HISTORY OF THE JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY

HISTORY OF THE JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY
SHIMON BAKON
With this issue, we celebrate the 40th year
(157 issues) of uninterrupted publication of
the Jewish Bible Quarterly. The JBQ was
launched in the Fall of 1972 by Dr. Louis
Katzoff z"l under the title of Dor le Dor with
the prompting and full financial backing of
the World Jewish Bible Society, chaired by
Professor Haim Gevaryahu z"l. In its initial
phase, there were four members of the Editorial Board: Haim Gevaryahu, Michael Graetz,
Joseph Halpern and Louis Katzoff. The journal's stated purpose: "Dor le Dor is published
THE COVER OF THE FIRST ISSUE
by the World Jewish Bible Society for the
OF THE JOURNAL THEN KNOWN
English-reading
public and is directed primarAS DOR LE DOR
ily to the interests of Jewish laymen who
wish to deepen their understanding of their heritage through Bible study and
appreciation." This remains the guiding principle of the journal to this day.
Rabbi Dr. Louis Katzoff, who had been educational director of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Illinois, was greatly assisted by the Rev. Joseph
Halpern. Joseph Halpern had founded the Bible Readers' Union in England in
1939, publishing a monthly bulletin for its readers, and initiated the Triennial
Bible Study Cycle. Already in the first issue (Volume 1, Number 1) of Dor le
Dor there was a section on Bible chapters to be studied. By the second issue,
Dr. Katzoff was Editor, Jacob Gold was Managing Editor, and the following
members joined the Editorial Board: Dr. Sol Liptzin (a former professor at
City College), Rabbi Kassel Abelson, Rabbi Solomon Goldfarb, Eliezer
Livneh (editor of the Encyclopedia Hebraica), Rabbi Max Rothschild, Ben
Zion Luria (editor of Bet Mikra), Rabbi Hayyim Halpern and Rabbi Henry
Skirball. We are proud that Rabbis Halpern and Skirball still serve on the
Editorial Board and are active in the Association's finance and Bible Museum
committees. In 1975, Dr. Shimon Bakon, who had been on the staff of BosShimon Bakon, Ph.D., is the Editor of The Jewish Bible Quarterly.
HISTORY OF THE JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY
5
ton Hebrew College, joined the Editorial Board, and in 1976 was invited to
be Assistant Editor. In 1978, Dr. Gabriel Sivan, the present Chairman of the
Association, joined the Board after a number of years working as an editor of
the Encyclopaedia Judaica and, later, as the South African Zionist Federation's Director of Education and Information. Dr. Shimon Bakon was invited
by Dr. Louis Katzoff to serve as Associate Editor, with Chaim Abramowitz
as Assistant Editor. In addition to his editorial duties, Chaim Abramowitz
was responsible for arranging the triennial Bible reading cycle and the triennial index of articles. In 1980, Rabbi Dr. Chaim Pearl, who had served pulpits in London and New York and who had studied at Jews' College and the
University of Birmingham, joined the Editorial Board. In 1983, Rabbi Joshua
Adler joined the Board and in 1984 became Managing Editor, a position he
holds to this day. He is also our representative at the International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth, on whose board he serves with distinction.
EDITORIAL BOARD, 1976
LEFT TO RIGHT: HAIM ABRAMOWITZ, REV. JOSEPH HALPERN, PROF. SOL LIPTZIN,
DR. LOUIS KATZOFF [EDITOR], RABBI GERSHON LEVI,
DR. SHIMON BAKON [ASSISTANT EDITOR]
Vol. 40, No. 1, 2012
6
SHIMON BAKON
By 1981, the journal was already indexed or abstracted by Religious and
Theological
Abstracts,
Internationale
Zeitschriftenschau
für
Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete, and later by Old Testament Abstracts.
1987 marked the passing of Rabbi Dr. Louis Katzoff (Editor: 1972-1987)
and Chaim Abramowitz (Assistant Editor: 1978-1987). Dr. Shimon Bakon
was elected Editor with Rabbi Dr. Chaim Pearl serving as Associate Editor
and Dr. David Wolfers as Assistant Editor.
In 1989, the editors decided to change the name of the journal to the Jewish
Bible Quarterly to better reflect the aims and scope of the publication. In
1990, we were saddened by the death of Professor Haim Gevaryahu. Until
then we had been part of the World Jewish Bible Center, fully financed by
the Jewish Agency's Department of Jewish Education and Culture in the Diaspora. With his passing, the organization became an Israeli non-profit association, the Jewish Bible Association, which was partially funded by the Jewish Agency. At this juncture, Dr. Joshua Backon joined the Association and
became the Executive Secretary as well as editorial secretary of the journal.
As a former medical editor for a British publishing house, he instituted broad
changes in manuscript processing, computerized the databases and lists,
started using the Internet in journal production, and broadened the indexing
and abstracting services handling the journal to eventually include RAMBI,
Index to Jewish Periodicals, Religion Index One, EBSCOnet, the British Library, and Google. With the help of Dr. Joshua Adler, we posted a weekly
Internet quiz on Parashat ha-Shavu'a.
That same year, Rabbi Dr. Shubert Spero, Professor of Jewish Thought at
Bar Ilan University, joined the Editorial Board. Although he declined serving
officially as an editor, he became a highly valued member of the editorial
staff. Indeed, until recently, he hosted the biweekly meeting of the editors.
The years 1994-1996 were eventful for the JBQ. In 1994, Patricia Berlyn, a
former editor of Foreign Affairs, joined as Assistant Editor and later as Associate Editor. She rendered great service as volunteer copyeditor in addition to
her major editorial tasks. In 1995, we were saddened by the passing of Dr.
David Wolfers (Assistant Editor: 1987-1995) and Rabbi Dr. Chaim Pearl
(Associate Editor: 1988-1995). That same year the Jewish Agency reduced
the financial subsidy that they had been providing. Attorney Alan Pfeffer of
New York helped our Executive Secretary to set up the American Friends of
JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY
HISTORY OF THE JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY
7
the Jewish Bible Association, an American non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation
which raises funds to support the activities of the Jewish Bible Association in
Israel.
In 1996, Rabbi Dr. Theodore Steinberg, a former pulpit rabbi in the United
States, became Associate Editor and in 1997 Professor Dan Vogel, former
Dean of Stern College in New York, joined as a third Associate Editor.
That same year, under the supervision of Dr. Joshua Backon, we started our
college program, first under the auspices of Baltimore Hebrew University
and then through portfolio credits in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at Charter
Oak State College. From 2004 until 2009, our 92 college credits in Hebrew
and Judaic Studies were under the auspices of the New York State Board of
Regents and, from 2010, under the auspices of the State of Connecticut Board
of Regents CCAP program at Charter Oak State College.
By 2006-2007, negotiations had been concluded with indexing and abstracting services (EBSCO and GALE) that basically gave free full text access to the journal to hundreds of university and public libraries with a potential readership of tens of millions of people. Many JBQ articles were now
being quoted in other academic books and journals (http://scholar.google.com
and http://books.google.com) and academics were quoting their JBQ papers
on their cv's and in their college syllabi.
In 2009-2010, the Jewish Bible Association sustained a grave loss with the
passing of Rabbi Dr. Theodore Steinberg (Associate Editor: 1996-2009) and
Patricia Berlyn (Associate Editor: 1994-2010). In 2009, Rabbi Dr. Zvi Ron,
who has taught at a number of colleges in Israel, joined as Deputy Editor. In
2010, Dr. Ruth Walfish, head of the Bible Department at Efrata Teachers'
College, joined as a new Associate Editor.
An accomplished author, editor and translator, Dr. Gabriel Sivan has begun
correcting and harmonizing the transliteration of Hebrew in articles published
in the journal. Dr. Ron and Avi Levine used their expertise to overhaul our
Internet website www.jewishbible.org and to oversee the optical scanning
and indexing of all back volumes for full text access. Currently, more than
half of the volumes are available on the website. The Editor, who has been
with the JBQ since 1975, and all our deputy and associate editors volunteer
their time and work tirelessly to make the Jewish Bible Quarterly the premier
Vol. 40, No. 1, 2012
8
SHIMON BAKON
English-language academic journal dealing with the Tanakh under Jewish
auspices.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE MEETING, 2011 (PHOTO CREDIT: KINAMON RON)
LEFT TO RIGHT: RABBI DR. SHUBERT SPERO, PROFESSOR DAN VOGEL,
RABBI DR. ZVI RON, DR. SHIMON BAKON, DR. RUTH WALFISH
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Detailed Instructions for Authors and journal style
can be found on our Internet website:
http://www.jewishbible.org
JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY