We show how to use polar molecules in an optical lattice to engineer quantumspin models with arbitrary spin S >= 1/2 and with interactions featuring adirection-dependent spin anisotropy. This is achieved by encoding the effectivespin degrees of freedom in microwave-dressed rotational states of the moleculesand by coupling the spins through dipolar interactions. We demonstrate how oneof the experimentally most accessible anisotropies stabilizes symmetryprotected topological phases in spin ladders. Using the numerically exactdensity matrix renormalization group method, we find that these interactingphases -- previously studied only in the nearest-neighbor case -- survive inthe presence of long-range dipolar interactions. We also show how to use ourapproach to realize the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 and the Kitaev honeycombmodels. Experimental detection schemes and imperfections are discussed.
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