Brooklyn, NY – After over thirty years of hard work, Artscroll is celebrating the completion of its Yad Avraham Mishnayos series. Featuring the work of dozens of editors and scholars, the popular forty four volume series, available in both hard and soft cover, has become a fixture in Jewish homes everywhere.
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The Yad Avraham Mishna series, originally sponsored by Louis Glick in memory of his son Avraham Yosef, opened up the world of mishnayos to an audience for whom it had previously been unattainable. The success of the Mishnayos project demonstrated that there was an audience who hungered for the assistance of an English translation for Torah She’Baal Peh, ultimately launching the project that became the hugely popular Schottenstein Talmud.
The Yad Avraham Mishna series was also responsible for allowing Artscroll to grow into the publishing giant that it is today. In its early days, like any other newfound company, Artscroll found itself struggling financially when Joel Fleishman, a professor of law at Duke University in North Carolina, walked into Artscroll’s Coney Island Avenue offices to express his gratitude for making mishnayos available in English. A leading authority in the United States on non-profit organizations, Fleishman suggested that Artscroll create a research arm supported by a non profit organization and with that the Mesorah Heritage Foundation, which provides the support for Artscroll’s extensive research was born.
Gavriel Sanders, Director of Public Relations at Artscroll, told VIN News in an exclusive interview “One unknown man’s connection to the learning of mishnayos led to the creation of something that touches practically every Jewish home. He couldn’t read Hebrew and needed the English and today is one of the founding members of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees. We say in Pirkei Avos ‘mitzvah goreres mitzvah’. He is a living example of that.”
An exclusive VIN video interview with CJ Studios Yosef Shidler takes you inside Artscroll’s headquarters to discuss the completion of the mishnayos series and provides a sneak peek at some of the newest publications to be rolling off Artscroll’s printing press.
Watch below exclusive VIN Interview VIDEO BY CJ STUDIOS www.thecjs.net
Mazel Tov!$!
But it’s not done yet.
Now they have to come out with:
pocket size
travel size
pocket size leather gift slip case
coffee table edition
medium size edition
extra large size edition in leather
Then they will be done
You guys can make all the fun you want, but the truth is that Artscroll has opened Tanach, Mishnayos and Shas to millions of frum people whose learning skills were not up to yeshiva level, for whatever reason. That LIRR Gemara shir would not be possible without Artscroll. I myself, with only a mesivta education, was B’H zocheh to complete Mesechas Makkos on my own a few years back just riding on the RR every day. The founders and supporters of Artscroll have given the Jewish people a tremendous gift. If they became wealthy doing so, so what? They deserve it.
Pocket-size, giant size – doesn’t matter to me. I’m just grateful there is such a Jewish publisher that takes seforim seriously, aesthetically, and practically. I travel a lot. Those little Rashi Chumash and Mishnah volumes are a space and weight saver. I am wondering – when the times comes – what kind of pocket-size encyclopedia their new Midrash Rabbah series will have to be! Of course – those e-books for iPads, iPhones, iPods, Blackberries and the like are certainly e-merging quickly! That would do it.
congrat to Rabbi danziger and all staff at artscroll.
Do they have one in “Loshan Kodesh”?
While the ArtScroll mishnayos series is excellent, it is not groundbreaking. There are several other translations of mishnayos that precede the ArtScroll one, including the Blackman edition – originally published in Gateshead in the 1950s (I think), and now by Judaica Press. While the commentary is not extensive, the translation is spot on (having used it on many occasions I can attest to this).
Nice video. My library has a mixture from Artscroll to Oz VeHadar to Kehot. Artscroll has done a nice job of making pretty good English translations. True, for the Gemara and for Chumash with Rashi they add in their extra perushim, but it does help make the learning easier. I very much enjoy their travel-size mishnyot. They fit into a suitcoat and are perfect for a quick reference. And, while probably overlooked, their introductions at the start of each masechta are wonderful. Especially for Zeraim.
I’m glad that it’s complete; what I’d like to see them do is Tosefta in English…