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
  • Organizations and other libraries