Joseph Werbelowsky

Born in Virbaln in the Lithuanian reaches of the Russian Empire (today Virbalis, Lithuania), to a traditional religious family, Joseph Werbelowsky emigrated first to Germany and then to the United States in 1883. In the United States, he cofounded a publishing company, Rosenbaum and Werbelowsky, which published prayer books and other religious texts. In 1901, Werbelowsky established the Hebrew American Publishing Company, later shortened to Hebrew Publishing Company, which became a leading Yiddish-language publishing house in the United States for several decades (and was infamous among more discerning Yiddish writers and readers for its indifferent literary and editing standards). Werbelowsky was very active in Jewish life in his New York neighborhood, Williamsburg, and also on the Lower East Side, where he was a founding member of the congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol. This staunchly Reform ketubah—it is entirely in English— reflects the changing nature of the Hebrew Publishing Company, which had long published primarily for the Yiddish- and Hebrew-using immigrant Jewish market.