SOAS Library Subject Guide: Jewish Studies

Subscription resources

Access for SOAS students and staff only off-campus

• A concise companion to the Jewish Religion / Jacobs (via Oxford Reference Online)
  Contains “a wealth of information on every aspect of Jewish belief and practice, both ancient and modern”
  On-campus / Off-campus
• Cambridge History of Judaism (via Cambridge Histories Online)
  On-campus / Off-campus
• Encyclopaedia of Judaism / Nuesner [et al] (via Brill Online Reference Works)
  2nd edition (2005). The emphasis is on the classical literature of Judaism and its history, but the encyclopaedia also covers sociological and cultural issues for modern Judaism
  On-campus / Off-campus

General web resources

• Diarna: Geo-Museum
  A multimedia “ online geographic museum” of Jewish life in the Middle East and North Africa featuring both oral histories and digital records of material culture and architecture
• Friedberg Genizah Project
  The project (in conjunction with the Jewish Manuscript Preservation Society, Toronto) aims to make an inventory of all extant Cairo Genizah manuscripts. A selection of the fragments can be viewed in detail. Click “Demo” to see bibliographies, scanned catalogues and images
• Internet Jewish History Sourcebook
  From Fordham University (New York) – essays, articles, extracts and commentary on the history of Judaism and Jewish diaspora communities
• Jewish Encyclopedia
  The complete, unedited, contents of the original edition published between 1901 and 1906. There are over 15,000 searchable articles and illustrations.
• Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Co-operative Enterprise)
  Magazine-style website. Click Enter the Library for links to a wide range of articles on Jewish / Israeli history and view “Judaic treasures” from the Library of Congress
• Judaica Europeana
  Collection of digitized texts, archival material and online exhibitions from European archives and museums showcasing aspects of life and culture of Jewish communities across the ages
• Judaism and Jewish Resources
  Comprehensive index to Jewish resources online in English, Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as information on and for Jewish diaspora communities across the globe.
• North American Jewish Data Bank (University of Connecticut)
  Information and statistics on the politics, economics and history of the North American Jewish community, plus full-text of the American Jewish Yearbook from 1899
• RAMBI
  Bibliographic database of articles on Jewish studies hosted by The Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. Click RAMBI Web to search the database
• Taylor-Schecter Genizah Research Unit (University of Cambridge)
  The collection comprises some 190,000 fragments from the Cairo Genizah, mainly in Hebrew, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic. View the newsletter "Genizah fragments" and the "fragment of the month" along with links to other Genizah archives and related resources
• Virtual Religion Index: Jewish Studies
  A portal to internet resources on Judaism, from the Religious Studies Department at Rutgers University (New Jersey)

Open access texts

• Aleppo Codex Online
  Website devoted to the oldest extant copy of the Hebrew Bible (dating from around 930). Contains comment and analysis as well as a searchable, digitized copy of the text
• The dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: culture, politics and the formation of modern diaspora / Joel Beinin (University of California Press, 1998)
  Open-access text from the UC Press E-books Collection
• Internet Sacred Text Archive: Judaism
  Included are some freely available core texts from the Hebrew Bible to the modern period.
• Jewish National University Library (JNUL) Digitized Book Repository
  Over 1000 rare books printed from the late 15th century to the early 20th century (in Hebrew, Arabic and European languages) on a variety of topics relevant to Jewish and Hebrew studies are currently available on open-access
• Compact Memory Judaica Portal Online
  This collection within the digital library of the Goethe Universität (Frankfurt-am-Main) includes access to 110 Jewish German newspapers and journals published in Central Europe between 1806 and 1938. Content includes religious, political, social, cultural and academic aspects of life among Central  European Jewry. Most of the content is in German, but there is a selection of titles in Hebrew and Yiddish or with multilingual material.The database offers advanced search options, downloading and printing of articles.

Organizations and other libraries

• British Association of Jewish Studies
  Founded to “advance the teaching and research in Jewish culture and history” within Higher Education establishments in the United Kingdom
• Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (Columbia University, New York)
  Centre for discussion on Jewish life, history and culture. Also has web-links to other resources on Judaism
• Institute of Jewish Studies (University College London)
  Independent institution for the “promotion of all aspects of Jewish scholarship and civilisation"
• Jewish Studies Network
  Discussion forum from H-Judaic, part of H-Net, an international forum of scholars and teachers. Includes book reviews and pre-prints and information on research and grants etc.
• Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish / Non-Jewish Relations (University of Southampton)
  Collection based on the library and life work of Reverend Dr James Parkes (1896-1981). The library now consists of over 20,000 printed items – books, pamphlets and journals – and is supplemented by one of the largest collections of Jewish archives in Europe
• University College London: Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies
  The Department aims to research and teach all aspects of Jewish history and culture from antiquity to modernity