Subject Headings for Judaic Studies and Israel/Palestine

ANSS Subject and Bibliographic Access Committee

Question/Answer on Cataloging Issues – May 2019

Question: What subject headings are applied to Judaic Studies and the study of Israel/Palestine?

By Rachel Berman Turner, Binghamton University

This cataloging Q&A addresses the question of what Library of Congress (LC) subject headings catalogers apply when they are working on Judaic Studies materials or material that pertains to Israel/Palestine. Much Judaic Studies material deals with topics, ethnic groups, and terms that are not very well known, so require a bit more explanation. Similarly, many Judaic Studies and Israeli/Palestine Studies terms are known by their vernacular names, while the LC terms are more technical. Explanations have been provided for some of the more obscure terms, as well as those that have more technical LC subject headings. Examples of obscure and technical terms with explanations are the Oath more judaico (with a definition provided from Wikipedia) and Lebanon—History—Israeli intervention, 1996, which is the LC subject heading for Operation Grapes of Wrath. Although this list is extensive, it is not exhaustive.

Israel/Palestine

  • Al-Aqsa Intifada, 2000-
  • Arab-Israeli conflict
  • Arab-Israeli conflict—1967-1973
  • Egypt—History—Intervention, 1956
    • USE FOR:
      • Israel-Arab War, 1956
  • Galilee (Israel)
    • USE FOR:
      • Northern, Israel and Palestine, Northern
  • Gaza War, 2014
  • Herodian dynasty, 37 B.C.-ca. 100 A.D.
  • Intifada, 1987-1993
  • Israel and the diaspora
  • Israel-Arab Border Conflicts, 1949-
  • Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949
    • USE FOR:
      • Israel—History—War of Independence, 1948-1949
  • Israel-Arab War, 1967
    • USE FOR:
      • Six Day War, 1967
  • Israel-Arab War, 1973
    • USE FOR:
      • Yom Kippur War, 1973
  • Israeli West Bank Barrier
  • Jehuite dynasty, 9th-8th centuries B.C.
  • Jews—History—To 1200 B.C.
    • USE FOR:
      • Jews—Conquest of Canaan
      • Jews—Settlement in Canaan
      • Jews—Wanderings in the wilderness
    • NARROWER TERMS:
      • Exodus, The
      • Israelites crossing the Red Sea (Biblical event)
  • Lebanon War, 2006
    • USE FOR:
      • Hezbollah-Israel War, 2006
  • Lebanon—History—Israeli intervention, 1982-1985
  • Lebanon—History—Israeli intervention, 1996
    • USE FOR:
      • Operation Grapes of Wrath, 1996
  • Omri dynasty, 9th century B.C.
  • Operation Moses, 1984-1985
    • USE FOR:
      • Airlift of Ethiopian Jews, 1984-1985
      • Falasha Rescue, 1984-1985
  • Operation Solomon, 1991
    • USE FOR:
      • Airlift of Ethiopian Jews, 1991
  • Palestinian Arabs—Israel
  • Palestine
  • Palestine—Boundaries (Jewish law)
    • USE FOR:
      • Israel—Boundaries (Jewish law)
  • Palestine—Emigration and immigration (Jewish law)
  • Palestine—History—Partition, 1947
  • Palestine—History—Proposed partition, 1937
  • War of Attrition, Middle East, 1969-1970

Jews, Judaism, Jewish Culture

  • Israelite family
  • Jews (can subdivide by place)

–subdivision Jews under individual wars, e.g. World War, 1939-1945—Jews; and    headings beginning with the word Jewish

    • Abayudaya
      • Per Wikipedia: A community in eastern Uganda near the town of Mbale who practice a form of Judaism. They are devout in their practice, keeping kashrut, and observing Shabbat. There are several different villages where the Abayudaya live. Most of these are recognized by the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism
    • African American Jews
    • Anglo-Israelism:
      • Per Wikipedia: British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a pseudoarchaeological movement which holds the view that the people of the British Isles are “genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants” of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.
    • Ashkenazim
    • Asian American Jews
    • Benjamin (Tribe of Israel)
    • Crypto-Jews
      • Per Wikipedia: The secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as “crypto-Jews” The term is especially applied historically to Spanish Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism, also known as Anusim or Marranos. The phenomenon is especially associated with renaissance Spain, following the 6 June, 1391, Anti-Jewish pogroms and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. As well as this, the term is applied to Jews in the Ottoman Empire known as the Dönmeh, who outwardly conformed to Islam.
    • Hasidim
      • Per Wikipedia: Hasidism, sometimes Hasidic Judaism is a Jewish religious group. It arose as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in Israel and the United States. Israel Ben Eliezer, the “Baal Shem Tov”, is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) Judaism, and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion. Its members adhere closely both to Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement’s own unique emphases – and the traditions of Eastern European Jews, so much so that many of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hasidism.
    • Israelis
    • Jewish-Arab relations
    • Jewish converts
    • Krimchaks
      • Per Wikipedia: The Krymchaks are Jewish ethno-religious communities of Crimea derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Orthodox Judaism.
    • Middle class Jews
    • Missions to Jews
    • Mitnaggedim
      • Per Wikipedia: Hebrew word meaning “opponents”.The term “Mitnaggedim” commonly refers to opponents of Hasidism. The term gained a common usage among Jews living in Europe as the term that referred to Ashkenazi Jews who opposed the rise and spread of early Hasidic Judaism.
    • Mizrahim
      • Per Wikipedia: Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahim, also referred to as Edot HaMizrach, Bene HaMizrah, or Oriental Jews, are descendants of local Jewish communities in the Middle East from biblical times into the modern era. They include descendants of Babylonian Jews from modern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, Syrian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Georgian Jews, Mountain Jews from Dagestan and Azerbaijan, Persian Jews from Iran, Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It also includes Maghrebi Jews from Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Morocco who lived in North Africa prior to the arrival of Sephardim.
    • Naphtali (Tribe of Israel)
    • Non-synagogue-affiliated Jews
    • Older Jews
    • Romaniots
      • Per Wikipedia: Romaniote Jews or Romaniotes are an ethnic Jewish community native to the Eastern Mediterranean. They are generally one of the oldest Jewish communities in existence and specifically the oldest Jewish community in Europe. Their distinct language was Judaeo-Greek, a Greek dialect that contained Hebrew along with some Aramaic and Turkish words but now speak modern Greek or the languages of their new home countries. They derived their name from the old name for the people of the Byzantine Empire, Romaioi. Large communities were located in Thebes, Ioannina, Chalcis, Corfu, Arta, Preveza, Volos, Patras, Corinth, and on the islands of Zakynthos, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, and Cyprus, among others. The Romaniotes are historically distinct and still remain distinct from the Sephardim, who settled in Ottoman Greece after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
    • Samaritans
    • Sephardim
      • Per Wikipedia: Sephardi Jews, also known as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim, originally from Sepharad, Spain, or the Iberian peninsula, are a Jewish ethnic division. They established communities throughout areas of modern Spain and Portugal, where they traditionally resided, evolving what would become their distinctive characteristics and diasporic identity, which they took with them in their exile from Iberia beginning in the late 15th century to North Africa, Anatolia, the Levant, Southeastern and Southern Europe, as well as the Americas, and all other places of their exiled settlement, either alongside pre-existing co-religionists, or alone as the first Jews in new frontiers.
    • Ultra-Orthodox Jews
    • Working class Jews
    • Mountain Jews:
      • Per Wikipedia: Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews also known as Juhuro, Juvuro, Juhuri, Juwuri, Juhurim, Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews are Jews of the eastern and northern Caucasus, mainly Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. They are the descendants of Persian Jews from Iran.
    • Jews, Bukharan
      • Per Wikipedia: Bukharan Jews, also Bukharian Jews or Bukhari Jews, are Jews of the Mizrahi branch from Central Asia who historically spoke Bukhori, a Tajik dialect of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara, which once had a sizable Jewish community. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or to the United States (especially Forest Hills, New York), while others have immigrated to Europe or Australia.
    • Jews–India
      • NARROWER TERMS:
        • Bene Ephraim
          • Per Wikipedia: The Bene Ephraim also called Telugu Jews because they speak Telugu, are a small community living primarily in Kotha Reddy palem, a village outside Chebrolu, Guntur District, and in Machilipatnam, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India, near the delta of the River Krishna.They claim to be descendants of the Tribe of Ephraim, of the Ten Lost Tribes, and since the 1980s have learned to practice modern Judaism.
        • Bene-Israel
          • Per Wikipedia: The Bene Israel (“Sons of Israel”), formerly known in India as the “Shanivar Teli” caste (Saturday Oil Presser caste) and later known as the “Native Jew Caste,” are a historic community of Jews in India. It has been suggested that it is made up of descendants of one of the disputed Lost Tribes and ancestors who had settled there centuries ago. In the 19th century, after the people were taught about normative (Ashkenazi/Sephardi) Judaism, they tended to migrate from villages in the Konkan area to the nearby cities, primarily Mumbai, but also to Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata, India; and Karachi, in today’s Pakistan. Many gained positions with the British colonial authority of the period. After India gained its independence in 1947, and Israel was established in 1948, most Bene Israel emigrated to Israel, Canada and other Commonwealth countries and the United States.
        • Bnei Menashe
          • Per Wikipedia: The Bnei Menashe are an ethnolinguistic group in India’s North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram.
  • Jews—Attitudes toward Israel
  • Jews—Conversion to Christianity
  • Jews—Cultural assimilation
  • Jews—Dietary laws
  • Jews—Election, Doctrine of
    • USE FOR:
      • Chosen people (Jews)
      • Election of Israel
      • Israel, Election of
      • Jews—Chosen people
      • Jews—Doctrine of election
      • Jews—Mission
  • Jews, Ethiopian
  • Jews—Languages
    • NARROWER TERMS:
      • Ḥakétia dialect
        • Dialect related to Ladino.
      • Hebrew language
      • Judeo-Arabic language
      • Judeo-French language
      • Judeo-Italian language
      • Judeo-Persian language
      • Karaim language
        • Per Wikipedia: The Karaim language is a Turkic language with Hebrew influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish or Judaeo-Spanish. It is spoken by only a few dozen Crimean Karaites (Qrimqaraylar) in Lithuania, Poland and Crimea and Galicia in Ukraine.
      • Krimchak language
        • Per Wikipedia: The Krymchak language is a moribund Turkic language spoken in Crimea by the Krymchak people. The Krymchak community was composed of Jewish immigrants who arrived from all over Europe and Asia and who continuously added to the Krymchak population.
      • Ladino language
        • Per Wikipedia: Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish, commonly referred to as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the former territories of the Ottoman Empire (the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa) as well as France, Italy, the Netherlands, Morocco, and England, it is today spoken mainly by Sephardic minorities in more than 30 countries, with most of the speakers residing in Israel. Although it has no official status in any country, it has been acknowledged as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, France and Turkey. It is also formally recognised by the Royal Spanish Academy.
      • Yiddish language
      • Judeo-Tat language
        • Per Wikipedia: Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is the traditional language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan and Dagestan, now mainly spoken in Israel.
  • Jewish clothing and dress
  • Jewish diaspora
  • Jewish funeral rites and ceremonies
  • Jewish marriage customs and rites
  • Klezmer music
    • Per Wikipedia: Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim in ensembles known as kapelye, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations. In the United States the genre evolved considerably as Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who arrived between 1880 and 1924, came into contact with American jazz. During the initial years after the klezmer revival of the 1970s, the American sub-variety was what most people knew as klezmer, although in the 21st century musicians began paying more attention to the original pre-jazz traditions as revivalists including Josh Horowitz, Yale Strom and Bob Cohen have spent years doing field research in Eastern/Central Europe. Additionally, later immigrants from the Soviet Union, such as German Goldenshtayn, took their surviving repertoires to the United States and Israel in the 1980s.
  • Lost tribes of Israel
  • Maimuna
    • Per the Jewish Virtual Library: Maimuna is a celebration held by Maghrebi Jews and many Eastern communities at the end of the last day of Passover which, according to tradition, is the anniversary of the death of Maimonides’ father Maimon ben Joseph who lived for a time in Fez.
  • Medical laws and legislation (Jewish law)
  • Oath more judaico
    • Per Wikipedia: The Oath More Judaico or Jewish Oath was a special form of oath, rooted in anti semitism and accompanied by certain ceremonies and often intentionally humiliating, painful or dangerous, that Jews were required to take in European courts of law until the 20th century.
  • People of God
  • Zaddikim
    • Per Wikipedia: Tzadik is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. Zaddikim is the plural of tzadik.
  • Zionism

History/Historical Terms

  • Blood accusation
    • Per Wikipedia: Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canard accusing Jews of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood as part of religious rituals. Historically, these claims—alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration—have been a major theme of the persecution of Jews in Europe.
  • Exodus, the
  • Exilarchate
    • Per Wikipedia: The Exilarch was the title of the leader of the Jewish community in Babylon during the era of the Parthians, Sassanids and Abbasids up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps akin to political developments.
  • Haavara
    • Per Wikipedia: The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank (under the directive of the Jewish Agency) and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine in 1933–1939.The agreement enabled Jews fleeing persecution under the new Nazi regime to transfer some portion of their assets to British Mandatory Palestine.
  • Haskalah
    • Per Wikipedia: The Haskalah, often termed Jewish Enlightenment was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world. It arose as a defined ideological worldview during the 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism. The Haskalah pursued two complementary aims. It sought to preserve the Jews as a separate, unique collective and worked for a cultural and moral renewal, especially a revival of Hebrew for secular purposes, pioneering the modern press and literature in the language. Concurrently, it strove for an optimal integration of the Jews in surrounding societies, including the study of native vernacular and adoption of modern values, culture and appearance, all combined with economic productivization.
  • Host desecration accusation
    • Per Wikipedia: Host desecration is a form of sacrilege in Christian denominations that follow the doctrine of real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It involves the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated host—the sacred bread used in the Eucharistic service of the Divine Liturgy or Mass (also known by Protestants simply as Communion bread). Accusations of host desecration (German Hostienschändung) leveled against Jews were a common pretext for massacres and expulsions throughout the Middle Ages in Europe.
  • Jews—England—History—Expulsion, 1290
  • Jews—History—Babylonian captivity, 598-515 B.C.
  • Jews—History—Bar Kokhba Rebellion, 132-135
  • Jews—History—Rebellion, 66-73
    • USE FOR:
      • Jewish-Roman War, 66-73 / Roman-Jewish War, 66-73
  • Jews—History—Rebellion, 115-117
  • Jews—Italy, Southern—History—Expulsion, 151
  • Jews—Italy, Southern—History—Expulsion, 1510
  • Jews—Restoration
    • Per Library of Congress: Here are entered works dealing with the belief—whether held by Jews or by Christians—that, in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, the Jews would some day return to Palestine, and thereby also meet a requirement for the realization of eschatological expectations.
  • Jews—Spain—History—Expulsion, 1492
  • Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
    • Per Wikipedia: The Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”) was an organised rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. Most importantly, the programme was supported, publicised and encouraged by the British Government, which waived some immigration requirements.
  • Nagid
    • Per Wikipedia: Nagid is a Hebrew term meaning a prince or leader. This title was often applied to the religious leader in Sephardic communities of the Middle Ages.
  • Pogroms
    • Per Wikipedia: A pogrom is a violent riot aimed at the massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, particularly one aimed at Jews.
  • Shtetls
    • Per Wikipedia: A shtetl was a small town with a large Jewish population, which existed in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. Shtetlekh and shtetls were mainly found in the areas that constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Austrian Galicia and Romania.
  • Syro-Ephraimitic War, ca. 734 B.C.
  • United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Jews
  • World War, 1939-1945—Jews—Rescue
  • World War, 1939-1945—Jewish resistance