Melilah is an interdisciplinary journal available in both electronic and book form (published by Gorgias Press) concerned with Jewish law, history, literature, religion, culture and thought in the ancient, medieval and modern eras. It encourages work from younger scholars at the start of their academic careers as well as contributions from established scholars. The journal takes advantage of the nature of the electronic medium, which facilitates the publication of studies of various lengths as soon as they are ready, and which makes peer-reviewed articles freely available for browsing and downloading. The joint editors are Daniel Langton and Renate Smithuis, with Francesca Frazer providing editorial assistance, supported by a Manchester-based editorial board that includes Philip Alexander, Moshe Behar, Rocco Bernasconi, Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Cathy Gelbin, Alex Samely, and Bill Williams, and an international advisory board that includes Miriam Ben-Zeev, Gad Freudenthal, Moshe Idel, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Shmuel Moreh, Norman Solomon, David Sorkin, Günter Stemberger, Paul Wexler and Eli Yassif.

Melilah was launched in 2004 by Bernard Jackson and Ephraim Nissan under the auspices of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester as the New Series of the journal of the same name founded by Edward Robertson and Meir Wallenstein and published (in Hebrew) by Manchester University Press from 1944 to 1955. Five substantial volumes, each of around two hundred pages, were produced before the series was discontinued. In his editorial foreword to the first edition, Robertson explained that Melilah had been established to promote Jewish scholarship in the face of the threat posed by the War and its aftermath. The title of the journal refers to the ears of corn that are plucked to rub in the hands before the grains can be eaten (Deut. 23:25).

If you wish to be informed when a new article appears, please send your email address to melilah@manchester.ac.uk with 'Add to Melilah mailing list' in the subject line. If you are interested in contributing to Melilah, please see Contributor Notes.