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Research Tools The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies, edited by Martin Goodman; Jeremy Cohen and David Sorkin, assoc. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 1037 pp. Index.
This impressive and highly useful volume has two aims. One is simply practical: the thirty-nine chapters, written by first-rate specialists, offer a portrait of the variety of inquiries related to Jewish Studies and carried out in academic institutions; here the bibliographies and suggested further readings are naturally helpful. Beyond this, the book's very existence is expected to affect the reality it describes. In his essay on "The Nature of Jewish Studies" (in fact, an illuminating contextualized short history of Jewish Studies), Martin Goodman makes clear that the very identity and unity of the various of fields that consider themselves to be part of "Jewish Studies" is problematic, both theoretically and sociologically. Hence the mere fact that accounts of the issues, findings, and current research in thirty-nine fields are assembled between two covers may contribute to its real and perceived unity. In this perspective, the goal of the volume is not unlike that of the medieval classifications of the sciences.
The remarkably large coverage of this volume reflects a broad conception of Jewish Studies, which will make it particularly useful to those looking for an introduction to fields they do not know. It is obviously impossible...