish culture, both religious and secular, through the ages. Posen consulted two senior Israelischolars. The first step, they suggested, would be to assemble an elite advisory council, withscholars from Israel and the Diaspora. Posen helped select the members. “I wanted a balancebetween men and women, Americans and Israelis, religious and seculars,” Posen says.

In 2003, and again in 2005, members of the advisory group, the appointed volume editors, andrepresentatives from Yale University Press convened in London. Among them was James Young, arespected scholar of the Holocaust and its memorialization. Despite being “somewhat humbled by

the audacity of the project,” Young accepted the role of Editor in Chief. In time, over 120academics would join the project as editors and advisors.

As Young saw it, the project’s main goal was to show the complexity, variety, and vibrancy of Jewish culture. He knew that the anthology would raise profound questions — what is Jewishculture? Who defines it? Who creates it? Those questions should be followed, Young suggested, bymore questions: What is essential to Jewish culture? Does Jewish culture incorporate and reflectnon-Jewish influences, or is it something separate and autonomous?

In 2008, when the editors and advisors reconvened again in London, an exciting new idea waspresented: Yale University Press was prepared to begin scanning and digitizing the entire contentsof The Posen Library so that everything, including paintings and illuminated manuscripts, wouldsomeday be available online. This would turn the hardcover volumes into a living anthology thatcould be updated, annotated, and accessed by people around the world. Music, theater, film andTV, impossible to include in book or codex form, could now be included.

At Posen’s suggestion, the Israeli novelist Amos Oz and his daughter, the historian Fania Oz-

Salzberger, agreed to contribute a companion volume, Jews and Words. The pair’s firstcollaborative writing effort would be a fitting tribute to the project.

Fourteen years after Felix Posen conceived The Posen Library , Volume 10 is complete, and thereare plans to publish nine additional volumes in the years ahead. The Posen Library was initiated asthe solution to a problem: a lack of educational resources in Jewish history and civilization. But ithas become something more: a catalogue of Jewish creativity, something that will reward a reader’s

curiosity and offer a casual reader the thrill of discovery. It will be an incentive for Jews, as Posenonce put it, “To not abandon the very worthy age-old Jewish custom of learning.”

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Posen Library Press Release