Scientific illustration from 1897 of ruta graveolens from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen by Franz Eugen Köhler.
Looking for Earth Day reading?
Try Sarah Abrevaya Stein's 2022 essay "The Queen of Herbs: A Plant’s-Eye View of the Sephardic Diaspora," which she describes as an "ethnobotanical, historical study" of the plant known as ruta graveolens, rue, or ruda.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Check out Elly Moseson's essay in our current issue, which "sheds new light on the complex role played by literature in the transformation of Hasidism from a small local phenomenon into a mass movement."
👇
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
In JQR 116.1, Vered Noam investigates why primordial priestly figures in Second Temple Jewish culture who had all but disappeared from early rabbinic literature are celebrated in the High Holiday prayers.
Check out her essay!
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
We combed through the winners and finalists of the latest AJS Schnitzer Awards and National Jewish Book Awards for JQR alumni, and we have gathered their essays on our blog.
Some open-access research by the honorees for your reading pleasure!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
If you read Benjamin Pollock's essay in our current issue, "Redactor Is Rabbenu: The Editorial Theology of the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible," check out his 2012 JQR essay "On the Road to Marcionism: Franz Rosenzweig’s Early Theology."
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Don't miss Elnatan Chen's scholarly note in our winter issue, which assembles evidence for the existence and nature of a previously unknown exegetical text on the Prophets by 11th-cent. Hebrew grammarian Jonah Ibn Janāḥ.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
On our blog, Joseph Davis traces afterlives of the tale of Ashmedai, the demon who impersonated King Solomon and ruled for a while in his stead.
Learn about the history of this fascinating story and read JQR essays on the topic, now in open access!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
JQR has long published scholarly "notes" on interesting intellectual nuggets. In 2016 we even devoted a forum--a collection of short essays--to such shortform scholarship! Read our thoughts on the note in this 2016 blog post (and consider submitting one!):
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
In JQR 116.1, Katalin Rac unravels the intertwined stories of a paprika merchant and a food journalist in 18th-19th c. Hungary to reveal how Jews contributed to Hungarian cuisine and identity, and how paprika became part of Jewish integration into Hungarian culture.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
In our latest issue you’ll find:
-Primordial priestly figures in the High Holiday prayers
-The role of literature in the origins of Hasidism
-Food and Jewish identity in 18-19th c. Hungary
-The theology of the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible
-Evidence for a previously unknown medieval exegetical text
JQR's move to open access represents a new era in the life of the journal. In a letter to readers in our winter issue and on our blog, the editors reflect on the transition.
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
In our fall issue, Edan Dekel and David Gantt Gurley published their 3rd essay tracing the literary roots of the Golem legend. Now on the JQR blog, they reflect on the path their research took.
Peruse their conversation and read all 3 essays for free!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
Open access has arrived at JQR! You can now read our recent content on Project Muse and our archives on JSTOR for free.
Our inaugural OA issue, JQR 116.1, has something for everyone. Check it out!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
In our fall issue Isabelle Levy & David Torollo offer the first English translation of a fascinating 13th-cent mixed-form composition by Jacob ben El‘azar: the Sefer ha-meshalim (Book of stories), which stages a debate between a poet and a prosaist.
Don't miss it!
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
PLUS, if you're interested in the reception of Greek philosophy in medieval Jewish lit, don't miss Halper's 2017 JQR essay "Socrates and Socratic Philosophy in Judah Halevi's Kuzari"!
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article
In his latest JQR essay, Yehuda Halper investigates Frederick II Hohenstaufen's support for the translation of commentaries on Aristotle & Porphyry into Hebrew, arguing that it evidences a broader goal of making the medical curriculum accessible to Jews.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
In JQR 115.4, Ossnat Sharon-Pinto untangles the translation method of late 18th- and early 19th-cent Jüdisch-Deutsch novellas of the Frankfurt (Oder) press.
Find out how she contextualizes them in maskilic lit and culture:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Are you a scholar with an open access publishing mandate as a condition of your grant or fellowship? Consider submitting to JQR! The journal will become OA in winter 2026, including all past and future issues.
After unraveling the legend of the Prague golem in two JQR essays (2013, 2017), Edan Dekel & David Gantt Gurley are back with new findings about the tale's origins!
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
But first, get up to speed with a blog post from the archives:
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
With @jewishstudies.bsky.social's annual conference in full swing, one of @thejqr.bsky.social's most-read pieces is now freely available: muse.jhu.edu/article/959927
As the JQR transitions to Open Access in 2026, its full archive becomes even more valuable to scholars!
#AJS25 #JewishStudies
In our current issue, Matan Orian reconciles ostensibly contradictory Second Temple sources attesting to the possibility of conversion to Judaism, arguing that they reflect different stages in a generations-long process of a family becoming Jewish.
Check it out!
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Rachel Gordan's book Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American was a finalist!
She recently published "Fagin, Censorship, and Freedom of Speech: The Postwar Reckoning with Literary Antisemitism" (2025).
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Hannah Pollin-Galay won the prize in Jewish Literature & Linguistics for her book Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish.
Before that, she published "'A Rubric of Pain Words': Mapping Atrocity with Holocaust Yiddish Glossaries" (2020).
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Iris Idelson-Shein won for Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe!
Read her 2023 essay w/ Magdaléna Jánošíková, “New Science in Old Yiddish: Jewish Vernacular Science and Translation in Early Modern Europe.”
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
We are thrilled that three 2025 Schnitzer winners and finalists prefigured their award-winning books in JQR publications: Iris Idelson-Shein, Hannah Pollin-Galay, and Rachel Gordan.
Check out their JQR essays in this thread. A warm congratulations to all the honorees!
Our fall issue is out with a range of essays spanning antiquity to the modern period, and including literature, philosophy, and more!
Don't have access? It will become open access in winter 2026 along with our whole back catalog!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
JQR 115.4 is out, feat. essays on conversion to Judaism in antiquity, 13th c. philosophical commentaries, Jüdisch-Deutsch novellas, and the winding modern reception of a 17th c. rabbi, PLUS a text and translation of a medieval prose-poetry story!
Peruse the TOC:
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
We had a great time kicking off #OAWeek with a panel of Penn Press journal editors (including from Change Over Time, @easmisc.bsky.social, @thejqr.bsky.social, and @sims-mss.bsky.social's Manuscript Studies) discussing their experiences with and thoughts on Open Access publishing!
This #OAweek event is starting soon! See you there.
Interested in our decision to make JQR open access? Join us for the OA Week event "Before and After the Open Access Transition: Penn Editors Share Their Experiences," featuring JQR's own Natalie Dohrmann.
Oct. 20, 11:30AM EST. Free, hybrid, open to the public.
library.upenn.edu/events/open-...