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JKWISH IUX)K ANNUAL
books tha t are readily available on the ir topics o f in terest in a
series. A large audience can be attracted if the book covers o f the
series have a similar design. Thus, a wider sale may be antic
ipated.
Not all Juda ica series have been successful. A fter World War II,
a g roup o f French Jewish organizations, with American suppo rt,
launched
Maillons
(Links). Only fou r titles were published in
paperback, including a survey o f Jewish history by Simon
Schwartzfuchs and a short history o f anti-Semitism by Leon
Poliakov. T h e sponsoring organizations soon disagreed, and the
series failed. In the late 50’s, the Alliance Israelite Universelle
sponsored a Jewish series called
Sinai
th rough the Presses
Universitaires de France (P.U.F.). T he director, And re
Chouraqui, has edited various translations as well as studies on
biblical scholarship. T h e translation o f Salo W. Baron’s magiste
rial
The Social and Religious History of the Jews
was issued in five
volumes. However, since 1965,
Sinai
has not published anything.
P.U.F. still issues the proceedings o f the annua l meetings o f
F rench Speaking Jewish Intellectuals
(Colloque des Intellectuelsjuifs
de languefrangaise)
un d e r the auspices o f the World Jewish Con
gress. Les Editions de Minuit also had a Jewish series
, Bibliotheque
juive
(Jewish Library). Like
Maillons,
its six titles were published
in pocket size editions. Ano ther series,
Aleph,
had ha lf a dozen
titles, o f which the most recen t was published in 1973. These ven
tures were discontinued because o f the lack o f community sup
port.
Still, a number o f publishing houses have created Juda ica series
in recen t times. Stock published translations o f I.B. S inger’s
works even before he received the Nobel Prize. Sales have
boomed since then for Singer’s novels, despite the French tran s
la tor’s lack o f acquaintance with Jewish values. Hebrew writers
are also translated, mostly from the English ra th e r than the origi
nal. I.J. Singer’s
Brothers Ashkenazi
was recently translated from
English by Marie-Brunette Spire, d augh te r o f the French poet
A nd re Spire. Stock’s main interest is no t in Juda ism o r Israel as
such, bu t in fiction.
About ten books have been published by Jean-C laude Lattes,
founded in 1968, in its series
Judaiques
(Judaic). Fiction plays a
major role, and includes translations from the English o f Israel
Zangwill and the Yiddish o f Itzik Manger. But Lattes has also
published such non-fiction as a book on Algerian Jewry by the