Judaic Studies
Reference Databases
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
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A collection of several hundred current subject encyclopedias. - Oxford Bibliographies: Jewish Studies This link opens in a new window
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Expert discussion of topics and sub-topics in Jewish Studies, with extensive annotated lists of best books and articles. - Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Entries from over 100 Oxford University Press subject and language dictionaries, guides, and concise companions.
Judaic Studies Librarian
Reference Resources
If you are researching an unfamiliar topic, reference resources can help you orient yourself. They can be very useful when you are narrowing down your research topic.
Reference resources, such as encyclopedias and bibliographies are:
- Sources of reviewed and concise background information
- Designed to help you easily locate the information that you need
- A way to find existing scholarly research
Encyclopedias contain short articles. In addition to general encyclopedias such as the Encyclopædia Britannica, which span human knowledge, there are specialized ones for disciplines such as Judaic studies.
Example: Encyclopaedia Judaica edited by Fred Skolnik and Michael Berenbaum
Dictionaries also contain articles that are usually listed in alphabetical order. They are similar to encyclopedias, but entries are usually more concise, making them a useful tool for quickly familiarizing yourself with a topic.
Example: Historical dictionary of Israel by Bernard Reich and David H. Goldberg
Bibliographies are lists of sources on a topic that can be useful because they gather relevant books, articles, and other sources in one place.
Example: Judaica in the Slavic realm, Slavica in the Judaic realm : repositories, collections, projects, publications edited by Zachary M. Baker
Finding Reference Resources
You can search for Judaic studies reference resources in Discovery Search using Library of Congress subject headings, which are standardized tags used to describe what a book is about. Although assigning these subject headings is still a subjective process, using standardized terminology (aka controlled vocabulary) enables you to find books on a particular topic even when authors use varying terms.
Example: One author may use the word "Judaic" in the title of their book. Another may use "Jewish." Both would receive the subject heading "Judaism" and be discoverable through a search for DE "Judaism".
Sample Searches
- DE "Encyclopedias and dictionaries, Yiddish"
- DE "Hebrew language -- Bibliography"
- DE "Hebrew language -- Encyclopedias"
- DE "Israel -- Bibliography"
- DE "Israel -- Encyclopedias"
- DE "Jews -- Bibliography"
- DE "Jews -- Dictionaries"
- DE "Jews -- Encyclopedia"
- DE "Jews in motion pictures -- Catalogs"
- DE "Judaism -- Bibliography"
- DE "Judaism -- Dictionaries"
- DE "Judaism -- Encyclopedias"
💡Quick Tip
The Library of Congress Subject Headings page lets you search for or browse authorized headings and subdivisions. Searching for single authorized subject headings in Discovery Search is simple if you use the format in the sample searches above. You can also try combining authorized subject headings with subdivisions for more specific searches; however, don't get discouraged if stringing together multiple subject headings does not yield results! There are extensive rules governing how subject headings can be combined.
Instead of combining subject headings yourself, you can always conduct a keyword search in Discovery, find a promising book record, and click on the subject headings assigned to it to see others that have the same ones.
📚Further Reading
- Searching EBSCOhost with Default Search Fields (explains the use of DE vs SU in searches)
Selected Reference Resources
Encyclopaedia Judaica by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9780028660974Publication Date: 2007Includes more than 21,000 entries on Jewish life, culture, history, and religion, written by Israeli, American and European subject specialists.
The encyclopedia of Jewish life before and during the Holocaust by ISBN: 0814793568Publication Date: 2001This encyclopedia reclaims the distinctive culture of thousands of Jewish communities lost during the Holocaust. It chronicles the people, habits and customs of more than 6500 thriving Jewish communities. It clarifies locations of settlements based on documents and maps found in recently opened archives.
Historical dictionary of Israel by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9781442271845Publication Date: 2016Contains a chronology, introduction, extensive bibliography, and hundreds of entries on the various diplomatic and political personalities, institutions, events, concepts, and documents that define the Jewish state of Israel.Medieval Jewish civilization: An encyclopedia by
Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9780203953068Publication Date: 2003The first encyclopedic work to focus exclusively on medieval Jewish civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1492. Based on the research of an international, multidisciplinary team of specialist contributors, the more than 150 alphabetically organized entries, written by scholars from around the world, include biographies, countries, events, social history, and religious concepts. The coverage is international, presenting people, culture, and events from various countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
New encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel by ISBN: 0838634338Publication Date: 1994This updated edition expands on the first edition, including articles on Zionism, subject matter on Israel, and agricultural developments in the Yishuv and Israel.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum encyclopedia of camps and ghettos, 1933-1945 by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9780253003508Publication Date: 2009This encyclopedia describes the universe of camps and ghettos, some 20,000 in all, that the Nazis and their allies operated, from Norway to North Africa and from France to Russia.
The Yad Vashem encyclopedia of the ghettos during the Holocaust by ISBN: 9789653083455Publication Date: 2009This encyclopedia presents alphabetical information on the ghettos established in Europe during the time of the Holocaust.- The YIVO encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe by Call Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2010Topics covered include arts, daily life, places, language, literature, history, politics, and religion. In addition to the encyclopedia articles, this site provides access to a collection of photographs, audio, video, digitized documents, as well as specific resources for educators and researchers.
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