This month has been an exciting one for JPS! When Jewcy’s Big Jewcy list and New York Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 list were announced, we were excited to find that three JPS authors had been recognized. Congratulations to JT Waldman, Danya Ruttenberg, and Josh Lambert. Here’s a little background on each of them:

JT Waldman- Jewish Week, “36 Under 36”:

JT Waldman is a comic book illustrator and interaction designer. His first graphic novel, Megillat Esther, drew from archeological, rabbinic and pop cultural sources to create a bold retelling of the biblical story of Esther. Illustrations from the book are currently being featured as part of the Reinventing Ritual exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and the Drawing on Tradition: The Book of Esther exhibit at the Yeshiva University Museum. He also contributed to From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books. JT later went on to design the Tagged Tanakh, an interactive site that allows users to add their own commentary to the JPS Tanakh. He is currently working on his next graphic novel with Harvey Pekar.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg- Jewish Week, “36 Under 36”:

Danya Ruttenberg is the co-editor of three volumes in the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices series published by JPS: Sex and Intimacy; War and National Security; Social Justice (2010). Her other works include Surprised By God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press, 2008), nominated for the 2010 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism (NYU Press, 2009) and Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism (Seal Press, 2001). She is also a contributing editor to Lilith and to the academic journal Women and Judaism and is on the editorial board of Jewschool.com.

Josh Lambert- Jewcy, Big Jewcy:

Josh Lambert is Dorot Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and the author of American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide. He led the redesign and re-launch of JBooks.com, an online book review magazine, in 2003 and served as its editor until 2004. He now contributes book reviews and essays to The Forward, the San Francisco Chronicle, the two national daily newspapers in Canada (the National Post and Globe and Mail), and The Jerusalem Post, and serves as a Contributing Editor to Tablet Magazine.

In other exciting news, on Sunday July 4^th, Debra Band, author/illustrator of I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms and Song of Songs: The Honeybee in the Garden, will have illuminations from I Will Wake the Dawn featured on the PBS television program Religion and Ethics Weekly. To find local broadcast listings, visit http://www.pbs.org/religion and check back at the PBS site after the weekend for more information on Debra and for downloads of the program itself.

Addendum: Seven JPS authors were named to Newsweek’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America! The list includes:

• Elliot Dorff, author of Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics; To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics; Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics; and For the Love of God and People: A Philosophy of Jewish Law. He is also the editor for theJewish Choices, Jewish Voices series.
• Norman Lamm, author of  The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism
• Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, author of A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters
• David Wolpe, wrote the forward for Etz Hayim Study Companion
• Kerry M. Olitzky, author of From Your Father’s House: Reflections for Modern Jewish Men; Preparing Your Heart for Passover: A Guide for Spiritual Readiness; and Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days: A Guided Journal
• Bradley Hirschfield, author of Remember For Life: Holocaust Survivors’ Stories of Faith and Hope
• David Stern, wrote the forward for The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah and Legends of the Jews