Chareidim do it better

Check this out:

Stolow has recently completed his latest book Orthodox By Design, a volume 15 years in the making. The forthcoming book, with the University of California Press, closely examines Brooklyn-based ArtScroll, the largest and most important Orthodox Jewish publishing house in the English-speaking world. His investigation probes methods ArtScroll has used to shape the ways readers interact with the books: how books are acquired by communities, their extensive catalogue (which includes cookbooks, adventure novels and legal guides), all the way down to typesetting and illustrations.

“ArtScroll is a major cultural force in contemporary Jewish public culture and it has often courted controversy as a ‘fundamentalist’ entity, an example of a more wide-scale ‘slide to the right’ in Jewish religious life," Stolow notes.

His study challenges easy conclusions about the ways so-called religious fundamentalist messages actually function in today’s media-rich environment. He argues the public life of ArtScroll books provides an instructive case study for exploring how religious movements today are defined by their efforts to claim authority, manage desire, de-legitimize competitors, win followers, and cultivate a market niche; in this case, the rapidly growing religious book market.

"The lessons are relevant not only for modern-day Jewish society, but for a wide range of cases in which religion is being redefined in and through its engagements with modern media,” he says.

Say what you want about Artscroll, but they're definitely good at what they aspire to do. Meanwhile the MO world, especially in the US, hasn't gotten its act together anywhere near as well.

And it's not just in book publishing. Aish and that genre do a great job of meeting their goals. Even the local Kiruv Kollel does an awesome job at getting rich secular Jews to part with their money.

So what gives?

I suppose it could be siyatah dishmayah. Or more likely a critical factor for sucess is focus, passion and commitment, which are all traits that religious fundamentalists have in spades.