The Jewish Virtual Library

Source:  The Jewish Virtual Library Website

A division of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, the Jewish Virtual Library is a comprehensive online Jewish encyclopedia, covering everything from anti-Semitism to Zionism. So far, more than 13,000 articles and 6,000 photographs and maps have been integrated into the site.

The Library has 13 wings: History, Women, The Holocaust, Travel, Israel & The States, Maps, Politics, Biography, Israel, Religion, Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress, Vital Statistics and Reference. Each of these wings contains numerous subcategories.

Under Religion, for example, the site has the complete text of the Tanakh (Bible), information on Jewish holidays and material on relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Politics wing includes collections on U.S.-Israel relations, the United Nations and the peace process. The Reference section has bibliographies of more than 1,000 books and 1,000 web sites, a glossary of more than 1,000 words and a time-line of Jewish history.

The Library also includes the Virtual Israel Experience, an educational tool and virtual tour of Israel designed especially for students going on Birthright and other trips to Israel. Using Virtual Israel as a model, the library is now creating a Virtual Jewish History Tour that allows Jewish students and other Internet users to “visit” Jewish communities around the world to learn about their history and culture.

The goals of the library are to educate visitors about Jewish heritage, the development of Judaism, the changing nature of Jewish communities and the connection between the Jewish past and present.