Hinam Press
ḥinnām — as in ahavat ḥinnam: love given freely
Hinam Press is an independent, non-profit literary imprint with one commitment: publishing Jewish voices who have been shut out. In the last few years, Jewish writers have watched agents go quiet, deals dissolve, and manuscripts die on the vine — not on the merits, but over who they are. This press is a small, stubborn answer.
The name is Hebrew, and it carries a double edge. Ḥinnām is the word in sinat ḥinnam — baseless hatred, hatred that needs no reason — and in ahavat ḥinnam, love given without cause or expectation of return. The Talmud says the Temple fell to the first; Rav Kook taught it will be rebuilt by the second. We publish under the second.
Hinam is a non-profit venture, and we would rather be exact about what that means than let a good word do work it has not earned. There is no determination letter, no EIN to give you, no tax deduction. There is a commitment: nobody here takes a profit from these books, and that is my word rather than a status somebody granted me. We intend to make it structural. On the day that is true, this page will say so, and not a day earlier.
So: not a cause as a slogan. A working press — book by book, writer by writer, for as long as we can keep it up.
If you have been shut out
Been excluded from the publishing world because you are Jewish? Contact us.
Hinam Press is small and takes no profit — but it is a press. If your work has been dropped, quietly declined, or left to die on the vine because of who you are, write to us. We will read it and tell you plainly whether we can help.
Available now
The Stayed Hand
Child Sacrifice and the Making of the Torah
A lawyer-scholar’s case that the Torah is built around the rejection of child sacrifice — and that this rejection, carried in Jewish law and liturgy for three thousand years, is one of civilization’s permanent achievements.
Paperback on Amazon · Kindle edition
September 2026 · Paperback & ebook · Audiobook to follow
Illustrated and indexed, with bibliography · 6 × 9
ISBN 979-8-9974104-0-7 · LCCN 2026920393
Bring Qol Yisrael back into print
Qol Yisrael — the voice of the people of Israel — is out of print. We would like to change that, and we are looking for funders to make it possible.
A book nobody expects to earn its money back is exactly the book a press like this exists for, and exactly the book a press like this cannot pay for by itself. Nobody here takes a profit, and there is no margin hiding anywhere to fund a reprint from — what it costs is what it needs.
If underwriting a reprint is something you, your family, or your foundation would consider, write to us. We will send the actual numbers — what a run costs, what it would sell for, and where every dollar goes — and you can decide from arithmetic rather than from a pitch.
Write to us about funding Qol Yisrael →
To be plain about what your money would and would not be: Hinam Press is not a tax-exempt organization, and a gift to it is not deductible. It would be a gift to a small non-profit press, on the strength of its word and nothing else.
If you want to help someone else
That is the ask above, and it is ours. This one is not. If what you want is to give money away rather than underwrite a book, send it somewhere it will do some good and where the deduction is real: the JCC-Federation of San Luis Obispo County — the Jewish community of this county, which the author once served as president. It is a 501(c)(3); your gift is deductible, and it is not ours.
Contact
Permissions, press, and review copies:
books@hinampress.com