About the Project

The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora is to be published at the end of 2006 with ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara, USA (www.abc-clio.com). It aspires to be a definite collection of articles and entries on the subject of the Jewish Diaspora; themes, ideas, people, regions, communities encompassing its historical condition and contemporary contexts and incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives.

About ABC CLIO

Celebrating 50 years of reference publishing in 2005, ABC-CLIO (www.abc-clio.com) is committed to serving the history profession, history teachers, and students and scholars of history. The company annually publishes approximately 80 encyclopedias, guides, and handbooks. Since 1991, this acclaimed reference book line has won over 60 best-reference awards from the American Library Association and Library Journal. Scholars and librarians from around the world acknowledge ABC-CLIO as a reputable, premier resource for reference works.

Editor-in-Chief: Professor M. Avrum Ehrlich of the Dept. of Philosophy and Sociology and the Centre for Judaic Studies at Shandong University, China.

Deputy Editor: Ms Can Zhang of the Dept. of Philosophy and Sociology and the Centre for Judaic Studies at Shandong University, China.

Members of Advisory Board

Mr Amotz Asa-El, Prof Alan Crown, Prof Sergio DellaPergola, Prof  Fredrick Ehrlich, Sir Martin Gilbert, Mr Isi Leibler, Dr Uzi Rebhun, Prof Jehuda Reinharz, Prof Jonathan Sarna, Mr Nathan Sharansky, Prof Gabriel Sheffer, Prof Fu Youde.

Publishers Announcement

“ABC-CLIO” (www.abc-clio.com) is pleased to be working with Professor M. Avrum Ehrlich on the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora. As editor of the Encyclopedia, Professor Ehrlich will correspond and work with preeminent scholars in the field of Jewish Studies to bring to the fore information about the Jewish diaspora with a special emphasis on the modern era of diaspora, an era not previously explored in reference work. The subjects covered will make an important contribution to both Jewish Studies and to academia in general. 

Call for Contributions to the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora

Academics, scholars and writers wishing to contribute an article or entry to the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora on issues specific to their region or other subjects related to the Jewish Diaspora are invited to write to us at our email address: diasporaproject@gmail.com

We are seeking insightful short and mid length articles on the broadest range of themes concerning the Diaspora experience as well as contributors to write about regions, countries, cities and specific Jewish communities of interest.

Call to Participate in: Tractate Diaspora

Dear professors and scholars,

Over the last year we have been collecting hundreds of entries and articles relating to the Jewish Diaspora to be published in the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora. We have an excellent body of over 100 contributors and hundreds of articles on diaspora regions and themes of a broad and penetrating nature.

Unfortunately, some scholars, whom I requested to submit entries, had to decline in light of the tight submissions timetable we were requesting.

To partly address this problem of absence, I decided to undertake an experimental piece to be published together with the encyclopedia entitled Tractate Diaspora (masechet hatefutzot), which aspires to gather the views and ideas of a large number of contemporary scholars on the broadest subjects relating to the diaspora condition and edit them together into a style not dissimilar to a talmudic tractate.

There are many scholars of Jewish studies who have interesting and insightful thoughts relating to the diaspora phenomena, but they may not be entirely developed, or not warrant a complete academic article with footnotes and bibliography. There are also scholars whose focus is outside the field of diaspora studies, who have important ideas to share, yet may be reluctant to publish within existing academic formats. I would like to provide a suitable forum for these thoughts and ideas within the framework of this tractate.

This is a “call for insights” to scholars and thinkers of all disciplines with thoughts on the diaspora condition to submit anything from a few lines, a pithy dictum, to a few paragraphs not exceeding 1000 words on a subject relating to the broadest spectrum of the diaspora phenomena. These may be in the form of penetrating comments, disparate ideas, a statement of ideology, theologies, philosophies and/or sociological observations. I am seeking articulate and clever submissions informed by a broad interdisciplinary background and perspective. We would be grateful for your participation and / or for forwarding this announcement to a person you think suitable to contribute to this compilation. We request that a brief biography of the scholar be included in the submission as all contributors will be recognized for their insights.

As the time commitment to this undertaking is not great, we request that your comments be submitted by email to diasporaproject@gmail.com before July 31 2006.

With many sincere thanks

M. Avrum Ehrlich

Professor of Jewish Philosophy

Dept. of Philosophy and Sociology

Shandong University, China