Encyclopaedia Judaica
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The Encyclopaedia Judaica is a 26-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people and their faith, Judaism. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history in all eras, culture, holidays, language, scripture, and religious teachings.
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[edit] History
It was first published in 1971-1972 in sixteen volumes. It was published in Jerusalem by Keter Publishing House and in New York by the Macmillan Company.
Between 1972 and 1994, ten annual yearbooks were collected in a 1973-1982 events supplement and a 1983-1992 events supplement was added. Together these volumes contain more than 15 million words in over 25,000 articles.
Its general editors were, successively, Cecil Roth and Geoffrey Wigoder. Advertisers describe it as the result of about three decades of study and research by about 2,200 contributors and 250 editors around the world.
A Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian, launched in the early 1970s as an abridged translation of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, evolved into a largely independent publication that by late 2005 included eleven volumes and three supplements.[1]
An earlier, unfinished German-language Encyclopaedia Judaica was published by Nahum Goldmann's Eshkol Publishing Society in Berlin 1928-1934. The chief editors were Jakob Klatzkin and Ismar Elbogen. Ten volumes from Aach to Lyra appeared before the project halted due to the Nazi persecutions.[2] Two Hebrew-language volumes A-Antipas were also published, under the title Eshkol (Hebrew אשכול). A few of the articles from the German Judaica and even some of the reparations payments to Goldmann were used in making the English-language Judaica. A shorter Jewish Encyclopedia was published at the turn of century.[3] It was followed by the Jüdisches Lexikon I — II (1927 — 28) and Encyclopedia Judaica I — II (1927 — 28) and Zsidó Lexikon (1929, edited by Ujvári Péter, in Hungarian language).[4]
The English-language Judaica is also available on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM version is enhanced by at least 100,000 hyperlinks and several other features including videos, slide shows, maps, music and Hebrew pronunciations.
Because of its comprehensive scope, authority, and widespread availability, the Encyclopaedia Judaica is recommended by the Library of Congress and by the Association of Jewish Libraries for use in determining the authoritative romanization of names of Jewish authors. Its guidelines for transliterating Hebrew into English are followed by many academic books and journals.
The 1972 edition has generated both positive and negative reviews.[5]
[edit] Second edition
In July 2003, Thomson Gale announced that it had acquired the rights to publish a second edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica, expecting to publish in December 2006 under one of its imprints, Macmillan Reference USA. The 22-volume work was published December 30, 2006 and released in January of 2007. This edition received the Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association.
Gale has published other substantial revisions of major reference works in the field of religion in recent years, including second editions of The Encyclopedia of Religion and The New Catholic Encyclopedia. Together with original publishers Keter Publishing House, Gale has made major updates to many sections of Encyclopaedia Judaica for the new edition, including the entries on the Holocaust, American Jewry, Israel and others.
Fred Skolnik, who served as a co-editor on the original edition of Judaica, was retained as Editor-in-Chief for the 2nd edition. American Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, adjunct professor of theology at the American Jewish University as well as director of its Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, serves as the editor for the Holocaust and Americana sections of the encyclopedia and executive editor for the work at large. Judith Baskin, University of Oregon Judaic Studies department head, was brought on to supervise improvement of women's studies and gender issues coverage. In total, more than 50 divisional editors, including five winners of the Israel Prize, oversaw contributions from nearly 1,200 scholars and editors. The new edition contains more than 21,000 signed entries, including 2,600 brand-new entries and 12,000 changed entries. [2]
Reviews from library literature have been positive. Donald Altschiller of Boston University, writing in Choice, states that the second edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica "has already attained a secure place in the reference pantheon...Essential."[6] Barbara Bibel, writing in Booklist, calls the set "a welcome addition to reference collections."[7] The second edition received the prestigious 2007 Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association, which honors the creation of a reference work of outstanding quality and significance.[8]
The new edition has recently encountered withering criticism from prominent scholars for wholesale reprinting of patently outdated entries; ignoring important events and personalities while including entries on figures and events that are (at best) of marginal interest or significance.[citation needed] An important review of this type was authored by Professor Shnayer Leiman of Brooklyn College, on the Seforim weblog.[9]
[edit] Notes
- ^ (Russian) Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia based on The Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia (Краткая еврейская энциклопедия) published in Jerusalem in 1976-2005. The Society for Research on Jewish Communities in cooperation with The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- ^ a b "Updated Judaica", Dateline World Jewry, World Jewish Congress Foundation, December 2006/January 2007
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Zsidó Lexikon
- ^ David B. Levy, THE MAKING OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA AND THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA, Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries
- ^ Altschiller, Donald (2007-09). "Encyclopaedia Judaica". CHOICE. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Bibel, Barbara (2007-05-15). "Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2d ed.". Booklist 103 (18): 72. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ "'Encyclopaedia Judaica' named recipient of the 2007 Dartmouth Medal", American Library Association, 2007-02-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Dr. Leiman's Review[1]
[edit] References
- David B. Levy, "The Making of the Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Jewish Encyclopedia" Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, 2002. A review and comparison of these two encyclopedias as works of scholarship and as library information resources.
- "Gale® Acquires a Cultural Treasure: Gale to publish The Encyclopaedia Judaica - first new edition in more than 30 years", press release July 29, 2003, at Thomson Gale.
- Joan Biella, "Authority Work in Ruritania". Proceedings of the 36th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries, 2001. In a charming and instructive fantasy, a librarian establishes a work's author's name by using the Encyclopaedia Judaica according to accepted procedure.
- Shnayer Leiman "The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations"
[edit] See also
- Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by Cyrus Adler from 1901 to 1906.
