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Israel - Bar-Ilan University To Offer 1000’s Of Seforim To Read Online
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Israel - Thousands of Jewish religious and other texts in Hebrew will be made available online for the first time by Bar-Ilan University, as part of an initiative sponsored by President Shimon Peres.
The texts, which will be accessible via a special search engine, will be funded by donations raised by Peres.
“Bar-Ilan University seems like the most worthy place to found the ‘Jewish digital book stand’,” Peres said on Monday.
University officials estimated that the database dubbed “the Jewish digital book stand” will be up and running within a year. Bar-Ilan President Professor Moshe Kave described the project as “the greatest Jewish-cultural enterprise since the invention of scripture.” He said teams are already at work in order to make the plans available.
Over the past decades, many countries have operated similar projects making texts available to the public via the World Wide Web. For instance, the Google Books project has made over a million books - mostly in the English language - available online. Only a few such projects have been initiated in Israel. Some 900 ancient scrolls in Hebrew have also been scanned and been placed online.
Bar-Ilan University was chosen to carry out the project because of its experience in handling the “Questions and Answers” project which amassed a large volume of Halakhic and rabbinical texts and placed them online. The project, which has been operating for over 15 years, won the Israel Prize last year. Though the Q and A project charges Web surfers money to tap its database, the new project will be free.
The works slated for inclusion in the project will be selected by academics from Bar-Ilan and other universities over the next few months. In addition, a section of the data us Hebrew texts, spanning the timeline from the Enlightenment until the modern era. The database will only include texts whose authors have been dead for over 70 years, and whose copyright has become available to the public.
The Web site operators, however, plan to make excerpts of more recently written texts available to Internet surfers with the approval of the authors. Such excerpts will feature links to the publishers’ Web sites where the books may be purchased in their entirety.
06-05-2008 - 10:24 AM
and who said the medinah and the tzionim dont care about harbotas torah?
mi kiamcha yosroel!!!!!
06-05-2008 - 10:28 AM
06-05-2008 - 10:34 AM
06-05-2008 - 10:45 AM
06-05-2008 - 12:20 PM
06-05-2008 - 12:41 PM
I find it interesting how you managed to post that comment without entering this "church" ch'v.
06-05-2008 - 1:37 PM
Am I going to be able to research a Rashba, or is this just going to be poetry by Yitz KaMendel??
06-05-2008 - 3:48 PM
You should know many of the same Rabbis who say no internet or email use it in communication and research of sheylot and teshuvot. There are frequently more orthodox Rabbis researching certain data bases and libraries than the Conservative and reform for which intended.
06-05-2008 - 4:16 PM
We of course cannot measure zechusim, maybe this one thing will keep him out of G----OM.
06-05-2008 - 4:42 PM
he has other zechusim as well. I believe I've heard that he was the one who convinced ben gurion not to draft yeshiva bochurim to the army.
06-05-2008 - 5:33 PM
06-05-2008 - 8:56 PM
06-06-2008 - 1:56 AM
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