Encyclopaedia Hebraica

History

The encyclopedia was published by Bracha Peli who had already created another encyclopedia. The man in charge was her son who was named Alexander Peli.

A committee decided the aims of the encyclopedia in 1944. Printing of the first part began in 1948. This was the year that Israel became a country. The president of the encyclopedia project was also the President of Israel, Professor Chaim Weizmann.

The first photograph in the encyclopedia was of Israel's Declaration of Independence. The first volume covered the entries for the letter "Aleph" (א) to Australia. The introduction said:

[W]e will finish publishing all 16 volumes within five or six years...

The writing took over 30 years. The encyclopedia had 32 volumes when it was finished. An index was not printed until 1985. In 1995 there were large updates of entries dealing with the State of Israel. The supervisor was always Alexander Plai.

The editors were Joseph Klausner, Benzion Netanyahu, Yeshayahu Leibowitz,^[3] Nathan Rotenstreich, Yehoshua Gutman and Joshua Prawer. Over 2,500 workers wrote the encyclopedia. Some considered it important for inclusion in the encyclopedia. They would ask the editors to make sure they had an article about them. Other articles caused controversies, e.g. Adolf Hitler. The Schocken Publishing House has been working on a new edition of the encyclopedia.

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Content

The Encyclopaedia Hebraica said it was about "General, Jewish, and Israeli" ideas. The encyclopaedia covers all the general topics, but the articles were larger on Judaism, Jews, and Israel. The encyclopaedia includes the Jewishness of the person, even when it is not important.

World history

Articles on countries and cities include their history and then a Jewish history. For places previously under Nazi rule, an account is given of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Writers of the encyclopaedia did not hide their Jewish views. The Kingdom of Jordan was not in the first edition. Instead Jordan was included in the article Land of Israel.

Aleph

The letter Aleph contains the largest number of articles. The longest article is Land of Israel which takes up all of volume 6. Next in size is United States of America. The large size of the aleph articles reflects the enthusiasm of the early editors.

Plan

Nevertheless, it became clear that the encyclopaedia would never come to an end. The plan was changed. The final size of the encyclopaedia was smaller than planned. The woman who owned it was Bracha Peli. She died in 1986. In 1997 the encyclopedia was sold to another company.^[4]