Librarian for Jewish and Israel Studies
Research Assistance
Research assistance in the social sciences and humanities is available at the Charles E. Young Research Library. See Reference and Research Help for complete reference service options.
Language Dictionaries
Below is a selection of dictionaries useful for use in Jewish Studies.
Aramaic
- Jewish-Palestinian Aramaic of Byzantine period
- Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods
Hebrew
- Webster's New World Hebrew dictionary / Hayim Baltsan
- Harduf's transliterated English-Hebrew dictionary
- The dictionary of classical Hebrew / David J.A. Clines, editor.
- New American standard exhaustive concordance of the Bible: [including] Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries
- Milon la-ʻArvit ha-Yehudit ha-ḥadashah
Ladino
- Diccionario básico ladino-español / por Pascual Pascual Recuero
- Dizionario ladino fassano (cazét)-italiano : con indice italiano-ladino / Massimiliano Mazzel
- Diksyonaryo Judeo Espanyol-Turko = Ladino-Türkçe sözlük / Klara Perahya & Karen Gerson Şarhon, ed.
- Sephardic folk dictionary: English to Ladino, Ladino to English
Yiddish
Dictionaries
The dictionaries, encyclopedias, and resources below are in pdf, print or web-based format. Some are freely available and some are only open to current members of the UCLA community, which will require access via a VPN or proxy server for off-campus use.
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Includes the complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. plus quarterly updates of new and revised entries. Trace the origin and history of words and their meanings in this etymological dictionary.
Encyclopedias
- 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Research The Encyclopedia aims to offer a comprehensive introduction to scholarly research in Second Temple Judaism (or from the Babylonian Exile to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt). It includes biographies of Scholars and Authors as well as abstracts of scholarly and fictional Works on the period, from the 16th century to the present...The Encyclopedia aims to offer a comprehensive introduction to scholarly research in Second Temple Judaism (or from the Babylonian Exile to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt). It includes biographies of Scholars and Authors as well as abstracts of scholarly and fictional Works on the period, from the 16th century to the present...
- Gale E-Books (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
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Online encyclopedias, dictionaries, and specialized reference sources, primarily in the social sciences and humanities.
- Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical EncyclopediaFreely available online encyclopedia from the Jewish Women's Archive, including thousands of entries and bibliographies.
Historical Dictionary of Zionism by Call Number: DS149 .M375 2008 YRL Reference Reading RoomISBN: 9780810859586Date: 2008
Bibliographies
Manuscript Collections
- Digitized Manuscripts, National Library of IsraelDigitized manuscripts from the collection of the National Library of Israel and other collections, including the Bible, Ketubbot, Talmudic Literature, Liturgy, writings of various persons, etc.
- Friedberg Genizah ProjectThe Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP) was established to facilitate and rejuvenate Genizah research. It is achieving this goal by locating the Genizah manuscripts and then identifying, cataloging, transcribing, translating, rendering them into digital format (i.e., photographing) and publishing them online. FGP is operating in a joint venture with the Jewish Manuscript Preservation Society of Toronto, Canada.
- GOLD Geniza On-line Database, Cambridge University LibraryThe GOLD databases contain a selection of Genizah material. The material includes cataloguing, bibliographical details, and digital images of fragments
- The Great Isaiah ScrollView a high-resolution digital surrogate of the Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1Qlsaa)
- GBBJ Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism"The object of the project is to gather together textual evidence for the use of Greek Bible translations by Jews in the Middle Ages and to produce a corpus in digital and print form. .."
- Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new windowFinding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California.
- Princeton University Geniza ProjectInitiated in the mid-1980s, the Computer Geniza Project of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University seeks to extend the methodologies available to Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic scholars working with the documents found in the Geniza chamber of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo in the late 19th century.
- PUSHD Princeton University Sefer Hasidim DatabaseFree with registration
- Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research UnitThe Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection is a window on the medieval world of the Mediterranean area. Its 140,000 manuscripts fragments, mainly in Hebrew and Arabic, shed light on the mundane as well as the religious and cultural activities of that world...
Romanization Tables
Click the links below to see Library of Congress Romanization tables, which you will need in order to locate UCLA Library holdings:
Additional Reference Works
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
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Full-text access to the complete 250-plus volumes of Cambridge Histories reference series. Provides political, economic, and social history, philosophy, and literature of selected countries and subjects. Continually updated with new volumes taken from the print series as soon as they become available.
- Ḳiryat sefer : rivʻon bibliyografi shel Bet ha-sefarim ha-leʾumi ṿeha-universiṭaʾi bi-Yerushalayim.Israel National Bibliography
- Kiryat sefer - National Bibliography of Israel Database"Kiryat Sefer" – the national bibliography of the State of Israel and the Jewish people – was founded in 1925. The purpose of the national bibliography is to document all publications published in Israel in all fields and languages that are deposited at the National Library. In 1953 legal deposits began to be mandated by law. The law included print materials only, and in 2001 was expanded to include non-print and non-book materials.
Kiryat Sefer also includes publications in all languagues, from all countries, that pertain to Judaism and Israel, and that are purchased by the Library.
Until the year 2003, the bibliography was availabe only as a print journal, sold exclusively to subscribers. Since that year, the material is available online, free of charge and accessible to everyone, and is updated daily. - Newspaper MapCurrent and historical newspapers in various languages. Zoom into the region of your choice on the map or search by title, language or location.
- Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies
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- Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls
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- Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies
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- Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies
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- Reader's Guide to Judaism
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