Dear Friend, We are pleased to announce that on March 1, 2009, the Jewish Women's Archive will launch the free, online version of Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Previously available only on CD-ROM, the Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive source on the history of Jewish women and includes more than 1,700 biographies, 300 thematic essays, and 1,400 photographs and illustrations (minus a few for which we do not have web display permission). The Encyclopedia nearly doubles the content available on our website (jwa.org) and gives Internet users all over the world free and easy access to a wealth of information. A press release is attached. We encourage you to forward it to your friends and colleagues.
For the next two weeks we will making final pre-release adjustments. If you are interested in participating in the Preview/Beta, please email adavidow at jwa.org ; if you would like to get a sense of who is in the Encyclopedia, or to find out more, please visit http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/preview Our formal press release follows (from http://qa.jwa.org/press/2009/2009-0202-encyclopedia.html ): ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FOR RELEASE: February 2, 2009 UNPRECEDENTED RESOURCE GOES ONLINE MARCH 1, 2009 Jewish Women's Archive Gives Free, Global Access to Encyclopedia of Jewish Women The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) announces the launch of the first comprehensive online source for the history of Jewish women. On March 1, 2009, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia?which includes over 1,700 biographies, 300 thematic essays, and 1,400 photographs and illustrations?goes live on JWA's website, jwa.org. "Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia represents a huge advance for the fields of history and women's studies," said Gail Reimer, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Jewish Women's Archive. The Encyclopedia was previously available only on CD-ROM. Reimer notes, "In its CD-ROM form, the Encyclopedia was expensive and not widely accessible, so we are delighted to make this important resource available online and usable at no cost. We've taken history out of the locked vaults of physical repositories and put it into the hands of Internet users all over the world." Reviewers hailed the CD-ROM version, published in 2006 by Shalvi Publishing Ltd., for its easy navigation and for the wealth of information it contains. The online edition has an improved user interface, which provides thematic and visual links and extensive cross-references, along with many new Web 2.0 features, including the ability for users to discuss and update current biographies and to submit new ones. Edited by Paula Hyman of Yale University and Dalia Ofer of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Encyclopedia contains content from over 1,000 independent scholars on a wide range of Jewish women through the centuries?from Gertrude Berg to Gertrude Stein; Hannah Greenbaum Solomon to Hannah Arendt; the Biblical Ruth to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Encyclopedia is an invaluable resource for students, educators, researchers, and the general public. Gloria Steinem praised the Encyclopedia as "user-friendly and thoughtfully compiled, as much a joy for the casual browser as for those who come with a purpose. Whether you are a scholar in search of the past, a journalist in need of facts in the present, or a young Jewish girl looking for role models for dreams of the future, the encyclopedia is a treasure-trove." The mission of the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is to uncover, chronicle, and transmit to a broad public the rich history of North American Jewish women. A national non-profit organization founded in 1995 and headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts, JWA disseminates educational materials, conducts original research, hosts public programs, and maintains an innovative website. Through web exhibits, online collection projects, and oral histories, JWA shares the stories, struggles, and achievements of North American Jewish women spanning many generations. In 2007, JWA produced the film Making Trouble, a prize-winning documentary about three generations of Jewish women in comedy, from Molly Picon to Gilda Radner. Contact: Jordan Namerow Jewish Women's Archive 138 Harvard Street Brookline, MA 02446 Tel: (617) 232-2258 Fax: (617) 975-0109 http://jwa.org/contactus More details: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia
