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Research in Jewish Studies: Getting Started: General Resources

Getting Started: General Resources

How to Search Materials in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Other Jewish Languages in Quicksearch

Except for microforms and some digitized items, nearly all materials in Hebrew, Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, and other Jewish languages can be searched by typing your keywords and queries in Hebrew characters into the search bar of Quicksearch and all other Yale University Library search engines.

If you are looking for microforms and digitizations of Hebraic items in Yale collections, best contact the Joseph and Ceil Mazer Librarian for Judaic Studies or try follow the Romanization rules of the Library of Congress as indicated in this chart.

☞  You can learn about searching  Quicksearch and general research strategies here.

Roth, Cecil, and Wigoder, Geoffrey, eds. Encyclopaedia Judaica. 16 vols. Jerusalem: Encyclopaedia Judaica. [Keter Publishing House, 1971–1972.]

Finding Articles on Jewish Studies with RAMBI

If you want to do a comprehensive search for scholarly Jewish studies articles published globally in periodicals, books, conference proceedings, Festschriften, et cetera in multiple languages, you have to go to:

RAMBI—The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies, a selective but rather comprehensive bibliography of academic articles covering all of the fields of Jewish studies as well as the study of Eretz Israel and the State of Israel. It generally covers the time between 1966 and the present. It is hosted by the National Library of Israel and updated daily.

☞ RAMBI can be searched in Hebrew and Latin characters with a Hebrew or English interface.

Look for a globe A white circle with a dog head in it

Description automatically generated at the top of the page to change the interface language.

If you click on the subject headings below (as listed in RAMBI) you are directed to the RAMBI record of the newest article(s) within the respective Jewish studies subject area that is indexed by RAMBI.

☞ Contact the Joseph and Ceil Mazer Librarian for Judaic Studies for any questions concerning RAMBI or a personal tutorial. 

More Useful Jewish Studies-Related Catalogs Beyond Yale

More Useful Jewish Studies-Related Catalogs Beyond Yale

Shlomo Shunami's Bibliography of Jewish Bibliographies

Different editions of Shlomo Shunami's Bibliography of Jewish Bibliographiespublished between 1936 and 1969 by Magnes Press in Jerusalem. For advanced research, the Bibliography of Jewish Bibliographies is still very useful. 

Finding Annotated Bibliographies on Specific Topics in Jewish Studies

 

Jewish Studies—Oxford Bibliographies offers you annotated bibliographies created by experts on over 225 specific topics in Jewish studies, such as Buczacz, Emancipation, Ethiopian Jews, Israeli Film, Queer Jewish Texts in the Americas, Women and Gender Relations, Yiddish Avant-garde Theater and much, much more…

Even if you cannot find a bibliography on the exact topic in which you are interested, you will probably find one related to this topic. It is always worthwhile to search in Jewish Studies—Oxford Bibliographies.

Judaic Studies Reading and Reference Room, 335B Sterling Memorial Library 

Finding Articles on Jewish Studies via the Yale Catalog Search Engines

You can search for scholarly, newspaper, and magazine articles as well as e-encyclopedia entries and e-book chapters via Quicksearch or Articles+ . These search engines perform a combined search through all the databases connected to the Yale University Library catalog.

You can also compartmentalize your searches and go through specific databases or browse through single journals. Important for Jewish studies are:

  • Index to Jewish Periodicals provides a comprehensive index to English language articles, book reviews, and feature stories devoted to Jewish studies.  As of 2023, around 200 periodicals are covered from 1888 to the present (annually updated).
  • ATLA Religion Database is a comprehensive database designed to support religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research. The database contains citations from international titles and 13,000 multi-author works in and related to the field of religion.
  • JSTOR Jewish Studies comprises 58 Journals, 25 among them in Hebrew.   The more recent issues of some periodicals in JSTOR, among them Tarbiz and Zion, are behind a “Moving Wall,” this means, they are not accessible online, and you either have to browse through them in the Periodical Reading Room of the Sterling Memorial Library or order a scan of a specific article by going through their respective Yale Library catalog record; four of these are linked here:
  • Bet Miḳra
  • Tarbiz
  • Zion
  • Zmanim

Please remember that not everything is online or connected to the Yale catalog. In order to systematically discover Jewish studies articles and book chapters beyond Quicksearch or Articles+ and the Yale connected databases, you have to consult other online and printed resources. The most important online resource is  RAMBI—The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies, which is described to the left of this box.

Academic Encyclopedias Dedicated to Jewish Studies

Please connect to Yale VPN if you are off campus in order to browse through the sources linked below.

It is always smart to consult academic encyclopedias at the beginning and during your research since their articles are written by experts in the field, and they provide you with a short bibliography on the topic at the end of each entry. Depending on the publication date of the encyclopedia, the bibliography is usually not up to date. Moreover, the language in some entries and the presentation of some topics can be outdated and sometimes even offensive.  Yet, thoughtfully used, encyclopedias, are often of great help.

Comprehensive English encyclopedias on Jewish cultures and histories:

You can find more Jewish studies encyclopedias and dictionaries of all sizes in print and online if you click on the following subject headings:

You can also browse through many print editions of reference works in the Judaic Studies Reading and Reference Room at Sterling.

Jewish Periodicals and Newspapers

Good sites to discover (digitized) Jewish (historical) periodicals are:

WorldCat: Discover a World of Tangible and Digital Texts Beyond Yale

Yale University Library provides you with access to more than 14 million tangible and digital items, but it does not hold everything. 

The interface of WorldCat that you can access through Yale’s subscription is a fantastic and under-used tool, which allows you to discover materials beyond Yale Library.

WorldCat not only allows you to search materials held in more than 10,000 academic, public, special, and national libraries around the world but also to search very precisely through digital texts platforms, such as:

…. and much, much more…

You can search most of the listed digital platforms via WorldCat much easier and more precisely than through the interface of the platforms themselves.

Materials that are held by Yale University Library are marked with this icon A green letter on a blue background

Description automatically generated in WorldCat.

☞ Order materials that are not held by Yale University Library via BorrowDirect or Interlibrary Loan (ILL). 

☞ Contact the Joseph and Ceil Mazer Librarian for Judaic Studies for any questions concerning WorldCat or a personal tutorial.