THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

lb;

Despite Difficulties the `Hebraica'
Is Completed With 32nd Volume

By CARL ALPERT
HAIFA — In the midst of
the political and economic
problems which today
plague Israel it is good to
pause and take note of an
ambitious, indeed a mam-
moth enterprise, which
after difficulties and delays
has now at last been
brought to successful con-
clusion. It is impossible to
exaggerate the signifi-
cance of this undertaking —
the completion of the 32nd
and last volume of the
tupendous Encyclopedia
Hebraica.
This is not a Jewish
encyclopedia. It is printed in
Hebrew, but it is a universal
work, covering the entire
breadth of man's knowledge
and history. It might be
termed the Hebrew equiv-
alent of the Encyclopedia
Britannica, but there are
some zealots here who feel
that on several scores it is
superior even to that illus-
trious work.
The Hebraica has had the
collaboration of 1,200 scien-
tists, research workers and
experts, among them 40
Nobel Prize winners and
many of the great names of
our times. Its 16,000 pages
cover some 30,000 different
subjects, each article writ-
. ten with the highest possi-
ble standards.
Because it is published
in Hebrew it should not
be seen as an Israeli con-
tribution to the world of
learning, though hun-
dreds of its original arti-
cles could well be trans-
lated.
To the contrary, it is in-
tended to bring the whole
range of human knowledge
within reach of every stu-
dent, and into every home
and library in Israel. By its
availability, it broadens Is-
rael's horizons and raises
the cultural and scientific
standards of the nation.
The production of the 32
volumes took almost as
many years, and the road
was a difficult one. The first
volute was edited in a
Jerusalem under siege and
was printed in Tel Aviv in
1949. Despite these initial
difficulties it was an amaz-
ing technological achieve-
ment, and it is worth noting
that the aesthetic standards
and format established 32
years ago have been main-
tained -consistently.
One of the miracles of the
production is that it was
able to survive not only
enormous economic
hazards, but also an initial
miscalculation of fantastic
oportions. The original
itors believed that the
-entire encyclopedia, from
first to last letter, could be
contained in 16 volumes,
and subscriptions were sold
on that basis. It was not
until they were well into the
project that they discovered
that with their self-imposed
high standards they would
not be able to produce the
work in less than 32 vol-
umes.
The publishers went
back to the original sub-

at

CARL ALPERT

scribers, who had been
receiving the occasional
volumes as they came off
the press, and asked that
they more than double
the subscription fees ac-
cordingly.
A howl went up. Angry
subscribers banded to-
gether to protest what some
thought was a deliberate
swindle, and court suits
were filed. The publishers
survived the ordeal and the
volumes continued to ap-
pear, but with such delays
that for a while the project
was known as the Un-
finished Encyclopedia.
The Hebraica has 75,000
paid-up subscribers, though
thousands more who had
initially signed up and re-
ceived some of the first vol-
umes, did not continue.
Perhaps now that the proj-
ect has been finished they
may wish to complete their
sets.
Though comprehensive in
scope, the Hebraica does
give special attention to
subjects of interest to Jews
and Israel, this without dis-
tortion of the secular and
scientific subjects. It should
not be confused with the
16-volume Encyclopedia
Judaica, in English, which
appeared in 1912, and
covers the world of Jewish
knowledge and scholarship
only.
0 The Hebraica is a
production of the
Masada Publishing Co.,
founded and still headed
by the Peli family of Is-
rael. The encyclopedia it-
self had a succession of
five chief editors, Dr.
Yehuda Even-Shmuel,
Prof. Yosef Klausner,
Prof. Ben-Zion
Netanyahu (the father of

Yonatan),
Prof.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz
and Prof. Yehoshua
Prawer.
The final volume covers
the Hebrew letters shin and
taf, and among the hun-
dreds of subjects treated are
on the one hand, Shanghai,
Thoreau, Heredity,
Budgets, Thomas Aquinas
and Thermodynamics, and
on the other, the Prophet
Samuel, Spinoza, Psalms,
Tel Aviv and Talmud.
This monumental work is
perhaps the major single
cultural creation of the
state of Israel, and should be
a source of pride to every Is-
raeli.

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7

Foreign Legion

JERUSALEM (JTA) —
About 100 Jewish students
from abroad have repor-
tedly volunteered to join the
Israeli army temporarily
during their summer vaca-
tion. The offer was approved
by Premier Menahem Be-
gin, in his capacity of De-
fense Minister, despite the
additional burden on the
military budget. Their mili-
tary training will include
tours of the country.

Friday July 10, 1981 , .

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