The North American Jewish Data Bank (NAJDB) was created in 1986 by the Council of Jewish Federations and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Part of their mission is to "provide empirical survey data sets about the North American Jewish community" and also to "encourage academicians, students, communal professionals and others to utilize Data Bank holdings." This is, in part,...
From the reputable public opinion pollster Pew Research Center (previously featured in the 08-13-2021 Scout Report), the report Jewish Americans in 2020 discusses changes to Jewish religiosity, culture, and politics over the past decade. The report finds an increasingly sharp divergence among the youngest American Jewish adults, who represent larger shares among both traditionally observant...
Since the nation of Israel was established at midnight on May 14, 1948, the state has been wrought with conflicts and upheavals of all kinds, from military campaigns against its Arab neighbors, to assassinations, to debates between secular and Orthodox Jews. This in-depth exploration of the modern State of Israel by the Pew Research Center finds that the shaky lines of political dissent are far...
Law schools are known for their efforts to create online law journals, and the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion was the “first online legal journal dedicated to the study of the dynamic interaction between law and religion.” Started in 1999, the journal has published dozens of articles written by law students at Rutgers, and they have covered subjects such as the role of faith-based...
The homepage of this very recent online collection of sacred texts from the British Library doesn't mince any words, declaring this clutch of materials to be "The world's greatest collection of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy books." The subtitle to this remarkable collection is "Discover what we share", and that is certainly an apt phrase to describe this moving online collection, which is...
Helping understand the shared traditions among the world's major religious traditions is a tall order for a website, but this lovely online gallery from the British Library does the job quite admirably. The site was designed to complement a recent exhibition at the Library, and visitors can start by viewing an interactive slideshow of those materials. Moving on, visitors will want to make their...
As the oldest manuscript of the Bible in existence, the Aleppo Codex is a sacred text for a number of key reasons. The Codex was written in the year 930 CE and it made its way through a number of places in the Near East before arriving in Israel in 1958. In the past few years, the Ben-Zvi Institute (working with funds provided by George S. Blumenthal) has digitized this remarkable document. On the...
This website is a comprehensive resource for those interested in Judaica librarianship, Jews, Judaism, the Jewish experience, and Israel. Visitors can click on "Awards" to see the awards given for Jewish librarianship, Jewish children's books, and the publishing of Judaica reference materials. Vsitors may wish to click on the link to the AJL Podcast on the "Resources" page. Here they will find...
Up on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, The Jewish Museum remains the preeminent museum in the United States "devoted exclusively to the scope and diversity of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture." The Museum is quite fantastic, and their website offers up selections from their collections and special exhibits along with ample information about their educational programs and membership...
The Jewish Virtual Library website is a project designed and maintained by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), which was established as a nonprofit organization in 1993. From the homepage, visitors are presented with a series of topical areas such as "History", "The Holocaust", "Politics", and "Travel", along eight other additional areas. The "Reference" area is quite helpful, as...