Jewish Publication Society

The first Jewish Publication Society was founded in 1845 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States, but was dissolved six years later after a fire destroyed the building and the entire JPS stock. A second, founded in New York in 1873, ended in 1875.

In response to the growing need for English-language translation of Jewish texts, rabbis and lay leaders of the Jewish–American communities met on June 3, 1888 at a national convention in Philadelphia and refounded the Jewish Publication Society. As JPS moved into the 20th century, membership grew rapidly. After years of meetings, deliberations, and revisions, the entire JPS translation of the Hebrew Bible was finally completed in 1917. This crowning achievement was put to use at the American entry into World War I, when young Jewish–American men drafted into the U.S. Army were given prayer books and readings from the Tanakh as they marched off to war.

As Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) rose to power in Weimar Germany during the early 1930s, American Jews resisted anti-Semitism through the power of words. Works such as The Decay of Czarism and Legends of the Jews became staples of Jewish literacy and helped to preserve the legacy of European Jewry. JPS also assisted the war effort by supporting the employment and resettlement of Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe in the United States, and by printing pamphlets that were dropped behind enemy lines, at the request of the U.S. federal government.

During the latter half of the 20th century, JPS published a revised English translation of the Hebrew Bible, books detailing both war atrocities and triumphs, and books with a new-found focus on the State of Israel. Works such as The JPS Commentary Series, The Jewish Catalog, and The K'Tonton Series were tremendously successful. From 1975 to 1978, A. Leo Levin was its President. In 1985, the newly translated three parts of the Hebrew Bible (the Pentateuch, Prophets, Psalms, and Writings) were finally compiled into what is now known as the New JPS Tanakh (NJPS, or New JPS translation, to distinguish it from the OJPS, or Old JPS translation of 1917).

In September 2011, JPS entered into a new collaborative publishing arrangement with the University of Nebraska Press, under which the University of Nebraska purchased all of JPS's outstanding book inventory, and is responsible for the production, distribution, and marketing of all JPS publications, effective January 1, 2012, while JPS headquarters remained in Philadelphia.