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Rabbinics in the New Encyclopaedia Judaica
Full text linkThere have been significant advances in almost every branch of rabbinic scholarship since the publication of the first edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica (hereafter: EJ1). It was the task of the contributors to Encyclopaedia Judaica's second edition (hereafter: EJ2) to summarize these advances in a concise yet comprehensive fashion. My role as reviewer is to highlight the advances mentioned in EJ2, to supplement each entry with scholarship that was not mentioned, and, on occasion, critique the style and/or substance of an entry. The latter is done with the full knowledge that it is no easy task to write an encyclopedia entry. The author must navigate the treacherous waters between the Scylla of excessive brevity and the Charybdis of information overload. Furthermore, it is a challenge to be current with all the literature on a given topic; as soon as one completes an entry new scholarship renders it incomplete, if not obsolete. To some extent I face these same challenges as a reviewer. I have done my best, therefore, to be fair to the authors of EJ2 even in those cases where I feel that their efforts have not produced the ideal results
The National Library of Israel and OCLC
Full text linkOCLC published the following announcement in December 2008: "The National Library of Israel and OCLC have completed a pilot project that has resulted in the addition of more than 788,000 new bibliographic records and 1.1 million holdings from the national library to WorldCat." The successful completion of this project was the result of a number of policy decisions and technological developments on the part of both parties. This article describes the motivation, history, and challenges of this project
Encyclopedia Interrupta, or Gale's Unfinished: the Scandal of the EJ2
Full text linkEncyclopedias are important reference works. They are meant to summarize the state of knowledge in any given field and convey it to both the layperson and the scholar in a clear, concise manner. For Jews and Judaism, the first major effort in this regard was the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906, which drew upon the knowledge of a cadre of European and American scholars of the Science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums). Its successor the German Encyclopaedia Judaica began to appear in 1929 but was interrupted in 1934 by the rise of Nazism. It had only reached the end of the letter L. After the war, efforts resumed which resulted in the production of two major encyclopedias, The Hebrew Encyclopaedia Hebraica (ha-Entsiklopedyah ha-‘Ivrit), completed in 1982, and the English Encyclopaedia Judaica (henceforth EJ1), which first appeared in 1971 followed by a corrected edition in 1972. Both works were published in Israel and are considered to be major achievements. The latter used a lot of material from both its German and Hebrew predecessors
The Changing Terms in Sears
Full text linkLibrarians are considered the keepers of knowledge. However, the very method in which this knowledge is kept can cause confusion, not only for patrons seeking the knowledge held, but also for librarians unfamiliar with methods used in classifying books. Changing terms, or terms that do not change and thus portray what today could be considered bias or prejudice, cause confusion or even embarrassment in searching the vast knowledge base available. Librarians are known for organizational work, particularly catalogers who organize knowledge in the library into a seemingly accessible order. This article focuses on selected concepts of importance to the Judaic library and Judaic library collection: Judaism, Jews, Israelis, and the Holocaust, which have increased in coverage in small and medium-sized libraries; and it traces how the subjects for these concepts have changed over time. The focus is on the headings used in the Sears List of Subject Headings, and those used in the Library of Congress Subject Headings list are not addressed
IsraPulp: The Israeli Popular Literature Collection at Arizona State University
Full text linkBased on research literature, the article reviews the history of Hebrew popular literature since the 1930s, its connections with Yiddish Schund literature and its effects on the development of Modern Hebrew literature and Israeli identity, especially in light the New Hebrew ethos. The article features the research collection of Hebrew pulps at Arizona State Univeristy, demonstrates the significance of collecting popular materials in research libraries, and suggests possible new study directions. An appendix lists some of the materials available at the IsraPulp Collection
Cookbooks: Preserving Jewish Tradition
Full text linkCulinary traditions have played an integral role in the Jewish religion from its very beginning. Families have continually passed down these traditions from one generation to the next as a means to preserve Jewish culture as well as to maintain their Jewish identity. The authors propose that one of the methods of preserving and transmitting these culinary traditions, traditions clearly rooted in oral tradition, has been through the cookbook. While the written cookbook continues to be popular and marketable, traditional cookbook contents are becoming increasingly available online. In saving recipes for future generations, cookbooks preserve religious, cultural, and traditional elements of Jewish life. As important as it is for Jewish libraries to consider the value of cookbooks in preserving Judaism, non-Jewish libraries, from academic to public, and from K-12 to special, can also share in this mission. Passing cookbooks down through genera- tions not only strengthens culinary cuisine and traditions, but also preserves memories, both familial and religious
