Jewish Studies

Introduction
'An important voice' - The Times Higher Education Supplement
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The Journal of Jewish Studies, published in Oxford, is an international academic journal founded in 1948 for the promotion of research into all aspects of Jewish studies.

Owned by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies since 1976, the Journal has become one of the leading forums in the world for new findings and discussions of Jewish history, literature and religion from Biblical times to the present day. A large reviews section and a list of Books Received keeps readers in touch with recent publications. The Journal appears twice a year in Spring and Autumn.


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The Journal of Jewish Studies is now available both in print and additionally in electronic version. The Journal of Jewish Studies Online can be subscribed to by both Institutional and Individual subscribers. For details go to Journal of Jewish Studies Online or Subscribe.

A fully searchable and sortable Table of Contents of all published material is freely available online on this site.


History
'An important voice' - The Times Higher Education Supplement
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The Journal of Jewish Studies was founded in 1948 by The Jewish Fellowship, the parent body of the still-flourishing Society for Jewish Study based in London, but volume I was completed only in 1949. Publishing and administrative responsibilities were taken over in 1951 with volume II, no. 2 by Jewish Chronicle Publications. Later this role was shared in varying degrees by the Society for Jewish Study, the Institute of Jewish Studies in London, and the Cultural Department of the World Jewish Congress. Finally, in 1976, the Board of Governors of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies (now the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies) became the proprietor of the Journal.

Drawing of Yarnton Manor by Alun Ward

Jacob L. Teicher, lecturer in Rabbinics in Cambridge, was the first editor. He launched the Journal on a high level of scholarship, but turned it also into a mouthpiece of his somewhat idiosyncratic views on the Christian identity of the Dead Sea community, publishing a dozen papers on this topic between 1951 and 1955. In 1956 (at volume VI, no. 2) he was abruptly replaced by an editorial board, with Rabbi Alexander Altmann, a specialist in Jewish philosophy at the Institute of Jewish Studies in Manchester, occupying the editorial chair. On his departure to the United States, Dr Altmann relinquished his chairmanship in 1959 passing the reins of JJS to Dr Joseph J. Weiss of University College London, an expert on Hasidism . First single-handed, but from 1966 in association with two London colleagues, S. Stein and N. Wieder, and assisted by R. Loewe, Joseph Weiss continued the direction of the Journal until his tragic demise in September 1969. The 1970 volume was edited by the surviving members of the team.

During its first twenty years, the Journal established itself as a solid, influential international periodical. It started off and theoretically remained a quarterly until 1971. In 1972 it was officially transformed into a half-yearly publicationl.

From the start until 1966 the editor was assisted by an advisory board of leading figures, such as Leo Baeck, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, and an editorial board of (mostly) British Judaica specialists. In 1966, the advisory board was merged into the editorial board and the latter was renamed the advisory board in 1967.

A major change occurred in 1970, when David Kessler, chairman of Jewish Chronicle Publications, at that time owners of JJS, appointed Geza Vermes as editor. In January 1971 the Journal had a circulation of circa 400, comprising 250 subscribers and the 150 members of the Society for Jewish Study. During the years that have followed, the Journal has grown in stature and circulation, and its present distribution stands at approximately 1000. In 1995, Martin Goodman joined Geza Vermes at the helm. From 1995 to 1998, the Journal greatly benefited from the help received from Daniel Frank, a highly efficient Book Review editor.

In the course of the years, JJS has produced three special Festschrifts with the assistance of guest editors: Studies in Jewish Legal History in Honour of David Daube, edited in 1974 by Bernard S. Jackson; Essays in Honour of Yigael Yadin, edited in 1982 by Geza Vermes and Jacob Neusner; and Special Issue to Commemorate the Twenty-Fifth Year of Geza Vermes as Editor, jointly edited by Philip Alexander and Martin Goodman in 1995.

The Journal of Jewish Studies celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1999.



Recent History
Geza Vermes continues to edit the Journal.

In 2000 Tessa Rajak succeeded Martin Goodman as editor and served for four years. Her successor since 2004 is Sacha Stern. Sarah Pearce was appointed Book Reviews editor in 2001. In 2005 she handed over the office to Jonathan Campbell. He was succeeded by Charlotte Hempel in 2007.

In 2002 the Journal entered the digital age with online access to all the tables of contents, and from 2006 the whole archives of the Journal were made available online to Institutional and Individual subscribers.



Editors
Jacob L. Teicher 1948-1956
Alexander Altman 1956-1958
Joseph J. Weiss 1959-1968
Sigfried Stein 1966-1970
Naphtali Wieder 1966-1970
Raphael Loewe 1966-1970
Geza Vermes 1971-
Bernard S. Jackson 1974 Special Issue for David Daube
Jacob Neusner 1982 Special Issue for Yigael Yadin
Philip Alexander 1995 Special Issue for Geza Vermes
Martin Goodman 1995-1999
Tessa Rajak 2000-2003
Sacha Stern 2004-

Book Review Editors
Daniel Frank 1995-1999
Sarah Pearce 2000-2005
Jonathan G. Campbell 2005-2007
Charlotte Hempel 2007-