In addition to an updated text and new feature articles not available in the printed version, the CD-ROM also offers powerful search capabilities, an interactive timeline and a full multimedia program including photos, video clips, slide shows, music, maps, tables and charts.
In its new format, the Encyclopedia can be utilized efficiently both by serious scholars and youth.
“This is one of the most exciting projects to have come along in the Jewish world, one representing the culmination of over 95 years of Jewish scholarship,” says Leibler, a lawyer from Melbourne, Australia who made aliyah to Israel seven years ago and gave up his practice to achieve the task of putting the encyclopedia on CD-ROM.
“Two and half years ago, we realized that this most comprehensive source of Jewish scholarship was not reaching its market, because keeping up with changing times applies not only to content but also to format,” Leibler says.
Together with Heller, Leibler approached the Keter Publishing House and obtained the rights to produce the encyclopedia on CD-ROM.
The Encyclopedia Judaica grew out of a project started in Germany in the 1920s, which was halted when the Nazis came to power. In 1963, the project was revised in the United States and led by Professor Benzion Netanyahu, father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 1965, after Netanyahu retired, Professor Cecil Roth took over as editor-in-chief and the project was transferred to Jerusalem, becoming a national project launched on behalf of the Jewish people.
In 1972, the 16-volume encyclopedia was finally published, augmented by eight yearbooks and two decennials over the years.
“I thought this was going to be a simple operation,” Leibler says. “But with 15 million words, 25,000 articles, 100,000 hyperlinks, abbreviations and glossary, 2,500 photos — many used for the first time — and text incorporating nine languages, it proved to be more of a challenge.”
First, the entire text of the printed version had to be scanned using optical character reading. Then, the contents of the encyclopedia and its yearbooks and decennials had to be reviewed, updated and categorized.
Next, new feature articles were incorporated on such topics as fervently religious Jewry, the American Jewish family, the legal status of Jerusalem, Islamic fundamentalism and the Middle East peace process. Fresh material was incorporated on many Jewish communities, new biographies were added and selected updates were carried out.
“We believe that we have brought the Judaica to its fullest potential,” says Leibler. “We have taken the printed version to a new dimension and brought it alive. It is a must not just for the Jewish world but for the general secular world as well. Essentially, the encyclopedia is accessible to anyone who wants to understand anything about the Jewish world. And while it is extremely user friendly, we did not compromise on scholarship.”
In the encyclopedia, one can see the video footage of Viscount Edmund Allenby, entering Jerusalem in 1917, David Ben-Gurion proclaiming the establishment of the state of Israel, and Adolf Eichmann at his trial. The CD-ROM features rare illustrations dating back many centuries, in addition to special media collections on topics such as U.S. Jewry and the Holocaust. Sound recordings include Alfred Dreyfus at his trial, choral presentations of Adon Olam and Ethiopian prayers.
An interactive timeline serves as an additional entry point to access content tracking parallel events from Jewish history and culture with those in general history, beginning with the year 2000 B.C.E. and concluding at the end of the 20th century. This also enables the user to journey chronologically through the history of the Jewish people.
The CD-ROM is designed for use on Windows machines, and all articles and most multimedia features can be downloaded.
The Encyclopedia Judaica is being distributed worldwide, and is also being sold at a cost of $599 on the Internet at www.virtual.co.il/vj/advertising/judaica/
Plans are already being made for the future, including a possible version for the Macintosh and translations into Hebrew and other languages. In addition, periodic updates and a new CD of the entire product with new material integrated directly into the existing text, will be available.
“The Jewish story never ends,” Leibler says, “and we will be there to cover it.”