8 Feb 89 JUDAIC STUDIES 3 AdarI 49 BS"D TOPOLOGY: Where Judaics Are Studied This overview will begin presenting sources of information which can help locate places involved in the study of Judaica. It will cover the essentials of academic Judaic Studies (hereafter JS) and offer a number of not-strictly-academic settings as future subjects of investigation. Among the reasons for this research is the need to accumulate a mailing list for this newsletter. Eventually, with the permission of those involved, the whole list can be posted, including e-addresses, telephone numbers, hours, directions, specialties and so on. Many of the leads to the information given here were graciously supplied by Libby Kahane, the ever-helpful head of the Bibliographic Reference Room at the National Library. There are three basic lists of JS locations: 1) The World Union of Jewish Studies sells a mailing list which, I am told, contains about six thousand entries. They can be contacted at Hebrew U, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904. (Here I shall pause to insert a note about American & Israeli address confusion. American- Five digit zip codes, even with the word "Israel" written after them, occasionally bounce up & down the west coast until someone notices. It is therefore sometimes better to omit the zip. Israeli- Everyone knows that the WUJS is located in Binyan Mazer... there is a yellow sign pointing around the side of the building which says "Binyan Mazer". The building itself is only marked "The Institute for Advanced Studies". It is the first of the rectangular buildings to the right of the grass campus as one enters Givat Ram- or #3 on the map ahead. The office is two levels above ground, thru the door in the rear left corner, on the right- Room 209B.) The office is open Sun thru Thurs 9-1. The phone number is 526-910. 2) The International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization publishes surveys of schools which teach JS. They are located in the free-standing building as one enters the Hebrew U complex opposite the Van Leer Institute (46 Jabotinsky on the corner of Molcho, entrance around back). They are open Sun thru Thurs 8:30-1. The phone numbers are 633-005 and 699-032. Mrs. Florinda Goldberg gave me both time and liter- ature, and sold me a new survey of european JS (excluding the British Isles) done in 1988 by Doris Bensimon, called "The Teaching of Jewish Civilization at European Universities". It is available from the Center, POB 4234, Jerusalem 91042. A world survey came out in 1985- Verbit, Martin F., Ed., "World Register of University Studies of Jewish Civilization". It is available from the Center, and from Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc., 2901 Broadway Suite 107, NY, NY 10025 (212-678-7138). 3) B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation publishes "Jewish Life on Campus". (The information in a recent issue was conveniently tabulated on pp.403-418 of Ivan L. Tillem's "The 1987-88 Jewish Almanac".) The Foundation's address is 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036. A combined count of the "World Register" and "Jewish Life" produces the following figures: Graduate Level Total Departments of JS 14 31 Programs in JS 40 103 JS are taught on a graduate level at 87 institutions. The european survey by Bensimon adds that there are now 27 schools which offer a "broadly based course in JS" (p23). In the US & Canada, there are 28 schools which offer doctoral degrees, 12 more which offer masters, and approximately 63 others which offer undergraduate degrees. Yet other schools offer large numbers of JS courses. Many universities join forces with each other, or with other institutions, in order to make programs available. Others establish Chairs of JS, or grant certificates. I was especially intrigued by the yearly 4 week "Spring Seminar on Jewish Medical Ethics" held at Texas Medical Center - Baylor and U.T. ("Jewish Life"). Of course, these numbers represent widely disparate course offerings and programs of study, which would best be grouped by level of instruction, scope, size, and, most important, areas of emphasis (the Center publi- cations take steps in this direction). They also do not include studies done in 1) Jewish History and Civilization (in Israeli, Holocaust and other institutions), 2) Hebrew Language (from the Academy of the Hebrew Language to the many approaches taken to hebrew and it's creoles), 3) Bibliography (by both libraries and collectors of Hebraic and Judaic books and art), 4) Biblical Studies (by secularists and the adherents of three major religions), 5) Rabbinics (at religious and secular educational institutions and publishing houses), and 6) Genealogies (an umbrella group of jewish organizations exists, and separate records such as US Immigration and the Mormon church), to recite an off-the-cuff, far-from-complete list. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS- Advice and material aid has been offered by Infotec Software (4/33 Herzl Ave., Jerusalem), particularly by my good friend D'n Russler. Eitan Hurwitz of the Computer Center at Hebrew U Mount Scopus has taken an interest in the project. I want to thank Dr. Moshe Idel, Ruth Wahaba, and also the staff of the Computer Center for their quick and efficient handling of an un-named crisis last week. IDEAS- Dr. Robert Kraft stated explicitly an idea that I learned from Avi Feldblum implicitly; don't confine the letter to a regular production schedule. Essentially, I agree that results should be published when they are ready. They should not have to wait for publishing dates nor should they be distorted to meet deadlines (the word "deadlines" tempts me to speculative etymology). What we really want, eventually, is a Bulletin Board. I started this letter as a weekly with the idea of giving the reader a sense of security (so many things do not continue beyond the first issue), as well as an impetus to submit ideas as soon as possible, in order that the letter achieve the broadest possible scope. NEXT TIME- LISTS