Schocken Publishing House

The Schocken Publishing House in Tel Aviv began its operations in 1939. When Schocken inaugurated the new company before a private gathering at his library in Jerusalem, he said that his intention was to change the reading habits of the Hebrew-reading masses. Further, he sought to refine their tastes, values, and modes of thinking. He sought to accomplish these goals by launching a world-class publishing house dedicated to the best of both Hebrew and world literature and thought.

The new publishing house catalog went considerably beyond what Schocken Verlag had offered in Berlin. Work commenced on a Hebrew translation of Faust, with the French painter Eugene Delacroix’s etching of the bearded Mephistopheles adorning the book cover. Homer, Shakespeare, Flaubert, Schopenhauer, Machiavelli, and Balzac, were writers Schocken was determined to see in Hebrew editions, as well as Finnish and Babylonian epics. To educate the Hebrew public in matters of politics, the catalog included Thomas Macaulay’s essays on the history of British colonialism in India.

The Schocken Publishing House in Tel Aviv continues to uphold Schocken’s original vision, while considerably expanding its book list. The current catalog includes a wide variety of Hebrew and world literature, fiction and non-fiction, politics, social science, economics, sociology, political science, law, philosophy, history, Jewish studies and Zionism, as well as children’s books. 

The company’s publisher is Racheli Edelman, Schocken’s granddaughter, and the managing director is his great granddaughter, Dr. Yael Hadass.