Nosson Scherman

Nosson Scherman
Born	Nosson Scherman 1935 Newark, New Jersey
Nationality	American
Known for	General Editor ofArtScroll

Nosson Scherman(Hebrew:נתן נטע שערמאן,born 1935,Newark, New Jersey) is an AmericanHaredirabbibest known as the general editor ofArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.

Early life

Scherman was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, where his parents ran a small grocery store.He attended public school, but in the afternoons joined aTalmud Torahstarted in 1942 by Rabbi Shalom Ber Gordon, ashaliachof the sixthLubavitcherRebbe, RabbiYosef Yitzchok Schneersohn.Rabbi Gordon influenced many of the 200 boys in his afternoon Talmud Torah to enroll inyeshiva,including young Nosson Scherman,who became a dormitory student atYeshiva Torah Vodaasat around age 10. Afterwards, he studied inBeth Medrash ElyoninSpring Valley, New York

Scherman worked as a rabbi (teacher) for about eight years at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath of Flatbush, later known asYeshiva Torah Temimah.Afterwards he was a principal at Yeshiva Karlin Stolin ofBoro Parkfor six years.

ArtScroll

During his tenure as principal, he was recommended to RabbiMeir Zlotowitz,director of a high-end graphics studio in New Yorknamed ArtScroll Studios,as someone who could write copy, and they collaborated on a few projectsof brochures and journals.

In late 1975,Zlotowitz wrote anEnglishtranslation and commentary on theBook of Estherin memory of a friend, and asked Scherman to write the introduction. The book sold out its first edition of 20,000 copies within two months.With the encouragement of RabbisYaakov Yitzchok Ruderman,Mordechai Gifter,Moses Feinstein,Yaakov Kamenetsky,and others,the two continued producing commentaries, beginning with a translation and commentary on the rest of theFive Megillot(Song of Songs,Ecclesiastes,LamentationsandRuth), and went on to publish translations and commentaries on theTorah,Prophets,Talmud,Passover Haggadah,siddursandmachzors.

In its first 25 years,ArtScrollproduced more than 700 books, includingnovels,history books, children's books and secular textbooks,and is now the largest publisher of Jewish books in the United States.

Selected bibliography

Zlotowitz and Scherman are the general editors of ArtScroll'sTalmud,StoneChumash,Tanakh,Siddur,andMachzorseries. They co-authoredMegillas Esther: Illustrated Youth Edition(1988), a pocket-size Mincha/Maariv prayerbook (1991), andSelichos: First Night(1992).They have also produced a host of titles on which Scherman is author and Zlotowitz is editor.

Scherman contributed translations and commentaries for ArtScroll'sStone Chumash,the ArtScrollSiddurimandMachzorim,and the StoneTanakh.He served as general editor of the 73-volume translationSchottensteinedition of theTalmudfrom 1990 until 2005.

Scherman attributes his strong English language skills to the stronger general-studies departments that yeshivas had when he was a student, and his correspondence with two out-of-town high school classmates,Mendel WeinbachandNisson Wolpin.He has said: "During the summers we used to write letters. Does anyone correspond today? We wrote to each other – that helped. We tried to outdo each other; we were big-shot teenagers. The only way to learn how to write is to write."He was also among the contributors toThe Jewish Observer.

He was the editor, beginning in 1970, ofOlomeinuand editor/co-author of someBest of Olomeinureprints.