FAQs

1. How can we help?

First and foremost, you can help by purchasing a work. It is an easy way to build your library of Karaite Jewish books. You can also help by spreading the word about our endeavors.

If you would like to offer additional support, such as transcribing a text, translating a work, or donating money, please visit our Join Us page.

2. How many works do you plan to publish?

At the time of our launch in early 2016, we had five works at advanced stages of production and we are committed to publishing all five of those books. We have a few others in very early stages. We have a list of other works that we would love to publish as well.

We are hopeful that the sales from the first five or so works will cover the costs of publication for the subsequent works. So every purchase really helps the cause.

3. Why are your works priced relatively inexpensively?

We believe that Jewish literature should be as accessible as possible. The pricing of our works depends on many factors; but our general goal is to make these works affordable to all.

4. How are you selecting works for publication?

We are placing priority on works that have never been made commercially available - in addition to works that have never been translated.

5. Where do you find your works for publications?

In many cases, we are reviewing never before published manuscripts and transcribing and translating them for publication. Working from manuscripts has its limitations, especially because manuscripts are often damaged or contain errors and abbreviations (whether by the original author or a subsequent scribe).

6. How do you plan to address errors in manuscripts/works?

There are generally two types of errors. The first type of error is simply a scribal error, where the original author or a subsequent copyist misspelled something or made another error that does not affect the substance of the text. In these cases, we generally place square brackets after the text with a correction for modern readers.

The second type of error is a substantive error, where the original author or a subsequent copyist wrote something that is at odds with the Tanakh. In these cases, we have decided to reproduce the manuscript faithfully, and in most instances we have noted the error or produced a correction in brackets, following the error.

Of course, in many cases we do not have access to the original manuscript and the authors are no longer alive; so we are limited in our ability to suggest "corrections."

7. Are you producing "critical editions"?

A critical edition is generally one which compares the existing manuscripts and tries to determine what text must have been found in the original manuscript. We generally pick one manuscript to serve as the foundation for our text. While for any given work we may look (and indeed have looked) at multiple manuscripts, we generally only do so to fill in gaps in our main manuscript due to damage or scribal error.

8. Do you offer discounts to libraries, teachers, students, and Jewish institutions?

Yes; each of these is automatically entitled to a 15% discount of all regular-priced items. We do not offer discounts on pre-sale items, because these items are already discounted by up to 30%. If you are a library, teacher, student or Jewish institution, please email us at info@thekaraitepress.com for a discount code.

9. Do you offer bulk-rate discounts?

Yes, if you are planning to purchase 10 or more copies of a work, please email us at info@thekaraitepress.com for a rate quote and a discount code.

10. Are your works copyrighted?

Yes; we reserve all rights on our work unless otherwise indicated. We do not assert that the original text of historical Karaite works is copyrighted. We do not believe that historical text is copyrightable (even if we needed to look at several manuscripts to reconstruct the historical text).

11. Do you sell products on your site that were not produced by The Karaite Press team?

Yes; in recent years there has been an uptick the creation of Karaite printed material. Our team partners with those who produced these works to make them available at affordable prices. We denote such works in the item description.