KETER PUBLISHING HOUSE, Israeli publisher. Keter operates its own independent book marketing and distribution network and is also a key provider of print services and book production for the Israeli market and export through its industrial division.

Keter has been the most prominent publisher of contemporary Hebrew literature in Israel for many years, and its publishing activities cover a wide range of genres, including translated fiction and non-fiction, albums, guides and general trade books, children's books, and multi-volume encyclopedias. Among the many contemporary Israeli writers Keter publishes are Aharon *Appelfeld, Amos *Oz, Alona Kimhi, Sayed Kashua, Savyon *Liebrecht, Uri *Orlev, and Zeruya *Shalev. Keter has published many translated works, including those of Douglas Adams, Paul Auster, Paolo Coelho, Sandor Marai, Haruki Murakami, Boris Pasternak, Philip Pulman, Salman Rushdie, W.G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, Donna Tartt, and Mario Vargas-Llosa. Keter is the publisher of the first edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica and is a co-publisher of the Junior Britannica.

Operating from Jerusalem, the company was first established and owned by the Israeli government under the auspices of the Prime Minister's Office in 1959 at the initiative of Teddy *Kollek, Jerusalem's mayor (1965–93). Originally named The Israel Program for Scientific Translations (IPST), the company engaged in the translation and publishing of scientific and technical manuscripts from Russian into English, primarily for the National Science Foundation of the United States. During the 1960s the company began to diversify its publishing activities in English under the Israel Universities Press (IUP) and Keter Books imprints. The company was purchased from the government by Meniv Israel Investment Company in 1966 and subsequently sold to Clal Israel in 1969. At this time the company name was changed to Keter Publishing House, with key objectives to expand the publishing of titles concerned with Judaica and Israel for export, to publish the recently acquired Encyclopedia Judaica (published in 1972), and to establish an independent printing and bindery division (Keterpress Enterprises). During the late 1970s Keter consolidated its position as a leading publisher in Hebrew in all categories.

Keter has been a public company since 1987. Controlling interest in the company was briefly held by Robert *Maxwell, through Macmillan, at the beginning of the 1990s, and thereafter by Arledan, a Jerusalem based investment company. Keter has provided the managerial infrastructure for Sifriat Maariv, the Maariv daily newspaper's imprint, since 2003. In 2005 Keter and the Steimatzky Group joined forces to form a new publishing and distribution partnership "Keter-Books" for titles published in Hebrew. The second edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica is now published by Thomson Gale, under license from Keter.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.