Page 85 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

ers, including bilingual Bibles, liturgical and Talmudic texts, translations of rab-
binic literature, and, increasingly, nonreligious texts such as popular history
books, biographies and memoirs, youth literature, novels, pop-psychology and
1
self-help books, and curriculum materials for primary Jewish education. This
press merits our attention not simply as a successful publisher of Jewish litera-
ture but also for its close links with Agudat Israel, one of the preeminent haredi
(or so-called ultra-Orthodox) political and cultural movements of the past cen-
tury. 2
Haredism is a relatively recent tendency within Jewish society, stressing punc-
tiliousness and stringency in the observance of Jewish law, intensive study, and
3
obeisance to the authority of an exclusive rabbinic elite. Among the various,
often competing communal associations, schools, and political organizations
that make up haredi society, Agudat Israel represents a leading voice in the de-
fense and cultivation of haredi social spaces, cultural practices, orientations,
and values. As a loose coalition of rabbis, politicians, and community activists,
Agudat Israel situates itself at the vanguard of a global effort to secure a place
for “Jewish authenticity” in a fragmented and hostile modernity, addressing the
community of God’s Chosen People, who apparently have failed to recognize
4
themselves as such. In key respects, the cadre of authors and editors associated
with ArtScroll has de¤ned its work as an extension of this dialogue with fellow
Jews. These cultural workers are not distinguished for having produced major
theological statements or new interpretations of canonical Jewish texts. Rather,
within the speci¤c context of English-speaking Jewry, their avowed aim is to
extend and to legitimate the interpretive and moral framework of the haredi
world by supplanting what they regard as illegitimate representations of Jewish
knowledge, ritual practice, and historical imagination with new translations
and representations of Jewish tradition and the Jewish canon in the form of
accessible popular texts, authorized and approved by the governing bodies of
Agudat Israel. In this way ArtScroll can be understood as a vehicle for transmit-
ting the voice of haredi authority, for bringing it into the presence of both com-
mitted adherents and various categories of outsiders, and for lodging this au-
thority within new spaces of Jewish public culture made available through the
medium of popular print.
Unlike other haredi presses—of which there are many, and which typically
cater to small if loyal clienteles of haredi readers—ArtScroll addresses a diver-
sity of audiences within the Jewish world. It has capitalized on a fortuitous op-
portunity to communicate with broad sectors of the non-haredi Jewish popu-
lation by directing a seemingly unquenchable thirst for “Jewish content” toward
haredi-oriented print commodities. But how successful is this attempt to con-
stitute a community subject to haredi authority through a textual mode of com-
munication? And by what standard should we measure its success? Does the
growing popularity of ArtScroll books suggest that haredi authors are indeed
advancing their hegemony over the English-speaking Jewish reading public? Or
might this spread indicate a crisis of legitimacy and control for haredi authors,

74 Jeremy Stolow