Jewish Studies

Important Scope Note: For many topics, the best resources may not be ones specific to Jewish Studies, but ones specific to the discipline associated with the topic or figure you are researching. For example, Grove Art Online is good source for biographical information on specific artists. For more information about specific databases and reference works, consult the Research Guides or discuss your topic ideas with a reference librarian.

Reference Sources

General
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition. 22 vols. Comprehensive scholarly reference work on Jewish history, religion, symbolism, culture, and biography. Available in print and electronically.
DS 102.8 E496 2007 Ref
Encyclopaedia Judaica (electronic version)

Religion and Religious Texts
Encyclopedia of Judaism. 3 vols. 1999. In-depth scholarly articles, primarily on topics relating to the history and practice of Jewish religion and philosophy.
BM 50 E63 1999 Ref
Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols. 2005.
BL31 E46 2005 Ref
Tanakh = The Holy Scriptures : the new JPS translation according to the traditional Hebrew text. 1985.
BS895 J4 1985 (Stacks,Williston Level 1)
The Babylonian Talmud ... Translated into English. 18 vols. 1961 (Soncino Press edition).
CAE 1961 (MH Cutter Collection, Miles-Smith Level 1)

History, politics, and culture
Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture. 2005. Short essays on people and topics that have had a lasting impact on contemporary Jewish life.
DS 102 E56 2005 Ref
Who’s Who in Jewish History. 2002. Biographical and contextual information on important Jewish figures who lived between the first and 20th centuries. Includes a glossary and a chronology of Jewish history.
DS 115 C6 2002 Ref
Dictionary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 2005. (E-Book). Covers the history of the conflict from the end of the 19th century to 2004. Includes descriptions of the five Arab-Israeli wars and biographies of political personae in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and the occupied territories.
(also available in print: JQ 1830 A58 F3813 Ref)
Historical Dictionary of Zionism, 2000.
DS 149 M375 2000 Ref
See also: Historical Dictionary of Palestine, 1997. DS102.8 N397 1997 Ref
American Jewish Yearbook 2007. A useful source for recent statistics and directory information for Jewish organizations in the U.S.
E184 J5 2007 Ref
Columbia history of Jews and Judaism in America. 2008. Collection of essays; provides a good survey of current debates and research trends in the history of Jews in America.
E184.35 C65 2008 (Stacks, Williston Level 2)
Jewish Women in America: an historical encyclopedia. 1998.
E184.J5 J495 1998 Ref

Atlases
Macmillan Bible Atlas. 1993.
G2230 A2 1993 Reference-Atlas Case
Routledge Atlas of Jewish History, 6th ed., 2003. Over 100 maps outlining Jewish migration and history from c. 2000 B.C.E. to the twenty-first century.
G1030 G46 2003 (Stacks)
Atlas of the Middle East. 2008.
G2205 N34 2008 Ref
Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem. 1990.
G2239 J4 B34 1990 Ref

Literature
Twentieth-century American-Jewish fiction writers (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 28). 1984.
PS153.J4 T84 1984 Ref
Jewish writers of the twentieth century. 2003.
PN842 J48 2003 Ref
Jewish American women writers : a bio-bibliographical and critical sourcebook. 1994.
Z7963 J4 J48 1994 Ref

Holocaust
Columbia guide to the Holocaust. 2000. Overview essays, literature surveys, bibliographies, and resource guides. An excellent place to begin research on this topic.
D804.3 N54 2000 Ref
Holocaust Encyclopedia. 2001. In-depth, well-researched essays on many aspects of Holocaust history.
D 804.25 H66 2005
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 4 vols. 1990. Heavily illustrated topical and biographical guide to the events associated with the Jewish Holocaust.
D 804.3 E53
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and During the Holocaust. 3 vols. 2001. Abridged version of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, describing hundreds of European Jewish communities dispersed or destroyed in the course of the Holocaust.
DS 135 E8 E45 2001
Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. 2 vols. 1991.
DD256.5 G76313 1991 Ref
Holocaust Literature: an encyclopedia of writers and their works. 2 vols. 2003. Scholarly introductory essays on more than 300 writers whose work has contributed to the collective memory of the Holocaust and to contemporary understanding of Holocaust events. Includes essays on memoirists, novelists, poets, dramatists, and theorists as well as glossaries, maps, indexes, etc.
PN 56 H55 H66 2003 Ref
Historical Atlas of the Holocaust. 1996.
D804.3 E29 H5 1996 Ref (also available on CD-ROM)
Holocaust Encyclopedia from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, includes photographs and film footage from the era

Searching for Books by Subject
A subject heading search may be useful for finding books on specific topics relating to Jews, Jewish life, or Judaism.
Books on religious aspects of Jewish life may have a variety of subject headings, such as:
Judaism
Jewish way of life
Jewish ethics
Women in Judaism
..and more specific terms, such as: Hasidism or Hasidim

Books on secular aspects of Jewish life will frequently use the terms “Jews” or “Jewish” in the subject heading, along with more specific topical or geographical terms. Try subject keyword searches using each of these terms along with one or more other specific terms (e.g., “soldier”, “Russia”, “teenagers”) relevant to your topic.

Other useful subject headings:
Jews--identity
Jews--social conditions
Jews--United States
Jewish-Arab relations
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Jewish nationalism

Note that books on aspects of Israeli life may not have the word Jewish anywhere in the title or subject heading:
Israel--history
Israel--politics and government
Theater--Israel

For books on Eastern European Jews of the Middle Ages, search for the term “Ashkenazim”. For the Jews of Spain, use “Sephardim”.

Searching for Articles: Full-text databases, indexes, and bibliographies
Important Note: These databases will help researchers locate material on a wide variety of topics related to Jewish Studies. If your topic lies within an academic discipline, you should also consult databases specific to that discipline. For example, Sociological Abstracts can be used to locate research on Jewish society and family life. As noted above, consult the Research Guides or discuss your topic ideas with a reference librarian for more information on specific indexes and E-resources.

Interdisciplinary Resources
Academic Search Premier
American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES) Citations to articles and other material on Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union published in the U.S. and Canada. For European publications on the same topic, see the European Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975- ) Indexes more than 1,300 arts and humanities journals and selected articles from more than 5,800 social science and science journals. Indexes articles, chapters in books, and book reviews.
Ethnic News Watch – Full text database of ethnic and minority press periodicals, 1990-present; includes many Jewish newspapers.
Expanded Academic ASAP
Index Islamicus – Indexes journals and books on topics related to Middle Eastern history, politics, law, culture, etc., from 1906-present.
Index to Jewish Periodicals – Index to English language journal literature in Jewish Studies, 1988-present; available at the Smith College and UMass libraries.
JSTOR – Archive of academic journal literature. Use only to locate older articles and articles in discontinued journals in the humanities and social sciences.
LexisNexis Academic
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies – Index of research, reports, and scholarship on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, circa 1900-present.
Project Muse – Interdisciplinary database of current scholarly literature on a variety humanities and social science topics.
RAMBI: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies, from the Jewish National and University Library
Reading lists on aspects of Judaism and Jewish history
Reader’s guide to Judaism. 2000. – Short annotated bibliographies of works on Jewish religion, history, philosophy, culture, etc. For larger projects, consult this work early in your research. BM 50 R43 2000 Ref

Subject Specific Resources: Many of the reference sources on the first page of this guide also provide short, up-to-date bibliographies on specific topics.

Religion
ATLA Religion Index (1949-present)

History
ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (1859-) Index to interdisciplinary journal literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700 C.E.).
International Medieval Bibliography (1967 - present) Broad index to scholarly literature on the Middle Ages (450 - 1500 C.E.).
Historical Abstracts (1954- ) Indexes and provides abstracts for articles on the history of the world (other than the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
America : History and Life (1964- ) Citations, with abstracts, to social science humanities literature on U.S. and Canadian history, culture and current affairs.

Antisemitism
Felix Posen Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism

Literature and Film
MLA international bibliography – Indexes over 3,000 journals as well as other scholarly material in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, and folklore.
Film and Television Literature Index

E-Journals, print journals, and newspapers: A great many of the journals and newspapers relevant to research in Jewish Studies are indexed in one or more of the interdisciplinary resources listed above. Below are a few more titles that are easy to overlook.
Association for Jewish Studies Review (AJS Review)
Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations
Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal
Middle East Review of International Affairs

Libraries/Archives
Leo Baeck Institute
Jewish Theological Seminary Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives

WWW Sites
Internet Sacred Texts Archive - A compilation of sacred texts from many faiths.
Academic Jewish Studies Internet Directory
H-Judaic - Academic discussion list
H-Holocaust - Academic discussion list
Antisemitism database - Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism (Tel Aviv University)
Jerusalem 3000: Three Millennia of History – Online exhibit of maps and depictions of Jerusalem.
JewishEncyclopedia.com
Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library Exhibitions – Scholarly online exhibits on a variety of topics.