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| Second edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica launched in Frankfurt
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FRANKFURT (EJP)--- The December release of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica was announced at this week’s Frankfurt Book Fair. More than thirty years after first publishing the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Thomson Gale, part of the Thomson Corporation and Keter Publishing House have renewed their partnership to prepare a second, completely revised edition.
In 1928 Nahum Goldman’s Eshkol Publishing Society in Berlin began publication of a comprehensive reference work on the history and culture of the Jewish people. The German-language Encyclopaedia Judaica was never finished due to the Nazi takeover of power.
“The original, pre-war ten volumes (Aach to Lyra) of the first Encyclopaedia Judaica stand today as an evocative and tragic reminder of the barbarism of Hitler’s Germany, enduring as a testament to the intellect and spirit of European Jewry,” Jay Flynn, the publisher of the Encyclopaedia told EJP.
Six year project
Goldman was the last surviving member of the editorial board of the German-language Encyclopaedia Judaica. Using funds he received as reparations, he helped revive the Encyclopaedia Judaica, this time in Israel. Work began on the project in 1966 at Keter Publishing House in Jerusalem.
In 1972, more than 45 years after it was begun, the first completed English language edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica was finally released by Keter and Macmillan. Like its unfinished predecessor, this Encyclopaedia aimed to provide an exhaustive and organized overview of Jewish life and knowledge.
The 16-volume set was hailed as “a work of transcendent value” by Choice magazine and as “an indispensable reference tool” by the Library Journal review. According to Flynn, “a recent inventory and ranking by the American Library Association places the Encyclopaedia Judaica near the top of the list of the major reference works of the 20th century”.
30 years of changes
The Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition will incorporate more than three decades of changes and the latest scholarship - such as new archaeological sites, theories and analytical methodologies.
It will feature original works by top scholars representing all major universities and centres of research in Jewish studies which will expand the scope and relevance of the first edition. According to Flynn, even more clarity and substance has been added through the substantial reworking of about 12,000 entries.
“The Holocaust segment alone features more than 50 entirely new articles,” Flynn said. In addition, all bibliographies were brought up-to-date.
“Nothing has been compromised for this second edition,” Flynn said. He told EJP that the Encyclopaedia will feature more than 22,000 signed entries on Jewish life, culture, history and religion, including 2,500 brand-new entries and some 11,000 updated entries across all topics. It will provide an exhaustive and organized overview of Jewish life and knowledge from the Second Temple period to the contemporary State of Israel, from Rabbinic to modern Yiddish literature. Kabbalah, Zionism, Jewish contributions to world cultures, gender issues and New World geographic areas of the United States, Canada and Latin America are dealt with in-depth.
Indexing and referencing
The new edition will also include extensive cross-referencing and a large subject index, place-name lists, lists of newspapers and periodicals. Each volume will also contain an eight-page, full-colour insert providing a thematic illustration of the many aspects of Jewish life and culture, a record of the physical development of the State of Israel - including more than 600 maps, charts and tables and entry-specific bibliographies.
Flynn put special emphasis the work of Michael Berenbaum. Berenbaum is the executive editor of the new Encyclopedia Judaica.
“He has worked hard to transform, improve, broaden and deepen the now classic 1972 work… comprising of some 25 volumes, five million words with 25,000 individual contributions to Jewish knowledge, Flynn said.
The former CEO of Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation is a writer, lecturer, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films.
He is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the University of Judaism where he is also an adjunct professor of theology. Prior to coming aboard the Encyclopedia Judaica, Berenbaum has published countess books and worked on several documentaries concerning Judaism and the Holocaust.
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