e-Text Collections
- The Sefaria Library Sefaria is a non-profit organization dedicated to building the future of Jewish learning in an open and participatory way. We are assembling a free living library of Jewish texts and their interconnections, in Hebrew and in translation. With these digital texts, we can create new, interactive interfaces for Web, tablet and mobile, allowing more people to engage with the textual treasures of our tradition.
- Internet Sacred Text Archive - Texts of Judaism This site is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.
- HebrewBooks.org Collection of Sefarim, Hebrew and Yiddish texts - Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books
- Digital Yiddish Library Comprehensive collection of Yiddish literature that includes works of fiction, memoirs, poetry, plays, short stories, science manuals, cookbooks, primers, and more.
Hebrew Literature - Anthologies
Hebrew Classics: a journey through Israel's timeless fiction and poetry by
In this book, Dvir Abramovich brings together a batch of timeless classical Hebrew novels, short stories, and poems, and furnishes readers with commentaries and critical readings of each landmark work. The selection of seminal texts include masterpieces from Yehuda Amichai, Haim Gouri, Amos Oz, Dvorah Baron, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Hanoch Bartov, Shulamit Hareven, and Aharon Megged. Each interpretative essay includes a bio-graphical overview of the author whose opus is explored. This collection will prove exceptionally useful for teachers who wish to introduce their students to the treasures of contemporary Israeli fiction and are searching for reflective analyses and searching insights. Guaranteed to ignite discussion and debate, this informative and entertaining volume, written in an accessible and lively style, will appeal to a general and academic audience and will tempt readers to read or re-read these great works.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2012
Nineteenth-Century Jewish Literature: a reader by
Recent scholarship has brought to light the existence of a dynamic world of specifically Jewish forms of literature in the nineteenth century--fiction by Jews, about Jews, and often designed largely for Jews. This volume makes this material accessible to English speakers for the first time, offering a selection of Jewish fiction from France, Great Britain, and the German-speaking world. The stories are remarkably varied, ranging from historical fiction to sentimental romance, to social satire, but they all engage with key dilemmas including assimilation, national allegiance, and the position of women. Offering unique insights into the hopes and fears of Jews experiencing the dramatic impact of modernity, the literature collected in this book will provide compelling reading for all those interested in modern Jewish history and culture, whether general readers, students, or scholars.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2013-05-01
Poets on the Edge: an anthology of contemporary Hebrew poetry by
Poets on the Edge introduces four decades of Israel s most vigorous poetic voices. Selected and translated by author Tsipi Keller, the collection showcases a generous sampling of work from twenty-seven established and emerging poets, bringing many to readers of English for the first time. Thematically and stylistically innovative, the poems chart the evolution of new currents in Hebrew poetry that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, in breaking from traditional structures of line, rhyme, and meter, have become as liberated as any contemporary American verse. Writing on politics, sexual identity, skepticism, intellectualism, community, country, love, fear, and death, these poets are daring, original, and direct, and their poems are matched by the freshness and precision of Keller s translations.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2008
Guides to Hebrew Literature
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- The Epic of Gilgamesh - from the Cambridge Companion to the Epic byLocation: OnlinePublication Date: 2010
From an Antique Land: an Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature by
Many of the world's first written records have been found in the area of the Ancient Near East, in what is today known as the Middle East. While many people are familiar with the ancient Israelite literature recorded in the Hebrew Bible, most Near Eastern literature remains a mystery. From an Antique Land lifts the veil from these fascinating writings, explaining the ancient stories in the context of their cultures. From the invention of writing through the conquest of Alexander the Great, expert scholars examine literature originally written in Egyptian, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Canaanite, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Each chapter includes an overview of the culture, a discussion of literary genres, and descriptions and short analyses of the major literary works. Photos of archaeological remains further illustrate these people and their writings.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2011
Hidden Riches: a Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East by
This study considers the historical, cultural, and literary significance of some of the most important Ancient Near East (ANE) texts that illuminate the Hebrew Bible. Christopher B. Hays provides primary texts from the Ancient Near East with a comparison to literature of the Hebrew Bible to demonstrate how Israel's Scriptures not only draw from these ancient contexts but also reshape them in a unique way. Hays offers a brief introduction to comparative studies, then lays out examples from various literary genres that shed light on particular biblical texts. Texts about ANE law collections, treaties, theological histories, prophecies, ritual texts, oracles, prayers, hymns, laments, edicts, and instructions are compared to corresponding literature in the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible. The book includes summaries to help instructors and students identify key points for comparison. By considering the literary and historical context of other literature, students will come away with a better understanding of the historical, literary, and theological depth of the Hebrew Bible.
Location: Theology Library Open Stacks BS1184 .H39 2014 and OnlinePublication Date: 2014
From Agnon to Oz : studies in modern Hebrew literature by
This volume is a collection of ten essays and seven reviews on modern Hebrew literature. Subjects include an analysis of a number of journal manifestoes, an interpretation of several poems on King Saul, an essay on Yehuda Amichai's early works, a piece on the image of the Arab in Hebrew literature, a note on the German literary background of the Agnon story, and changing structures in Amir Gilboa's Holocaust poetry. Reviews evaluate the work of A.B. Yehoshua, Avoth Yeshurun, and Amos Oz, among others. Three essays in Hebrew are appended for those who enjoy reading Hebrew.
Location: Mugar Stacks PJ5021 .B346 1996Publication Date: 1996
The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature by
For more than two hundred years, Jews have played important roles in the development of American literature. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature addresses a wide array of themes and approaches to the distinct yet multifaceted body of Jewish American literature. Essays examine writing from the 1700s to major contemporary writers such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Topics covered include literary history, immigration and acculturation, Yiddish and Hebrew literature, popular culture, women writers, literary theory and poetics, multilingualism, the Holocaust, and contemporary fiction. This collection of specially commissioned essays by leading figures discusses Jewish American literature in relation to ethnicity, religion, politics, race, gender, ideology, history, and ethics, and places it in the contexts of both Jewish and American writing. With its chronology and guides to further reading, this volume will prove valuable to scholars and students alike.
Location: Mugar Stacks PS153.J4 C36 2003Publication Date: 2003
Finding Articles
- BU Libraries Search This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of research material provided by the library. Resources covered by the search includes books and eBooks, journals, scores and sheet music, video and audio recordings, and other physical and electronic items held by the library. Coverage encompasses materials relating to the prehistoric and antique world through to the present.
- American Jewish Newspapers This link opens in a new window American Jewish Newspapers provides scanned, searchable articles from four 19th and 20th century newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922); The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990); The American Israelite (1854-2000); and Jewish Exponent (1887-1990). Rights for use by Boston University community supported by the Ted Kyrios Memorial Book Fund.
- Historical Jewish Press This site contains a collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. We display digital versions of each paper, making it possible to view the papers in their original layout. Full-text search is also available for all content published over the course of each newspaper’s publication.
Literature Databases
- Literature Online This link opens in a new window LION includes texts, criticism, and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries on over 350,000 works of poetry, prose, and drama from the 8th to the 21st century.
- Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window Contains critical and biographical essays on authors currently living or who died after Jan. 1, 2000. May be searched simultaneously with Contemporary Authors and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to the back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Book reviews are included as well as journal articles. Abstracts are available for some of the articles.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Project Muse provides digital access to scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences. The scholarly content comes from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies. The full text resources include journal articles, book reviews and book chapters.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Includes citations from worldwide publications: periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies.
Humanities/Social Science Databases
- ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window An index to journal articles, essays, and book reviews in the field of religion. Covers biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues.
- Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window Index to literature on Islam, the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes journal articless, conference proceedings, monographs, and book reviews.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new window Covers the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada from prehistory to present times; indexes journal articles, book titles and chapters, reviews from numerous multilingual sources; all abstracts in English.
Literary Biography
- Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.
- Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window Biography In Context offers biographical information about historically significant figures as well as present-day newsmakers. It includes reference content alongside magazine and journal articles, primary sources, videos, audio podcasts, and images.
- Literature Online This link opens in a new window LION includes texts, criticism, and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries on over 350,000 works of poetry, prose, and drama from the 8th to the 21st century.
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Literature and War: conversations with Israeli and Palestinian writers by
When confronting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, journalist Runo Isaksen found himself wondering: How can literature play a role in helping the one side see the other? To answer this question, he interviewed fifteen pre-eminent Israeli and Palestinian writers, asking them what role literature may play in creating dialogue, ending war, and building peace. The conversations that result are both deeply personal and deeply political, both reflective and urgent; they both complicate and clarify our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Location: Mugar Stacks DS119.76 .I7313 2009Publication Date: 2008
Diasporic Modernisms: Hebrew and Yiddish literature in the twentieth century by
Pairing the two concepts of diaspora and modernism, Allison Schachter formulates a novel approach to modernist studies and diasporic cultural production. Diasporic Modernisms illuminates how the relationships between migrant writers and dispersed readers were registered in the innovativepractices of modernist prose fiction. The Jewish writers discussed - including S. Y. Abramovitsh, Yosef Chaim Brenner, Dovid Bergelson, Leah Goldberg, Gabreil Preil, and Kadia Molodowsky - embraced diaspora as a formal literary strategy to reflect on the historical conditions of Jewish languageculture. Spanning from 1894 to 1974, the book traces the development of this diasporic aesthetic in the shifting centers of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, including Odessa, Jerusalem, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York. Through an analysis of Jewish writing, Schachter theorizes how modernist literarynetworks operate outside national borders in minor and non-national languages. Offering the first comparative literary history of Hebrew and Yiddish modernist prose, Diasporic Modernisms argues that these two literary histories can no longer be separated by nationalist and monolingual histories. Instead, the book illuminates how these literary languages continue to animateeach other, even after the creation of a Jewish state, with Hebrew as its national language.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2011
Dictionary of the Ancient Near East by
The earliest farms, cities, governments, legal codes, and alphabets developed in the ancient Near East. Four major religions--Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam--began in the region. Ideas, inventions, and institutions spread to all parts of the globe from the urban centers of the ancient Egyptians, Syrians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and other peoples of the biblical world. For good reason is the ancient Near East known as the cradle of civilization. The only single-volume dictionary to embrace the whole of the ancient Near East, this major reference work covers Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and the Arabian peninsula from the earliest times, through the Old Testament period, until the fall of Babylon to the Persians in 539 B.C. From "Achaemenids" to "Ziwiye," "administration" to "ziggurat," in 500 concise, cross-referenced, and comprehensively indexed entries, the Dictionary of the Ancient Near East describes and explains the major ideas, institutions, places, peoples, and personalities that shaped the earliest development of Western civilization. Architecture, literature, economics, labor, religion, and society are all extensively treated, as are such subjects as crime, dreams, drunkenness, shipwrecks, and sexual behavior (and misbehavior). Each entry, written by a scholar of international standing, includes up-to-date bibliographic references. The book is richly illustrated with photographs, maps, and plans of major sites. Contributors: Douglas Baird (Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Liverpool), Jeremy Black (University Lecturer in Akkadian, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Paul T. Collins (freelance lecturer in the Ancient Near East, London), Stephanie Dalley (Shillito Fellow in Assyriology, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Anthony Green (Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology, Free University of Berlin), Gwendolyn Leick (Lecturer in Anthropology, the American International University, London), Michael Macdonald (Research Fellow, Oriental Institute, Oxford University), Roger Matthews (Director, British Institute for Archaeology, Ankara), Gerald L. Mattingly (Lecturer, Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee), Graham Philip (Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Durham), Geoffrey Summers (Lecturer in Archaeology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara).
Location: Mugar Reference X DS56 .D5 2000Publication Date: 2000-03-02
Bibliographies
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Includes citations from worldwide publications: periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies.
- Oxford Bibliographies: Biblical Studies This link opens in a new window Oxford Bibliographies: Biblical Studies is guide to the current scholarship in the field, written and reviewed by academic experts, with original commentary and annotations. Covers a wide range of topic from archaeology, Egyptology, Assyriology, and linguistics through textual, historical, and sociological studies, to literary theory, feminist studies, philosophy, and theology.
- RAMBI – The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies RAMBI is a selective 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. RAMBI is based largely on the collections of the National Library. The articles listed in RAMBI are collected from thousands of journals, in print or electronic, from collections of articles and from offprints sent by researchers. RAMBI refers to articles in Hebrew, Latin or Cyrillic letters.
- Bibliography of the Hebrew Book The Bibliography of Hebrew Book includes a bibliography of the Israeli National: Registration and detailed description of all Jewish literature printed in Hebrew characters, for all types and in all languages. Bibliography includes most of the books, pamphlets and magazines printed in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic, Jewish and other Jewish languages, which are in collections in Israel and abroad, early printed Hebrew printing press (or so in 1460) to 1960.
Judaica Reference Sources : a selective, annotated bibliographic guide by
A recipient of the Outstanding Reference Award from the Association of Jewish Librarians in its earlier edition, this updated edition of Judaica Reference Sources maintains its editorial excellence while revising and expanding coverage for the new century. Virtually every aspect of Jewish life, knowledge, history, culture, religion, and contemporary issues is covered in this annotated, bibliographic guide. A critical collection development tool for college, university, public school, and synagogue libraries, Judaica Reference Sources provides entries for over 1,000 reference works, as well as a selective list of related Web sites, in English, French, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.Works published since 1970 are emphasized. Unique in providing expert guidance to Judaica material for the librarian, the layperson, the student, and the researcher, this reference guide is a versatile tool that will fulfill your every need for Judaica material.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2004
