Jewish Studies + Interfaith
Welcome!
Click each tab below for resources in religious studies, as well as information to assist you as a graduate student. For more resources, check out our other Research Guides here.
- Articles + More
- Books + eBooks
- Useful Sites
- ETDs
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Citations + Citation Managers
- Social Media
- Hebrew + Yiddish
Articles + More
Subscription Journals in Jewish Studies and Interfaith
- AJS Review Scholarly journal of the Association for Jewish Studies. Electronic coverage from 1976
- American Jewish History American Jewish History is an academic journal and the official publication of the American Jewish Historical Society. The journal was established in 1892 and focuses on all aspects of the history of Jews in the United States.
- Jewish Quarterly Review The Jewish Quarterly Review is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Jewish studies. It is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Religious Education* is the journal of the Religious Education Association: An Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education, offers an interfaith forum for exploring religious identity, formation, and education in faith communities, academic disciplines and institutions, and public life and the global community.
- * Please contact librarian for password.
News and Current Events
*See "Subscription Databases" below for access to JE from 1887-1990
Open Access Journals in Jewish Studies and Interfaith
- Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to original scholarship that illuminates any and all aspects of the Canadian Jewish experience. Published annually since 1993 and bi-annually since 2019
- Judaica is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 2019 covering all areas of Jewish studies from antiquity to the modern era.
- Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies
Melilah is an interdisciplinary Open Access journal available in both electronic and printed form and concerned with Jewish law, history, literature, religion, culture and thought in the ancient, medieval and modern eras.
- Women in Judaism: a multidisciplinary e-journal
WOMEN IN JUDAISM: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY e-JOURNAL is an academic, refereed journal published exclusively on the Internet, and devoted to scholarly debate on gender-related issues in Judaism. The ultimate aim of the journal is to promote the reconceptualization of the study of Judaism, by acknowledging and incorporating the roles played by women, and by encouraging the development of alternative research paradigms. Cross-methodological and interdisciplinary, the journal does not promote a fixed ideology, and welcomes a variety of approaches.
- Shaanan
Hebrew open access of Journal devoted to issues of education, Judaism and society, published by Israeli College for Education, Shaanan.
- Metatron (open-access journal)
An open-access, peer-reviewed journal of modern philology and the ancient imagination offering new vistas on the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Named after the mediating angel of Jewish mysticism, it is designed to open cutting-edge research to a broad intellectual community.
- Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas
Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas is a quarterly print and digital journal of longform essays that promote informed conversations and thoughtful disagreement.
Subscription Databases
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A popular resource found in many scholarly settings worldwide, Academic Search Premier is a leading multidisciplinary research database. It provides acclaimed full-text journals, magazines and other valuable resources. More than 3,100 active full-text journals and magazines. Nearly 2,800 active full-text peer-reviewed journals
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- ACLS Humanities eBooks
- ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) is a digital collection of over 5,400 seminal books in the humanities and related social sciences. These titles are presented in collaboration with more than 120 publishers and Michigan Publishing. Includes select volumes of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry
- Bar Ilan Responsa Project
- An electronic collection of Torah texts, compiled and made searchable by Bar-Ilan University. It includes the Hebrew Bible, various commentaries, and Medieval through twentieth century Responsa.
- Education Source
- Designed to meet the needs of education students, professionals and policy makers. The collection provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,850 academic periodicals and includes full text for more than 1,800 journals, 550 books and monographs, education-related conference papers, citations for over 4 million articles including book reviews and over 100,000 controlled and cross-referenced names of educational tests. Coverage in Education Source spans all levels of education from early childhood to higher education and also includes educational specialties such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
- Encyclopedia Judaica
- Provides an exhaustive and organized overview of Jewish life and knowledge from the Second Temple period to the contemporary State of Israel, from Rabbinic to modern Yiddish literature, from Kabbalah to "Americana" and from Zionism to the contribution of Jews to world cultures, Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition is important to scholars, general readers and students. (CONTACT LIBRARIAN FOR ACCESS)
- HeinOnline
- HeinOnline is a premier online database containing more than 186 million pages and 287,000 titles of historical and government documents and provides comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,800 law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S.
- Jewish Exponent (1887-1990)
- The Jewish Exponent is a weekly community newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the second-oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States. Digital access provided by ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- JSTOR
- Includes Jewish Studies Archive with full-text to over 50 journals. Jstor also has a number of open access journals. Click here to access the Jewish Studies journals directly.
- Project MUSE Social Sciences Collection
- Project MUSE hosts both current and archival content from several hundred peer-reviewed journals across a large range
of subjects within the social sciences, including education, leadership and management, human rights, international affairs, and religious and ethnic studies.
- Project MUSE hosts both current and archival content from several hundred peer-reviewed journals across a large range
- ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global
- PQDT Global offers millions of works from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
- Teacher Reference Center
- Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for 280 of the most popular teacher and administrator journals and magazines to assist professional educators.
- U.S. Jewish Newspaper Collection
- Historical coverage of regional, national, and international Jewish news and interests, the newspaper titles in this collection support in-depth research from a unique perspective. This collection includes:
- The American Hebrew and Jewish Messenger (1857–1922)
- The American Israelite (1854–2000)
- The American Hebrew and Jewish Messenger (1857–1922)
- The Jewish Advocate (1905–1990)
- The Jewish Exponent (1887–1990)
- Historical coverage of regional, national, and international Jewish news and interests, the newspaper titles in this collection support in-depth research from a unique perspective. This collection includes:
Other Databases
- Google Scholar
- Google Scholar searches across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Searches in Google Scholar return results without most of the commercial websites that fill normal web searches.
- RAMBI
- 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 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.
- Internet Archive
- Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more (account creation may be required).
- Internet Archive Scholar
- This fulltext search index includes over 25 million research articles and other scholarly documents preserved in the Internet Archive. The collection spans from digitized copies of eighteenth-century journals through the latest Open Access conference proceedings and pre-prints crawled from the Web.
- WorldCat
- WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world, including archives and theses/ dissertations.
Top databases for ETDs
- ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global PQDT Global offers millions of works from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
- EBSCO Open Dissertations an open-access database providing both historic and contemporary dissertations and theses. It includes EBSCO's American Doctoral Dissertations, and features additional dissertation metadata contributed by select colleges and universities from around the world.
- ERIC Content includes journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations and theses, and books dating back to 1966.
- Gratz College Academic Commons Electronic Theses and Dissertations from Gratz College graduates, 2019-present.
- Google Advanced Search Narrow your results to .edu in the site or domain
- Penn Libraries Scholarly Commons is an example of a University Repository. Many major and smaller colleges and universities have similar open access publications. Simply go to their library pages and search "digital collections", "commons", or "repository".
Books + eBooks
Search WorldCat
In the past fifty years, thousands of libraries have represented their collections in WorldCat. Today, you can search WorldCat in nearly 500 languages to find physical items like books, audiobooks, maps, musical scores, and recordings, along with electronic items like ebooks, e-journals, articles, and digital images you can access online
InterLibrary Loan (ILL)
Print materials may be obtained through interlibrary loan (ILL), governed by the rules of the lending library. More info is here.
Submit your requests at library@gratz.edu
Useful Sites
Databases with searchable texts
- Otzar haHochma Searchable full-text of over 100,000 volumes of traditional Jewish literature. Requires input using Hebrew font.
- HebrewBooks.org Over 40000 Seforim/Hebrew books for Free in PDF Format. Rambam, Shas, Meforshim in text format.
- Sefaria Sefaria is home to 3,000 years of Jewish texts. We are a non-profit organization offering free access to texts, translations, and commentaries so that everyone can participate in the ongoing process of studying, interpreting, and creating Torah
- Teshuvot Database The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. Since its founding in 1901, the Assembly has been the creative force shaping the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement, and is committed to building and strengthening the totality of Jewish life.
Resources from Advocacy Organizations and Non-profits
- Be'chol Lashon - Global Jewry
Be’chol Lashon, Hebrew for “in every language,” strengthens Jewish identity by raising awareness about the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity of Jewish people and experience around the globe. Look for the "Resources" tab in the ribbon across the top.
- Eshel Online Resources - Orthodox LBGTQ alliance
Eshel’s mission is to create a future for Orthodox lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and their families.
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Hadar Torah Library The Hadar Institute is a center of Jewish life, learning, and practice that builds vibrant egalitarian communities in North America and Israel. Our vision for Jewish life is rooted in rigorous and nuanced Torah study, gender equality, meaningful Jewish practice, and the values of kindness and compassion.
- JOFA Resource Library - Orthodox Feminist Alliance
Resources from the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
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JWA The Jewish Women’s Archive documents Jewish women’s stories, elevates their voices, and inspires them to be agents of change.
- Keshet Resource Library - Jewish LBGTQ alliance
From Keshet, an organization for LBGTQ equality in Jewish life
- Kolech Beit Midrash - Israeli Orthodox feminist alliance
Articles from an Orthodox feminist point of view
- Ritualwell
A project of the Reconstructionist movement, resources for innovative Jewish ritual.
Reference Tools
- The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
The only resource of its kind, this encyclopedia provides the most complete picture of the history and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe from the beginnings of their settlement in the region to the present. - Encyclopedia Judaica Provides an exhaustive and organized overview of Jewish life and knowledge from the Second Temple period to the contemporary State of Israel, from Rabbinic to modern Yiddish literature, from Kabbalah to "Americana" and from Zionism to the contribution of Jews to world cultures, Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition is important to scholars, general readers and students. (CONTACT LIBRARIAN FOR ACCESS)
ETDs
Gratz College Academic Commons
Academic Commons is the home for all Gratz ETDs since 2019. When browsing the collection, use the filter options and search bar to limit your results or scroll though all items. Click the title of the item to open a new window and download the attachment.
Graduate students are required to submit an electronic copy (ETD) of the final version of their successfully defended thesis or dissertation to the Tuttleman Library before they are permitted to graduate. These works will be added to the Academic Commons one to two weeks after reception, and made available to current students and faculty.
The Tuttleman Library does not accept or lend physical copies of student manuscripts.
Top databases for ETDs
- ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global PQDT Global offers millions of works from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
- EBSCO Open Dissertations an open-access database providing both historic and contemporary dissertations and theses. It includes EBSCO's American Doctoral Dissertations, and features additional dissertation metadata contributed by select colleges and universities from around the world.
- ERIC Content includes journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations and theses, and books dating back to 1966.
- Gratz College ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations from Gratz College graduates, 2016-present. Contact Library for full text access.
- Google Advanced Search Narrow your results to .edu in the site or domain
- Penn Libraries Scholarly Commons is an example of a University Repository. Many major and smaller colleges and universities have similar open access publications. Simply go to their library pages and search "digital collections", "commons", or "repository".
Avoiding Plagiarism
"Honesty and integrity are central human and Jewish values. Cheating and plagiarism are intolerable and are always considered extremely serious offenses by Gratz College faculty and administration. It is recognized that most students do not participate in such acts but suffer when cheating, plagiarism and other academic violations occur. Dishonesty diminishes the quality of scholarship and compromises the integrity of the institution and Gratz College faculty and administration." Gratz College Academic Handbook 2024-2025
Avoiding Plagiarism
When preparing all written work, great care must be taken to fully acknowledge the sources of all ideas, concepts, language and images (including drawings, designs, photographs, diagrams and charts). All of these guidelines can be found in the APA Manual.
For specific questions, consult with a faculty member or librarian, but the following rules must be observed:
• Any sequence of words appearing in essay which do not belong to the student must be enclosed in quotation marks and the source identified in a manner designated by the instructor.
• A paraphrase should not be enclosed in quotation marks, but should be footnoted (cited) and the source given.
• An interpretation based on an identifiable source must be so attributed.
Click here for Best Practices for Avoiding Plagiarism from the Purdue OWL
Plagiarism is the "taking over the ideas, methods, or written words of another, without acknowledgment and with the intention that they be taken as the work of the deceiver," - American Association of University Professors
Code of Academic Responsibility
Academic dishonesty includes such things as cheating, inventing false information or citations, plagiarism, inappropriate use of generative AI, and/or helping someone else commit an act of academic dishonesty. It is a serious violation of the norms of the academic community to appropriate the ideas of other people without credit or permission, and it is important to learn to discriminate between exploitation and the legitimate use of the ideas of others. The most general rule is that any use of another person’s ideas, whether the source is published or not, should be acknowledged fully and in detail, since disciplines show some differences on how this should be done.
Students should refer to the Gratz style guide for writing for specific details.
Gratz College APA Style Guide
A style guide is a list a standards and expectations for written assignments. This style guide does not govern Gratz College’s expectations for academic honesty, nor does it detail all of the principles of college level writing. The style guide is based on the rules and standards suggested by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). APA is an editorial style.
TurnItIn's DraftCoach
Each student at Gratz has DraftCoach available to them through Microsoft Word in MS 365. Watch the video below to see how to install DraftCoach and use it to check for grammar, citations, and sentence similarities.
Using DraftCoach to check your work
Academic Dishonesty and Gen AI
Academic dishonesty includes such things as cheating, inventing false information or citations, plagiarism and helping someone else commit an act of academic dishonesty. It usually involves an attempt by a student to show possession of a level of knowledge or skill that he/she does not possess. You may use AI programs, e.g., ChatGPT, to help generate ideas and brainstorm. However, you should note that the material generated by these programs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise problematic. Beware that use may also stifle your own independent thinking and creativity. You may not submit any work generated by an AI program as your own. If you include material generated by an AI program, it should be cited like any other reference material (with due consideration for the quality of the reference, which may be poor). Any plagiarism or other form of cheating will be addressed according to relevant Gratz policies.
Citations + Citation Managers
Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.)
Students in the Holocaust and Genocide and Jewish Studies programs are required to use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). Therefore, the style of writing depends on the degree program and course subject matter or degree program, and the course syllabus and instructor should be the resource for clarification
The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) The material on this page focuses primarily on one of the two CMOS documentation styles: the Notes-Bibliography System (NB), which is used by those working in literature, history, and the arts.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using someone else’s ideas or words without giving them proper credit. Plagiarism can range from unintentional (forgetting to include a source in a bibliography) to intentional (buying a paper online, using another writer’s ideas as your own to make your work sound smarter). Beginning writers and expert writers alike can all plagiarize. Understand that plagiarism is a serious charge in academia, but also in professional settings.
Purdue Online Writing Lab as created an excellent overview of plagiarism and how to avoid it.
What is Zotero?
Zotero is a free, open-source citation tool that works with Chrome and Firefox. It allows you to collect metadata that can be inserted into Word as citations and bibliographies.
Strengths of Zotero
- Free storage up to 300 MB.
- Ability to organize items in collections.
- Search bar to locate saved articles.
- Good at retrieving PDF metadata.
- Easy import of citations via browser plug-in.
- Automatically imports PDFs when possible.
- Easy creation of bibliography in many styles.
- Works well with non-traditional electronic sources.
- Good support from user community at zotero.org.
Installing Zotero
There are a number of YouTube videos to show you have to install the software and plugin including for Mac and Windows machines.
Social Media
A short list of groups, creators, and scholars on social media. These are just suggestions not endorsements by the library staff.
- The Benefits of Social Media
- 6 Twitter Tips for Graduate Students
- How Can You Use Social Media to Your Advantage In Grad School?
Jewish Studies Podcasts
Interfaith
Events and Talks
Jewish Theological Seminary Library The Library of JTS regularly offers book talks as part of our series, “Between the Lines: Author Conversations from The JTS Library.” Find out about these and other upcoming events by signing up for updates.
Gratz College Events From the Tuzman Holocaust Teach-in to the Admiral Landis Lecture and regular talks by our faculty, Gratz always has something new to engage with. All events are free to Gratz students.
Hebrew + Yiddish
Modern Hebrew
- Yours Truly or בינינו
Set of supplementary materials for students at the novice and intermediate levels developed at The University of Texas at Austin by Esther Raizen. The vignettes themselves are available as sound files, and most of the exercises require repetitive listening. Each unit presents up to ten keywords, available both in text format and as sound files. The final exercises in each unit focus on comprehension, the ability to identify and define the main themes of the vignettes, and creative writing.
- Hebrew Language at the University of Texas at Austin
An overview of Hebrew resources at UT-Austin including tools developed for the Modern Hebrew Project. The Modern Hebrew Project, which produced open resource tools for the study of Modern Hebrew language and linguistics, was initiated at the University of Texas Linguistics Research Center in the late 1990s, and some of the materials developed within that framework are still available through this site.
Biblical Hebrew
- Biblical Hebrew for Beginners
Introduction to the basic grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Our approach is descriptive in that we highlight phenomena that a learner who accesses the Hebrew Bible may observe. We expect engagement at the novice level, and therefore focus on identifying, listing, and grouping as the tasks we expect the learner to be able to complete. We also expect the learner to recognize a small number of words and phrases with their meanings. We do not make an attempt to describe linguistic phenomena in historical terms, nor do we involve the learner in the scholarly discourse on Biblical Hebrew.
Yiddish
- List of Yiddish Letters and Sounds
- From UIC Yiddish webpages, a chart of the Yiddish alphabet with pronunciation guide.
- Evidence of Yiddish Documented in European Societies
- Digitized vocal recordings of Yiddish in a variety of accents taken from over 6000 hours of recorded Yiddish from native speakers. Interactive site with sound. Sponsored by Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, Essen, Germany; The federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalia paticular Ministery of Education and Research of Nordrhein-Westfalia,The Commission of the European Union, Brussels; MAKROLOG Company, Wiesbaden, Germany; Association of Yiddish Language and Culture, Düsseldorf, Germany.
- LCAAJ Collection of Spoken Yiddish
- (Language and Culture Archive of Ashkenazic Jewry) consists of 5,755 hours of audio tape field interviews with Yiddish speaking informants collected between 1959 and 1972 and ca. 100,000 pages of accompanying linguistic field notes. The data that constitutes the LCAAJ was collected from 603 locations in Central and Eastern Europe carefully chosen to reflect the distribution of the Yiddish speaking population on the eve of World War II. In a series of interviews lasting anywhere from 2.5 to 16 hours, informants answered questions on a wide variety of topics concerning Yiddish language and culture. Located at Butler Library, Columbia University.
- Yiddish Pop
- Uses lively, engaging content to teach Yiddish to speakers of other languages. Lessons are built around animated movies and supporting features that introduce and reinforce vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and writing skills.