Reply To: Artscroll Gedolim biographies

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#981813

Litvishe Kiryas Yoelite, that is not a reasonable point of view. Not everyone has time to run a publishing house, and if there is a legitimate criticism of Artscroll, then there is no reason why someone shouldn’t voice it. One such criticism is that unlike what someone above posted, it’s not true that they wouldn’t print them if no one would buy them. They have all their books paid for long before they hit the shelves, because they have The Mesorah Foundation, which solicits donations for the books. Everything they make on the books is pure profit.

This also has a tendency to skew the market. Yes, they have the largest market share, because they have done the best work overall of all their peers. But it’s still fair to raise the question whether they should dominate the discourse. This applies not only in choosing which books to publish, though there’s a valid argument that if they paint themselves as Klal Yisroel’s publishers and support themselves with donations, they do in fact have a mandate to publish Sephardi books. It applies also to their unwillingness to entertain any viewpoint outside their own. It applies to their business tactics, which, like those of any other successful business, including Mitt Romney’s, can be questioned.

And lest you counter that the people who buy the books and support them with donations are responsible to know what is going on, well, then, let them find out in the Coffee Room.