Prof. Pelli receives Judaica award

Moshe Pelli, professor and program director of the Judaic Studies Program, is the 2014 winner of the AJL Judaica Bibliography Award. The award, funded by Eric Chaim Kline of Los Angeles, was established to encourage the publication of outstanding Judaica bibliographies.

The Association of Jewish Libraries honored Pelli for his recent book. "The Journals of the Haskalah (Hebrew Enlightenment) from 1820 to 1845," which includes monographs and annotated indices to eight Hebrew periodicals published in Holland, Galicia, Germany and Lithuania in the 19th century.

According to the awards committee, Pelli's work "has opened up the world of Haskalah periodicals to readers" and enables researchers to find articles in archaic Hebrew.

The monographs analyze the phenomena of the Hebrew Enlightenment press, addressing major developments in the history of the Haskalah, such as the emergence of the scholarly study of Judaism in Hebrew, and the emerging centers of Haskalah in Holland, Galicia, and Lithuania. The monographs study the journals and their editors, contributing authors, and the subject matters included in them, and examine their scholarly and literary qualities.

The indices to the eight journals published in this book are cross-referenced, annotated, alphabetized, and author-and-subject listed. They cover all articles, essays, and scholarly studies on a variety of topics in Jewish Studies, such as biblical and Talmudic criticism and commentary, questions regarding the Halachah (Jewish legal system), and studies on the Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Jewish education. They also cite newly discovered medieval Hebrew manuscripts, their critique and studies of their authors. Also included are various genres in belles lettres: poems, stories, fables, satires, aphorisms, and other writings: biographies, editorial comments and announcements.