Encyclopaedia Hebraica facts for kids
The Encyclopaedia Hebraica (Hebrew: האנצקלופדיה העברית) is a huge encyclopedia written in the Hebrew language. It started being created in 1948.
Contents
History of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica
The idea for this encyclopedia began in 1944. A special group decided what the encyclopedia should be about. Printing of the first part started in 1948. This was a very important year because Israel became a country then.
The encyclopedia was published by Bracha Peli. Her son, Alexander Peli, was in charge of the whole project. The first president of the encyclopedia project was Professor Chaim Weizmann, who later became the first President of Israel. The very first picture in the encyclopedia was of Israel's Declaration of Independence.
The first book, or volume, covered topics starting with the Hebrew letter "Aleph" (א) all the way to Australia.
When they started, they thought it would take about five or six years to finish all 16 volumes. However, it took much longer! The writing actually took more than thirty years. When it was finally finished, the encyclopedia had thirty-two volumes. An index (a list to help you find things) was not printed until 1985. In 1995, many parts about the State of Israel were updated.
Alexander Peli was always the main supervisor. Important editors included Joseph Klausner, Benzion Netanyahu, and Yeshayahu Leibowitz. More than 2500 people helped write the encyclopedia.
Some people really wanted to have an article about themselves in the encyclopedia. They would ask the editors to include them. Other articles, like the one about Adolf Hitler, caused a lot of discussion.
Today, the Schocken Publishing House is working on a new edition of the encyclopedia.
What's Inside the Encyclopaedia
The Encyclopaedia Hebraica was meant to cover "General, Jewish, and Israeli" topics. This means it included all kinds of general information, but the articles about Judaism, Jews, and Israel were much longer and more detailed. The encyclopedia also talked about a person's Jewish background, even if it wasn't the main point of the article.
When you read about countries and cities, the encyclopedia first tells you their general history. Then, it tells you their Jewish history. For places that were under Nazi rule, it describes what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
The writers of the encyclopedia openly shared their Jewish views. For example, the Kingdom of Jordan was not in the first edition as a separate article. Instead, it was included within the article called "Land of Israel."
The letter Aleph has the most articles in the entire encyclopedia. The longest article is "Land of Israel," which takes up an entire book (volume 6) by itself! The next longest article is about the "United States of America."
The large number of articles for the letter Aleph shows how excited the early editors were. But soon, it became clear that the encyclopedia would take a very long time to finish. So, they changed the plan, and the final encyclopedia ended up being smaller than first thought.
Bracha Peli, the woman who owned the encyclopedia, passed away in 1986. In 1997, the encyclopedia was sold to a different company.
Images for kids
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A stack of volumes. The large Hebrew letters on the bottom of each book show the volume number using gematriya (a system where letters represent numbers).
See also
In Spanish: Enciclopedia Hebrea para niños
