Koren Publishers Jerusalem was founded in 1961 by Eliyahu Koren, who sought to publish the first Hebrew Bible designed, edited, printed, and bound by Jews in nearly 500 years. The first printed Hebrew Bibles from Italy (1488) were printed by Jews, but after
Daniel Bomberg’s 1517 Venice printing, all editions up to the 20th century had non-Jewish publishers or printers, and errors had found their way into the text. The text, vocalization, and cantillation for The Koren Bible were based on an early 19th-century Bible edition of German-Jewish grammarian and masoretic scholar
Wolf Heidenheim. Koren created a new font,
Koren Bible Type, for the project, developed a graphic layout that allowed for the unity of the Hebrew type, and corrected numerous errors of earlier editions. The
Torah, the first part of The Koren Bible, was published in 1962, during the Chanukah holiday. The entire Bible followed nearly two years later. The Koren Bible quickly gained wide acceptance among many different Jewish communities. It is the edition accepted by the
Chief Rabbinate of Israel for reading the
Haftara (prophetic portions) in synagogues when the handwritten parchment scroll is not used, and, until the introduction of the
Jerusalem Crown, was the Bible on which the
President of Israel is sworn into office. Koren Publishers Jerusalem later introduced a Hebrew/English edition of the Bible with a translation by Biblical and literary scholar Professor Harold Fisch. However, the quality of the text has been criticized by scholars. For example,
Moshe Goshen-Gottstein said: "Since he was aware of his lack in
masoretic expertise, he sought the help of three scholars, all of who suffered from the same lack of masoretic expertise ... while the publisher made persistent claims that this was the first edition set and printed in their old/new homeland, this was, in fact ... hardly an edition like that of
Dotan, but another rehash of the material prepared by
ben Hayim." Koren Publishers Jerusalem went on to publish other Jewish religious texts, including a
Passover Haggada,
Five Megillot, and The
Koren Siddur (Prayerbook), introduced in 1981, which featured a new font,
Koren Book Type, to maximize legibility, and a new graphic layout to facilitate proper reading, reinforce the inner meaning of the text, and create an elegant overall appearance. Koren Publishers Jerusalem continues to publish a wide variety of Jewish religious texts in Hebrew, English, and other languages. Since 2007, the publisher has been Matthew Miller. Rabbi
Reuven Ziegler serves as
Chairman of the
Editorial board. ==Primary publications==