"Bibliographical essays that summarize and evaluate the secondary literature for the 'student, teacher, researcher and librarian.' Specifically on offer here are 450 topics that focus primarily on the religion and ideology of Judaism, ranging chronologically from the ancient Near East to Zionism, and thematically from doctrines and concepts of God to sex and suicide [...] well conceived, planned and presented" (from the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament review by S.C. Reif).

"Works harder than its title would suggest. While, as a 'guide', it can do little more than map its terrain, the book offers far more than a survey of Judaism’s encounter with European modernity. Each contributor’s essay is sufficiently long, sophisticated and cutting-edge to genuinely develop the student and general reader’s knowledge and thinking" (from the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies review by Melissa Raphael).

"Provides an excellent introduction to the contemporary academic study of Judaism and everything related to it [...] intended to provide a snapshot of the current state of research in Jewish studies" (from the Religion & and Theology review by Christoph Stenschke).

Published by Libraries Unlimited, this annotated guide to reference works and bibliographies on Judaism includes many useful general sources, as well as an extensive list of specialized sources organized by subject. Its most lengthy chapter, on Jewish Communities of the Diaspora, is organized geographically and includes six pages of sources in a variety of languages relating to Poland/Russia/Ukraine/Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia. "A greatly expanded and revised edition of a classic in the field, this title responds to the recent exponential increase in knowledge and interest in things Jewish, especially the rapid growth of electronic media (including Web sites) as major research sources" (from the Choice review by D. Kranzler).

2 vols. "Neusner's focus is the study of the literature of Judaism and the culture of the Jewish community" (from the Shofar review).

"The book's primary audience will not be specialists or graduate students but rather the general reader and those at the intial stage of learning about Jews and Judaism [...] does not move beyond the European-American-Israeli mainstream" (from the Journal of American History review by Edward Shapiro).

"Despite the few questionable inclusions and omissions inevitable in undertakings of this nature, this collection is a fairly solid work. Its greatest weakness is the skimpy chapter on Jewish fiction, which could have been omitted with no great loss [...] Recommended as a basic, introductory bibliography to Judaica for the non-expert" (from the Library Journal review by Robert A. Silver).

2 volumes.

With a chapter on Jewish communities of the Diaspora.

Claims to be "one of the foremost bibliographic sources in the field of Jewish culture [...] containing 200,000 bibliographic records, representing the holdings of the member libraries."

Annotated bibliography of mostly secondary sources. Covers communities of the Jewish Diaspora by region and country.

See also volume 2: Bibliographical essays in medieval Jewish studies (1976). "Several contributions are useless to the working scholar; others are worthless as introductions for non-specialists. The volume's title implies a concern with Judaism qua religion and an aim of comprehensive coverage; but religion is at most marginal in most of the essays here presented, while such broad areas of Judaism as medieval philosophy, mysticism, and Bible commentary, as well as all periods and genres of Halacha, have been omitted" (from the Journal of the American Academy of Religion review by Asher Reiss).

Coverage: 1936-1971

Supplemented by Jewish serials of the world : a supplement to the research bibliography of secondary sources (2001).

"By far the richest source for Hebrew bibliography. Intended to include all books published in Hebrew characters, 1470-1960" (from Guide to Reference).

See also the expanded supplement (1979).