Meir Zlotowitz


Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, author and founder of ArtScroll Publications.

Early life

Meir attended Yeshivas Rabbi Jacob Joseph on the Lower East Side of New York. He went on to attend Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem and was a student of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

ArtScroll

After graduation, Zlotowitz, who as a youth used his talent in art to overcome his stuttering, became director of a high-end graphics studio in New York. The firm, named ArtScroll Studios, produced brochures, invitations, awards and ketubahs. Rabbi Nosson Scherman, then principal of Yeshiva Karlin Stolin Boro Park, was recommended to Zlotowitz as someone who could write copy, and they collaborated on a few projects.
In late 1975, he wrote an English translation and commentary on the Book of Esther in memory of a young married friend, a rebbe in Yeshiva Torah Emes who died childless, and asked Scherman to write the introduction. The manuscript was completed in honor of the shloshim and "was published in February 1976, just in time to market it for Purim that year." Its first edition of 20,000 copies sold out within two months. With the encouragement of Rabbi Moses Feinstein, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky and other Gedolei Yisrael, the two continued producing commentaries, beginning with a translation and commentary on the rest of the Five Megillot, and went on to publish translations and commentaries on the Torah, Prophets, Talmud, Passover Haggadah, siddurs and machzors. By 1990 ArtScroll had produced more than 700 books, including novels, history books, children's books and secular textbooks, and became one of the largest publishers of Jewish books in the United States.
Zlotowitz was also chairman of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation, ArtScroll's fundraising arm.
Zlotowitz died in Brooklyn on 24 June 2017 at the age of 73.
By the end of the year of mourning for a parent, Meir's son [|Gedaliah] was listed in newly released ArtScroll publications, secondarily alongside that of his late father's partner, Nosson Scherman, as general editor.

Family

With his second wife, Rochel Zlotowitz, he had four daughters and four sons, Gedalia, Ira, Boruch and Chaim.
Ira Zlotowitz, is founder and president of Eastern Union Funding, a commercial real estate mortgage brokerage in New York City.
His brother Bernard was a leading rabbi in the Reform Jewish movement in the USA and had originally attended Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. Their father, Aron Zlotowitz, led Congregation Etz Chaim, a Brooklyn congregation, for 60 years.

Selected bibliography

Until the death of Meir, Zlotowitz and Scherman were the general editors of ArtScroll's Talmud, Chumash, Tanakh, Siddur and Machzor series. They co-authored Megillas Esther: Illustrated Youth Edition, a pocket-size Mincha/Maariv prayerbook, and Selichos: First Night. They have also produced a host of titles of which Scherman is author and Zlotowitz is editor. Newly released publications list Scherman first, followed by Gedaliah Zlotowitz as general editors.
Zlotowitz is the author of:
A biography, authored by Rabbi Yisroel Besser, was written by the time of the first Yartzeit.

Gedaliah Zlotowitz

Rabbi Gedaliah Zlotowitz, was Rabbi Meir's oldest son.
Arscroll's Titles by Rabbi Gedaliah Zlotowitz had nine entries as of early 2019.