The Jewish Publication Society

08/27/2026

"Illuminating Scriptural Connections: Torah, Qur’an, and the Stories We Share"
An online conversation hosted by the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program

Sunday, August 30, 2026
10:00 AM PDT | 1:00 PM EDT | 8:00 PM Israel time

Join Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari, the authors of ILLUMINATING SCRIPTURAL CONNECTIONS: A QUR'ANIC COMMENTARY ON THE TORAH, for a groundbreaking exploration of two of the world’s most influential sacred texts. In this unique dialogue, the Torah’s fifty-four weekly portions are examined alongside the Qur’an, revealing fascinating parallels, meaningful differences, and the shared stories, prophets, values, and spiritual questions that have shaped Judaism and Islam for centuries. Together, we will move beyond assumptions and discover how studying these traditions side by side can deepen understanding, illuminate common roots, and open new pathways for conversation between two great faiths.

Register at https://tinyurl.com/OCCSP-Scriptural-Connections.

Learn more and order the book with an exclusive discount at jps.org/books/illuminating-scriptural-connections/.

08/26/2026

"One of the envisioned outcomes of having female rabbis and scholars was to have women who were educated in the tradition view its texts differently, with a lens that has not been used in the past, to yield new insights. Wendy Zierler’s memoir, GOING OUT WITH KNOTS: MY TWO KADDISH YEARS WITH HEBREW POETRY, fulfills and extends that hope beautifully, through analysis of Hebrew poems, mostly by women, enabling readers—as well as mourners—to see texts in a new way through grief and interpretation.... Zierler herself has provided us with a guide to poetry and mourning, making space for women in the synagogue and its liturgy as well as widening what sacred texts can be."—Beth Kissileff for JOFA - the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance

Read the full review at https://www.jofa.org/article/going-out-with-knots-my-two-kaddish-years-with-hebrew-poetry/.

Learn more and order Rabbi Wendy Zierler's acclaimed book with an exclusive discount at jps.org/books/going-out-with-knots/.

One of the envisioned outcomes of having female rabbis and scholars was to have women who were educated in the tradition view its texts differently, with a lens that has not been used in the past, to yield new insights.  Wendy Zierler’s memoir, Going Out With Knots: My Two Kaddish Years with Hebr...

08/24/2026

"What does it mean to choose life as a moral project rather than simply as a theological or biological fact? And in an age of war, antisemitism, climate crisis, extreme poverty, political polarization, how do we determine what actually advances life?"

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg joined Uri L'Tzedek and Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz for a fascinating conversation about his forthcoming release, LIFE AGAINST DEATH, a 2-volume collection of essays on America and Israel, the Holocaust, and Jewish-Christian relations, written over Greenberg's lifetime in the U.S. and Israel.

Tune in at https://tinyurl.com/LifeAgainstDeath.

This special collection features new introductions and insights, and two new essays. Learn more and order the books with exclusive discounts at https://jps.org/books/life-against-death/.

Life Against Death - a new two-volume collection of essays from Rab...

08/20/2026

"The volume is equally remarkable for its stylistic accomplishment. Particularly noteworthy is the seamless movement between memoir, literary criticism, translation, and theological reflection. These transitions are grounded in the book's central insight: mourning itself refuses disciplinary boundaries. Personal experience, literary interpretation, communal ritual, and religious reflection are presented not as separate modes of discourse but as mutually illuminating dimensions of a single human endeavor."—Smadar Falk-Peretz for NAPH's Hebrew Higher Education journal

Learn more and order Rabbi Wendy Zierler's acclaimed book, GOING OUT WITH KNOTS: MY TWO KADDISH YEARS WITH HEBREW POETRY with an exclusive discount at jps.org/books/going-out-with-knots/.

08/18/2026

How can modern psychological models of parenting help us understand God's different and evolving parenting styles in the Bible?

Author Stephen Spector joined JBS Jewish Broadcasting Service's In the Spotlight program and host Abigail Pogrebin for an illuminating conversation about his recent release, GOD AND THE FIRST FAMILIES: PARENTING, TRAUMA, AND HEALING IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

Tune in at https://tinyurl.com/JBStv-Spector.

Learn more and order the book with an exclusive discount at jps.org/books/god-and-the-first-families/.

Stephen Spector, professor emeritus at Stony Brook University, scho...

08/17/2026

Invite JPS authors to speak to your community or organization!

We are proud to present leading JPS scholars and writers participating in the JPS Authors Bureau. Today's spotlight features Dr. Michael Carasik, author of THE COMMENTATORS’ BIBLE: GENESIS (2018), four other COMMENTATORS’ BIBLE volumes, and THE BIBLE’S MANY VOICES (2014).

Michael taught Biblical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania for two decades and has been podcasting and blogging about the Bible since 2009. He has also taught at numerous other universities in the Boston Philadelphia areas, as well as for the Me’ah and Melton adult education programs, and was a columnist for Jewish Ideas Daily. Michael’s dissertation was "Theologies of the Mind in Biblical Israel", a description of the Israelite understanding of psychology as revealed in the Bible. He has published numerous articles and book reviews and translates academic articles into English for Israeli scholars through Academic Language Experts. He lives in Jerusalem.

Learn more about Dr. Michael Carasik's work and the JPS Authors Bureau at jps.org/jps-authors-bureau-2/.

08/13/2026

"Staying Together in a Dispersed World: Israel-Diaspora Relations in Ancient Times"
With Dr. Malka Simkovich
Sunday, August 16th | 8:00 PM Eastern
On Zoom and in person at the Jewish Center of Teaneck
70 Sterling Place, Teaneck, NJ
Hosted by Bergen B'Yachad

Join JPS Director and Editor-in-Chief Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich for a powerful discussion related to her 2018 JPS book, DISCOVERING SECOND TEMPLE LITERATURE: THE SCRIPTURES AND STORIES THAT SHAPED EARLY JUDAISM, followed by a book signing.

Learn about how as a Jewish people, we've stayed together even though we are dispersed all over the globe.

Register at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/staying-together-in-a-dispersed-world.

08/12/2026

What can we learn about the role of family dynamics in Genesis by exploring the Biblical stories through the lense of modern parenting approaches? How are the sibling rivalries, family ruptures, and traumas described in Genesis informed by an understanding of God's evolving parenting styles?

Explore these themes in Stephen Spector's fascinating new book, GOD AND THE FIRST FAMILIES: PARENTING, TRAUMA, AND HEALING IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS, available with an exclusive discount at jps.org/books/god-and-the-first-families/.

08/10/2026

A fascinating clip on the evolution of God's parenting style in Genesis from author Stephen Spector's conversation with Rabbi Richard Address about his recent release, GOD AND THE FIRST FAMILIES: PARENTING, TRAUMA, AND HEALING IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS on the Seekers of Meaning podcast .

Learn more and order the book with an exclusive discount at https://jps.org/books/god-and-the-first-families/.

08/06/2026

"Rick Sopher's career was in finance, not religious scholarship, but two questions had long captivated him as a Jew with an ancient family connection to the Arab world. Do the Muslim and Jewish scriptures stand in ideological opposition to each other? Are they the root of a perpetual enmity between Muslims and Jews?

So, nearly a decade ago he began to investigate. He dove into learning classical Arabic to study the Qur'an, and in 2020 established The Qur’an / Bible Reading Group of religion scholars and academic researchers that met regularly virtually to discuss links between the two scriptures. Sopher eventually joined up with Abdulla Galadari, a scholar of Qur’anic studies at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to co-author ILLUMINATING SCRIPTURAL CONNECTIONS."

We're delighted to share this Publishers Weekly feature on Rick Sopher and Abdulla Galadari's forthcoming release, ILLUMINATING SCRIPTURAL CONNECTIONS: A QUR’ANIC COMMENTARY ON THE TORAH (JPS, September 2026):
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/100950-linking-qur-an-and-torah-muslims-and-jews.html

Preorder the book with an exclusive discount at https://jps.org/books/illuminating-scriptural-connections/.

In a first-of-its-kind commentary, Jewish author Rick Sopher and Muslim scholar Abdulla Galadari compare the Jewish and Muslim scriptures, exploring how the Qur’an views the Torah.