Bloch Publishing Company is the oldest

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

publishing company Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

,Robert Singerman
“Bloch & Company: Pioneer Jewish Publishing House in the West”
, Jewish Book Annual, Vol. 52, pp. 110-30. and one of the oldest

family business A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingn ...

es, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

History

Edward H. Bloch (born 1829, Grafenried, Bohemia; died 1906,

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

) founded the company in Cincinnati in 1854Bloch Publishing Compan
official website.
/ref> (another source says 1855). Edward's sister, Theresa Bloch, had married

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Isaac Mayer Wise in 1844, and Edward's early activities were closely associated with those of his famous brother-in-law, who was laying the foundations of the

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

movement in the United States. When Rabbi Wise moved to Cincinnati, Bloch followed him; Rabbi Wise founded ''The Israelite'' newspaper, and after a short time Edward Bloch took over as publisher. Renamed ''

The American Israelite ''The American Israelite'' is an English-language Jewish newspaper published weekly in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1854 as ''The Israelite'' and assuming its present name in 1874, it is the longest-running English-language Jewish newspaper sti ...

'' in 1874, and published by Rabbi Wise’s son

Leo Wise Leo Wise (October 28, 1849 – January 27, 1933) was a Jewish-American newspaper editor and publisher. Life Wise was born on October 28, 1849 in Albany, New York, the son of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and Theresa Bloch. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio wi ...

after 1888, this newspaper is said to be the longest-running

Jewish newspaper A Jewish newspaper is a newspaper which focuses on topics of special interest to Jews, although Jewish newspapers also include articles on topics of a more general interest as well. Political orientations and religious orientations cover a wide r ...

in the United States. Bloch also published the German-language ''Die Deborah'' in Cincinnati, and he initiated Jewish newspapers in St. Louis and Chicago, including the Chicago ''Reform Advocate'', founded in 1891 and edited by the influential Reform Rabbi

Emil G. Hirsch Emil Gustav Hirsch (May 22, 1851 – January 7, 1923) was a Luxembourgish-born Jewish American biblical scholar, Reform rabbi, contributing editor to numerous articles of ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906), anfounding member of the NAACP Biog ...

. Bloch began by publishing Rabbi Wise's liturgies, hymnals, and other books for the Reform movement, and expanded to publish books and religious goods on a wide range of Jewish subjects as well as the occasional non-Jewish ones. He was also a successful manufacturer of flags; in fact, his obituary claimed that he was the inventor and first manufacturer of printed flags in the United States, although apparently this claim is not subject to independent verification. Edward's son, Charles E. Bloch (1861–1940), succeeded his father in control of the company. He opened a branch in Chicago and then moved the company to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1901 (although Edward Bloch remained in Cincinnati, and held the title of president, until his death in 1906). The company called itself "The Jewish Book Concern" and its New York building became the largest Judaic bookstore in the country. The company was then run in turn by Charles's son, Edward H. Bloch (1898–1982), and then by the second Edward's son, the second Charles E. Bloch (1927–2006). During this time, the small-book market declined and the company's operations contracted but continued. After the second Charles' death in 2006, his son, Mitchell E. Bloch, took over as the fifth generation of the Bloch family to run the company, and the company relocated from its historic offices in New York to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. As of 2021, the company no longer seems to be active.

Notable Books

Bloch Publishing published a wide variety of books of Jewish interest, both scholarly and popular,

Jonathan D. Sarna Jonathan D. Sarna (born 10 January 1955) is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director othe Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University ...

, "Two Ambitious Goals: American Jewish Publishing in the United States", in including such classics as ''A Book of Jewish Thoughts'' by Rabbi

Joseph Hertz Joseph Herman Hertz (25 September 1872 – 14 January 1946) was a British Rabbi and biblical scholar. He held the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 until his death in 1946, in a period encompassing both world wars and the ...

; '' Peony'' by

Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...

;

Joseph Klausner Joseph Gedaliah Klausner ( he, יוסף גדליה קלוזנר; 20 August 1874 – 27 October 1958), was a Lithuanian-born Israeli historian and professor of Hebrew literature. He was the chief redactor of the '' Encyclopedia Hebraica''. He was ...

's ''Jesus of Nazareth''; and Hugo Bettauer's ''

The City Without Jews ''The City Without Jews'' (german: Die Stadt ohne Juden) is a 1924 Austrian Expressionist film by Hans Karl Breslauer, based on the novel of the same title by Hugo Bettauer. The film is one of the few surviving Expressionist films from Austri ...

''. Bloch Publishing produced a series of long-running Jewish cookbooks that were influential in the development of

American Jewish cuisine American Jewish cuisine comprises the food, cooking, and dining customs associated with American Jews. It was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th cent ...

. ''“Aunt Babette’s” Cook Book'' was first published in 1889 and was the first truly successful American Jewish cookbook. Along with traditional Jewish recipes, it also contained an extensive selection of recipes for ''

treif (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

'' (non- Kosher) ingredients such as pork, oysters, and shellfish, and in this and other ways reflected its roots in the

assimilationist Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assi ...

tendencies of the 19th-century

movement. After many years of success, in 1918, Bloch replaced ''"Aunt Babette's" Cook Book'' with a more Kosher-observant successor, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum's ''The International Jewish Cook Book'', authored by a Hunter College graduate; Bloch billed it (not quite accurately) as "the first strictly kosher cook book ever published in English in this country." In 1941, Mrs. Greenbaum's book was replaced by a more modern, expanded volume, ''The Jewish Cook Book'', written by

Mildred Grosberg Bellin Mildred Grosberg Bellin (September 7, 1908 – February 15, 2008) was an American cookbook author. She is most noted for her influential cookbooks ''Modern Jewish Meals'' and ''The Jewish Cookbook'', which brought modern nutritional ideas into ...

, a Smith College graduate who had already written a successful, smaller menu planner/cookbook for Bloch called ''Modern Jewish Meals''. Bellin's encyclopedic, 3,000-recipe cookbook was most recently revised and reissued in 1983 as ''The Original Jewish Cookbook''.

, ''The Original Jewish Cook Book'' (New York, Bloch Publishing, 1983), .

Footnotes

External links

* {{Jacksonville Corporations Book publishing companies based in Florida Jewish printing and publishing Companies based in Jacksonville, Florida Jews and Judaism in Cincinnati Publishing companies established in 1854 American companies established in 1854 1854 establishments in Ohio