Behrman House Blog

  In 1883 the Behrman family landed at Castle Garden in New York Harbor (before Ellis Island was used). The father was a melamed bound for Cincinnati and his youngest son was 13-year old Louis Behrman.After attending Hebrew Union College, Louis Behrman worked in the Cincinnati office of the Bloch Publishing Company. A decade later he moved to New York and in 1921 both his son Jacob and a business--Behrman's Jewish Book House--were born. During the 1930s and 1940s, Behrman House emerged as a leading publisher of Jewish books, including such titles as the classic New Haggadah by Mordecai Kaplan and As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg (both of which are still in print today). Louis Behrman retired in the late 1940s and his son Jacob took over the business. Over the years, Behrman House continued to publish works by the prominent thinkers of the day: Abba Eban, Louis Jacobs, Lucy Dawidowicz, Robert Alter, and Meyer Levin. When Jacob's own children, David and Rachel, began Jewish religious school, he saw the textbooks they brought home and realized that he could improve them greatly. It was at this time that Behrman House became a force as a publisher for the Jewish school. Today, Louis' grandson David heads Behrman House, and the company continues to be recognized for its distinguished Jewish educational materials used in schools throughout North America and in English-speaking countries around the world.