To my friends and colleagues.
It’s been an unbelievable year here at Behrman House. As I look back over 5776 and anticipate the end of 2015, I am amazed by the accomplishments of my remarkable colleagues. I wanted to share some of our news with you—I’m proud of what we’ve done and I know it affects you and the work you do. I could write pages and pages, but let me simply catalog the major events of the year:
Launched Apples & Honey Press, a new children’s book imprint, in partnership with Gefen Publishing of Jerusalem. Now we can help meet your needs for compelling Jewish stories that enrich our children’s sense of heritage.
Took over responsibility for the publishing work of the URJ Press. The addition of approximately 300 titles to our list means we can offer you more choice in your educational materials, while ensuring that these key curricular tools remain available for years to come.
Brought Joan Carr and Marlene Myerson onto our team from the URJ Press, strengthening our ability to provide advice on a wide array of curricular issues. As an added bonus, now together with Vicki Weber’s recent RJE designation, we can boast of three RJE’s on staff!
Began joint development of a new, cross platform digital Hebrew primer in partnership with the Jewish Journey Project, to be released later this winter. In addition to working on a variety of devices, this new primer brings Hebrew learning another step closer to meeting student expectations for Jewish educational apps that look and perform as well as their secular apps.
Established a digital incubator partnership with MindCET/Center for Educational Technology of Tel Aviv, funded by the Avi Chai Foundation, which will involve sending a development team to work in residence at the MindCET incubator in Yerucham, Israel for a month in 2016. Efforts such as this one help provide continuous emphasis on advancing technology for Jewish learning.
Released three new print textbooks, created OLC versions of both our Hineni Hebrew series and the URJ’s Mitkadem series, published three new Hebrew learning apps, digitized the MaTok day school Bible curriculum, and created Jewish values card games and Hot Topics lessons for informal group learning.
Sold out the first printing of three of our titles within two months of their release: Wise Aging, The Gateways Haggadah, and Shalom Coloring. In fact, Shalom Coloring sold out of its first printing before it was official released—based solely on Amazon pre-orders!
And finally, ended the year by winning the NJ Family Business of the Year Award for 2015, sponsored by Fairleigh Dickenson University and NJ Monthly Magazine, an honor we share with our customers and colleagues for all you help us do.
Any one of these, in ordinary times, would warrant “dayenu.” But opportunities don’t come neatly packaged, so we find ourselves at the end of one of the most consequential years in the Behrman House’s modern history. What to make of such a year? For me, this tapestry of accomplishment highlights the importance to all of us of three things in our lives: unpredictability, readiness, and interconnectedness.
Unpredictability because we simply cannot know what the coming days and weeks, months and years, will bring. Neither I nor any of my colleagues knew a year ago that any of these accomplishments would actually even take place this year. Some were mere glimmers, others were projects we had been tending for several years, perhaps even wondering when they might bear fruit. Still others were opportunities that came along quite suddenly, without advance notice.
Preparation because each of us needs to be ready. Moses said “hineni”—I am here. We need to be here—present and open to the possibilities we encounter, and to those we are able to uncover through our own initiative. Just ten years ago (a brief period in the 94-year history of this Firm,) we were a different place, unable take on even a fraction of what we did this year. But as the result of a strategic planning process we began in 2009, we have dramatically changed the way we are organized, the way we work together, how we take on responsibility, and how we hold each other accountable for our successes and our misfires. These changes in structure, responsibility, and accountability have given our small firm new capacity, and the ability to open the door to these opportunities.
Interconnectedness because even a small organization such as ours is an organism composed of separately moving parts all (hopefully!) working together. We are fully dependent on one another to accomplish our goals, and I can draw a line from the work of every one of my colleagues to each of this year’s accomplishments. I am profoundly grateful to work with such committed people. Similarly, Behrman House operates in the larger environment of the Jewish community, the publishing world, and the world of readers. And we are connected to you. We could not do what we do without these connections, without the support, and without the opportunity to offer our skills and our passions and the work we produce to the larger world.
It’s been a wild and exhilarating ride. In these early days of 5777, and anticipating 2016, we can see all the things that our achievements will be able to bring you. New textbooks for schools; new children’s books for families at home; new Behrman House colleagues to help us serve you better and keep us connected to the community; and new software for both the Online Learning Center and for your mobile devices. Keep an eye out for all these things, and thank you for all you’ve done to help us bring them to you. And thank you also for helping us navigate this year successfully and prepare us for the adventures next year will bring.
With every best wish,
David E. Behrman
