Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies

Melilah is an interdisciplinary electronic journal 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 Professor Bernard Jackson, Dr. Daniel Langton and Dr. Ephraim Nissan, supported by a Manchester-based editorial board 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 by the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester in 2004 as the New Series of the (Hebrew language) journal of the same name founded by Edward Robertson and Meir Wallenstein and published 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 Notes for Contributors.