Encyclopedia of Judaism, Second Edition explores a religion with a 2,000-year recorded history that has been a part of the culture of almost every country around the globe. Encapsulating Jewish language, laws, literature, arts, theology, ritual, land, culture, and personalities, this authoritative volume offers readers access to Judaism from both a historical and contemporary perspective.

Table of Contents

• About the Editors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Transliteration
• Introduction
• Chronology
• 0-9
• 614th Commandment
• A
• Aaron
• abortion and Judaism
• Abravanel, Isaac ben Judah
• accommodation and Judaism
• Adler, Cyrus
• Adolf Hitler’s treatment of Jews
• afikomen
• aggadah
• agunah
• Ahad Ha’am
• Air France hijacking at Entebbe
• Akedah
• Akiva ben Yoseph
• Alexander II
• aliyah
• Alliance Israélite Universelle
• am ha-aretz
• Amalek
• amen in Judaism
• American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
• American Jewish Committee (AJC)
• American Jewish Congress (AJC)
• American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS)
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
• Americanization and Jews
• Amichai, Yehuda
• Amidah
• amoraim
• ancient synagogues
• Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• anti-Judaism
• Antiochus IV Epiphanes
• antisemitism in the modern world
• Apocrypha
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Aramaic language
• Arendt, Hannah
• ark
• Ashkenazim
• assimilation and Judaism
• Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies (AJFCA)
• Assyrians and Judaism
• aufruf
• Auschwitz
• B
• Baal
• Baal Shem Tov
• baal teshuvah
• Babylonia
• Baeck, Leo
• Balfour Declaration
• bar/bat mitzvah
• Bar Ilan University
• Bar Kokhba
• baraita
• Barak, Ehud
• Beame, Abraham
• Begin, Menachem
• Bellow, Saul
• ben Abuya, Elisha
• Ben-Gurion, David
• Ben-Yehudah, Eliezer
• Ben Yehudah Street
• ben Zakkai, Yohanan
• Benjamin, Judah P.
• Benjamin, Walter
• Berlin, Irving
• Bernstein, Leonard
• Beruriah
• bet din
• Bialik, Chaim Nachman
• biblical Hebrew
• Birkat Ha-Mazon
• black-Jewish relations
• blood libel
• B’nai B’rith International
• book of Job
• Book of Life
• Borscht Belt
• bracha
• Brandeis, Louis
• Brandeis University
• British Mandate for Palestine
• Bronfman Foundation
• Buber, Martin
• Bund
• burning bush
• C
• Camp David accords
• Canaan
• candles in Jewish ritual life
• cantor
• Cardozo, Benjamin
• Caro, Joseph ben-Ephraim
• cave of Machpelah
• Chabad
• Chafetz Chaim
• Chagall, Marc
• chai
• chametz
• Chanukah
• chavurah
• cherubim
• Chmielnicki Massacres
• Chosen People
• Christian and Jewish views of the “suffering servant”
• Christian-Jewish relations
• Christianity and Judaism
• chuppah
• chutzpah
• circumcision
• CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
• Code of Hammurabi
• codes of law in Judaism
• Cohen, Hermann
• Commentary
• communism and Judaism
• concentration camps
• concept of Messiah in Judaism
• concept of the soul in Judaism
• confession in Judaism
• confirmation in Judaism
• consecration in Judaism
• Conservative Judaism
• conversion to Judaism
• conversos
• Cordovero, Moses
• counting of the omer
• court Jews
• covenants in Judaism
• creation concepts in Judaism
• Cresques, Abraham
• Cyrus the Great and Judaism
• D
• Damascus Affair
• daughters of Zelophehad
• David
• Dayan, Moshe
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Deborah
• Dershowitz, Alan M.
• Dessler, Elijah Eliezer
• Deuteronomic history
• Diaspora Museum
• Dinah
• disputations
• Disraeli, Benjamin
• divination
• divorce and Judaism
• Doctorow, E. L.
• Dov Baer of Lubavitch
• drash
• dreidel
• Dreyfus Affair
• Dubinsky, David
• Dubnow, Simon
• dvar Torah
• dybbuk
• E
• Eban, Abba
• egalitarianism and Judaism
• Eichmann, Adolf
• Eichmann trial
• Einhorn, David
• Einsatzgruppen
• Einstein, Albert
• Elephantine
• Elijah
• Ellis Island
• emancipation of European Jews
• epikoris
• Eretz Yisrael
• eruv
• eschatology and Judaism
• Eshkol, Levi
• Essenes
• Esther
• eternal light
• Ethics of the Fathers
• the “evil eye” in Jewish folklore
• exegesis in Judaism
• exilarch
• exile in Judaism
• Exodus
• expulsion in Judaism
• Ezekiel
• Ezra
• F
• Fackenheim, Emil
• faith in Judaism
• family in Judaism
• fear of the eye in Jewish law
• Feinstein, Dianne
• Feinstein, Moshe
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Final Solution
• Finkelstein, Louis
• Five Disciples of Yochanan ben Zakkai
• Frank, Anne
• Frank, Leo
• Frankel, Zachariah
• Freud, Sigmund
• Friedan, Betty
• Friedman, Thomas L.
• G
• Galveston Plan
• Garden of Eden
• Gehinnom
• Geiger, Abraham
• Gemara
• gematria
• gemilut chasadim
• genizah
• Gentiles
• geonim
• get
• Ginsberg, Allen
• Ginsburg, Ruth Bader
• Giving of the Torah
• Glueckel of Hameln
• goat of Azazel
• Gog and Magog
• golden calf
• golem
• Gompers, Samuel
• Goshen
• Graetz, Heinrich
• Gratz College
• Gratz, Rebecca
• Great Synagogue
• Greenberg, Hank
• grogger
• Guggenheim family
• Gush Emunim
• Gush Etzion
• H
• Habakkuk
• Hadassah
• haftarah
• Haganah
• Haggadah
• Haifa
• Haifa University
• halakhah
• halitzah
• Hallel
• halutzim
• hamsa
• hanukkiyah
• Hasidism
• Haskalah
• “Hatikvah”
• havdalah
• Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
• Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Heine, Heinrich
• Hellenism and Judaism
• herem
• heresy in Judaism
• hermeneutics in Judaism
• Herod I the Great
• Hertz, Joseph
• Herzl, Theodor
• Herzog, Isaac
• Heschel, Abraham Joshua
• Heschel, Susannah
• Hibbat Zion/Hovevei Zion
• high priest
• Hillel
• Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
• Hirsch, Baron Maurice de
• Hirsch, Samson Raphael
• Histadrut
• Holdheim, Samuel
• Holocaust
• Holocaust reparations
• Holocaust revisionists
• Holy of Holies
• holy places in Judaism
• homiletics in Judaism
• homosexuality and Judaism
• honoring parents in Judaism
• Hoshanah Rabbah
• hospitality in Judaism
• Humanistic Judaism
• humility in Judaism
• humor in Judaism
• I
• Ibn Ezra, Abraham
• idolatry in Judaism
• Industrial Removal Office (IRO)
• intifadas
• Irgun Zeva’i Leumi
• Irving and Blu Greenberg
• Isaiah
• Islam and Judaism
• Israel
• Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
• Israel and the Palestinian Authority
• Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
• Israeli flag
• Israeli War of Independence
• Israelites
• Isserles, Moses ben Israel
• J
• Jabotinsky, Ze’ev
• Jacob’s Ladder
• Jerusalem
• Jerusalem Post
• Jesus of Nazareth and Judaism
• Jethro
• Jewish Agency
• Jewish artists in vaudeville
• Jewish calendar
• Jewish Community Center Association (JCC)
• Jewish Daily Forward
• Jewish day school movement
• Jewish diaspora
• Jewish fast days
• Jewish ghettos in Europe
• Jewish identity
• Jewish immigrants on New York’s Lower East Side
• Jewish life cycle
• Jewish Museum
• Jewish peoplehood
• Jewish pilgrimage festivals
• Jewish Publication Society (JPS)
• Jewish Renewal
• Jewish summer camps
• Jewish supplementary schools
• (Jewish) Temple
• Jewish tenement history
• Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS)
• Jewish widows and orphans
• Jewish youth groups
• Jews
• Jews and Christian passion plays
• Jews and intermarriage
• Jews and the Bolshevik Revolution
• Jews and the Enlightenment
• Jews for Jesus
• Jews in Argentina
• Jews in Austria
• Jews in Brazil
• Jews in Canada
• Jews in China
• Jews in Denmark
• Jews in Egypt
• Jews in Ethiopia
• Jews in France
• Jews in Germany
• Jews in Hungary
• Jews in India
• Jews in Iran
• Jews in Iraq
• Jews in Japan
• Jews in Palestine
• Jews in Poland
• Jews in Portugal
• Jews in Romania
• Jews in Russia
• Jews in South Africa
• Jews in Spain
• Jews in the American entertainment industry
• Jews in the Netherlands
• Jews in the United States
• Jonathan Pollard and U.S.-Israeli espionage
• Joseph (son of Jacob)
• Josephus, Flavius
• JUBU (Jewish Buddhist)
• Judah
• Judah ha-Levi
• Judah ha-Nasi
• Judaism in England
• Judaism in Persia
• Judaism in the Roman Empire
• Judea and Samaria
• Judenrat
• justice in Judaism
• K
• kabbalah
• Kabbalat Shabbat
• Kaddish
• kaha or kehillah
• Kahane, Meir
• Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem
• kapparah
• Karaites
• Karl Marx and religion
• kashrut
• kavanah
• kedushah
• ketubah
• Ketuvim
• kibbutz
• kiddush cup
• kippah
• Kissinger, Henry
• kittel
• Knesset
• kohanim
• Kol Nidre
• Kook, Abraham Isaac Ha-Kohen
• Kotel
• Kotsker Rebbe
• Koufax, Sandy
• Kristallnacht
• Kushner, Harold
• L
• Labor Party of Israel
• Ladino
• Lag b’Omer
• lamedvovnik
• Lamentations
• Landsmanschaften
• language, Akkadian
• Lantos, Tom
• lashon hara
• Law of Return
• Lazarus, Emma
• Lebanon War
• Leeser, Isaac
• Leibowitz, Nechama
• Leibowitz, Yeshayahu
• lesbianism and Judaism
• Levi, Asser
• Levi ben Gershom
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude
• Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev
• Leviathan
• Levites
• Lieberman, Joseph
• Lieberman, Saul
• Likud
• Lilith
• Lilith magazine
• Lion of Judah
• Lipstadt, Deborah
• L’kha Dodi
• Luria, Isaac
• Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim
• M
• Ma’ariv
• Maccabees
• Machzor
• Magnes, Judah
• Maharal of Prague
• Mailer, Norman
• Maimonides
• malakhim
• Malamud, Bernard
• Malbim
• Mamet, David
• mamzer
• manna
• Mapah
• marriage and Judaism
• Marshall, Louis
• Marx Brothers
• Masada
• mashgiach
• maskilim
• Masorti movement
• Matriarchs
• matzah
• mazel tov
• Mazon
• Mea Shearim
• mechitza
• Megillot
• Meir, Golda
• Meiri, Menachem ben Solomon
• Mendelssohn, Moses
• Mengele, Josef
• menorah
• menschlikeit
• mercy in Judaism
• Merkabah
• Messianic Age
• Messianic Jews
• mezuzah
• Mi Sheberakh
• midrash
• mikvah
• Miller, Arthur
• minhag
• minyan
• Miriam
• Mishkan
• mishloach manot
• Mishnah
• Mishneh Torah
• Mitnagdim
• mitzvah
• Mizrachi movement
• Mizrahi, Isaac
• Moabites
• Modern Hebrew
• Modern Orthodox movement
• modernity and Judaism
• modesty and Judaism
• Moment
• monotheism in Judaism
• Montefiore, Moses
• Morais, Sabato
• Moses
• Moses de León
• moshav
• Mossad
• Mount of Olives
• Mount Sinai
• Mount Sinai Hospital
• mourning in Judaism
• Muhammad and Judaism
• muktzeh
• Museum of Jewish Heritage
• Museum of Tolerance
• Muslim-Jewish relations
• mysticism in Judaism
• N
• Nachmanides
• names of God in Judaism
• Naomi
• Napoleon’s Sanhedrin
• nasi
• National Religious Party
• Nazi genocide
• Nehemiah
• Neo-Orthodox movement
• Netanyahu, Benjamin
• netillat yadayim
• Neusner, Jacob
• Nevi’im
• New Israel Fund
• New Testament
• Nimoy, Leonard
• Noah
• Noar Hadash
• Normative Judaism
• North American Federation of Temple Youth
• Nudel, Ida
• Nuremberg laws
• Nuremberg Trials
• O
• ohr la-goyim
• olam ha-bah
• Old City of Jerusalem
• omnipotence of God
• omniscience of God
• Onkelos
• Operation Magic Carpet
• Oral Law in Judaism
• ORT
• Orthodox Judaism
• Oz, Amos
• Ozick, Cynthia
• P
• Pale of Settlement
• Palestine Partition Plan
• Palmach
• parsha
• Passover
• patriarchs (biblical)
• Paul the Apostle, Saint
• payis
• Peace Now
• Peres, Shimon
• Perlman, Yitzhak
• Peter Stuyvesant and Jewish colonists in New Amsterdam
• pharaoh
• Pharisees
• Philo of Alexandria
• philosophy and Judaism
• pidyon ha-ben
• Pinsker, Yehudah Lev
• Pittsburgh Platform
• pluralism and Judaism
• pogrom
• Positive-Historical School
• Potok, Chaim
• Prager, Dennis
• prayer in Judaism
• Priesand, Sally
• priestly blessing in Judaism
• prophecy in Judaism
• Protocols of the Elders of Zion
• pshat
• Pumbedita
• Purim
• R
• Rabbenu Tam
• rabbi
• rabbinic law
• Rabin, Yitzhak
• rainbow symbolism in Judaism
• Rapoport, Solomon
• Rashbam
• Rashi
• Reconstructionist Judaism
• Red Heifer
• redemption in Judaism
• Reform Judaism
• refuseniks
• reincarnation in Judaism
• Resnick, Judith
• responsa
• resurrection in Judaism
• revelation in Judaism
• reward and punishment in Judaism
• Rosenzweig, Franz
• Rosh Hashanah
• Rosh Hodesh
• Roth, Aaron
• Roth, Henry
• Roth, Philip
• Rothschild, Edmond James de
• Rubenstein, Richard L.
• Ruth
• S
• Saadia Gaon
• Sabbatical Year
• sacred space in Jewish history
• sacred time in Judaism
• sacrifice in Judaism
• Sadat, Anwar
• Sadducees
• Safed
• Salanter, Israel
• Salk, Jonas
• Samael
• Samaritans
• Sanhedrin
• Sarna, Jonathan
• Satan’s role in Judaism
• Saul
• Schechter, Solomon
• Schiff, Jacob
• Schindler, Oskar
• Schneerson, Menachem Mendel
• Scholem, Gershom
• Schulweis, Harold
• secularism and Judaism
• seder
• Sefer Yetsirah
• sefirot
• Seinfeld, Jerry
• selichot
• semikha
• Senesh, Hannah
• Sephardim
• Septuagint
• shaatnez
• Shabbat
• Shabbatai Zvi
• shalom bayit
• Shamir, Yitzhak
• Shammai
• Sharansky, Natan
• Sharett, Moshe
• Sharon, Ariel
• Shatner, William
• Shavuot
• sheitel
• shekel
• Shema
• Shemini Atzeret
• Sheol
• Sheva Brachot
• Shiva
• shofar
• Sholom Aleichem
• shtetl
• shuckling
• Shulchan Arukh
• Shylock
• siddur
• Siegel, Danny
• Simchat Bat
• Simchat Torah
• sin and repentance in Judaism
• Singer, Isaac Bashevis
• Six-Day War
• slavery and Judaism
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• sofer
• Sofer, Moses
• Solomon
• Soloveitchik, Joseph
• Song of Songs
• Spiegelman, Art
• Spielberg, Steven
• Spinoza, Baruch
• Spitz, Mark
• SS St. Louis
• Star of David
• Stein, Edith
• Steinberg, Milton
• Steinem, Gloria
• Steinhardt Foundation
• Stern College
• Stern, Isaac
• streimel
• Streisand, Barbra
• Sukkot
• Sura
• swastika
• sweatshops in the United States and Jewish immigrants
• synagogue
• syncretism
• Szold, Henrietta
• T
• taharat ha-mishpacha
• tallit
• Talmud
• Tanakh
• tannaim
• Tashlich
• Technion
• tefillin
• Tehillim
• Tel Aviv
• Ten Commandments
• Ten Lost Tribes
• Ten Martyrs
• Ten Plagues
• Terezín
• teshuvah
• Tetragrammaton
• theodicy and Judaism
• tichel
• tikkun olam
• Tisha B’Av
• tithing and Judaism
• Titus
• Torah
• Torah mi-Sinai
• Tosafot
• Tosefta
• traditional Judaism
• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
• trope
• Trotsky, Leon
• Truman, Harry S.
• Tu B’Shevat
• tzaddik
• tzedakah
• tzedakah box
• Tzipporah
• tzitzit
• U
• Uganda and Judaism
• Ugaritic
• United Jewish Communities
• United Nations and Israel
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• University of Judaism
• Uris, Leon
• ushpizin
• usury and Judaism
• V
• Vilna Gaon
• visiting the sick as a Jewish commandment
• vows in Judaism
• W
• Wallenberg, Raoul
• wandering in the desert
• wandering Jew
• Wannsee Conference
• Warsaw Ghetto
• Weizmann, Chaim
• Wexner Foundation
• White Paper of 1939
• Wiesel, Elie
• Wiesenthal Center
• wisdom literature
• Wise, Isaac Mayer
• wise men of Chelm
• Wise, Stephen S.
• Wissenschaft des Judentums
• Workmen’s Circle
• World Zionist Congress
• Wouk, Herman
• Written Law of Judaism
• Y
• Yad VaShem
• yahrzeit
• Yavneh
• Yehudah and Chaim Ibn Atar
• yellow star
• yeshiva
• Yeshiva University
• yetzer ha-tov/yetzer ha-rah
• Yiddish
• yishuv
• Yizkor
• Yom ha-Atzma’ut
• Yom ha-Shoah
• Yom ha-Zikaron
• Yom Kippur
• Yom Kippur War
• Yom Yerushalayim
• Z
• Zangwill, Israel
• Zealots
• Zionism
• Zionist youth movements
• Zohar
• Zoroastrianism
• Zunz, Leopold
• Support Materials