Jewish Virtual Library

Jewish Virtual Library (JVL) is a Jewish topic-based online encyclopedia set up in 1993. It has been one of the most wide-ranging databases covering the culture and history of Jews and antisemitism.^[1]

History

The website was first made in the late 1990s. It was first called The Jewish Student Online Research Center (JSOURCE).^[2]According to the website, the Library covers material that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, such as information about projects where the United States and Israel worked together, and how Americans were treated during the Holocaust. It explains that it got permission to use materials from the Library of Congress, from the American Jewish Historical Society, the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Foreign Ministry of Israel, and Prime Minister’s Office, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (author of Jewish Literacy), and dozens of other sources.^[3]

It has more than 13,000 articles and 6,000 photographs and maps about Jewish history, Israel, U.S.-Israel relations, the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and Judaism.^[4] The website has all of the words of the Tanakh.^[5] The Jewish Virtual Library also has the Israel advocacy text "Myths and Facts", edited by Mitchell Bard, in several languages.^[6]

Reception

John Jaeger, in an article published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, said of the Jewish Virtual Library:

"This library, once it is entered, is more like a living encyclopedia than it is anything else. One has options to click on, such as history, women, biography, politics, Israel, maps, and Judaic Treasures at the Library of Congress, with each launching a person into a different realm. The site is extremely well put together.^[7]

Karen Evans of Indiana State University wrote that the site covers many different topics, with "easily accessible, balanced information".^[1]

Related pages

• Holocaust Encyclopedia
• Anti-Defamation League