The Role of Multilingual Computing in Jewish Studies

Abstract

Academics, and other scholars in Jewish Studies, base their research on published and unpublished materials that encompass a variety of scripts and languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Slavic, and other European, Semitic, North African and Asiatic languages. The number of texts and research tools in Hebrew, and other Latin and non-Latin scripts available electronically are increasing exponentially. They may appear in the form of text, images or sound, or, in combination. Each medium presents its own particular problems for storage and retrieval, as well as for the integration of material into a useable corpus or database, but with time, these problems become less complicated. Improvements in technology are rapidly changing Judaica bibliography and Jewish Studies research methods improvements that directly impact scholars' ability to handle multiscript and multilingual data in a computing environment. Little research, however, has addressed the technical needs of academics working with the diverse group of languages associated with Jewish Studies.