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. 1913 advertisement for Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Jewish history is the history of the Jewish people, faith (Judaism) and culture. ... Jewish holiday, (or Yom Tov or chag or taanit in Hebrew) is a day that is holy to the Jewish people according to Judaism and is usually derived from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the Torah, and in some cases established by the rabbis in later eras. ... Torah, (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or especially law. It primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh–the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five Books of Moses, but can also be used in the general sense to also include both the Written... Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ...

It was first published in 1971-1972 in sixteen volumes. It was first printed in Israel by Keter Publishing House. Later printings were made by Macmillan. 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 chief editors were, successively, Cecil Roth and Geoffrey Wigoder. It is the result of about three decades of study and research by about 2,200 contributors and 250 editors around the world. Cecil Roth, (London, 1899–1970) was a Jewish historian and educator. ...

An earlier, unfinished Encyclopaedia Judaica was published in German 1928-1934 in ten volumes from Aach to Lyra, under chief editors Jakob Klatzkin and Ismar Elbogen. A few of its articles and even some of its reparations payments were used in the English-language Judaica. A shorter version of the English-language Judaica was published in Russian in 1976, in six volumes.

It is also available on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM version is enhanced by at least 100,000 hyperlinks and several other useful features including videos and slide shows, maps, music and Hebrew pronunciations. The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...

In July 2003, Thomson Gale announced that it acquired the rights to publish a second edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica, expecting to publish in 2006 under its Macmillan imprint.

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 is followed by many academic books and journals. Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... In linguistics, romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. ...

Editions

• 18 volume edition, Coronet Books Inc; Reprint edition (December 1, 1994), ISBN 0685362531

See also

• Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by Cyrus Adler from 1901 to 1906.

The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... Cyrus Adler (1863 - 1940) was a U.S. educator, Jewish religious leader and scholar. ...

References

• David B. Levy, "The Making of the Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Jewish Encyclopedia" [1]. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries[2], 2002.

A review and comparison of these two encyclopedias as works of scholarship and as library information resources.

• "Encyclopaedia Judaica" in the Library of Congress online catalog.
• "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.[3]
• Joan Biella, "Authority Work in Ruritania"[4]. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries[5], 2001.

In a charming and instructive fantasy, a librarian establishes a work's author's name by using the Encyclopedia Judaica according to accepted procedure.