In the spirit of the Jewish Lights Publishing’s overall mission, the new imprint will publish books of Jewish wisdom and philosophy rather than traditional Judaica and will be geared toward readership on a universal level. In a statement from Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, she informed readers that the books will be appropriate for “people of faith” and will give them the guidance to follow their own spiritual path using wisdom provided by Conservative Judaism.
Jewish Lights Publishing is a major publisher of Jewish-themed books targeted towards an interfaith readership and offers a substantial backlist devoted solely to interfaith resources. They are also the publisher of LifeLights, their imprint for informational booklets offering advice inspired by Jewish philosophy for difficult, everyday situations. They have also published a popular collection of essays titled I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl that discusses what it means to be Jewish from the perspective of fairly prominent Jewish thinkers, personalities and authors.
Their new joint imprint with the Rabbinical Assembly will publish its first book, God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, this fall. The book will focus on a continuation of Rabbi Artson’s exploration of Process theology, a religious and philosophical standpoint that rejects the notion of an almighty, punitive God in favor of transformative, beneficent God that serves as our source of inspiration and divinity.A partnership between these two prominent organizations will clearly be beneficial for both sides, with the Rabbinical Assembly as a powerful source of Jewish thought, scholarship and philosophy and Jewish Lights Publishing as an experienced and well-known publisher. Their collaboration will likely help to enhance the level of readership for books on the matters of Jewish thought and will lead to many important and insightful works in the realm of Conservative Judaism.
Jackie Anzaroot is a graduate of Brooklyn College with degrees in English and Linguistics. She has held internships at Simon & Schuster and is currently interning at the Jewish Book Council.