CONVERSATION WITH ... Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Greenwich rabbi publishes Jewish encyclopediaBy Stacey Dresner GREENWICH - With "Encyclopedia of Judaism," their new 640-page work, Rabbi Mitchell Hurvitz and his co-author Sara E. Karesh, have set out to encapsulate all things Jewish. Recently published by Facts on File, "Encyclopedia of Judaism" features 800 A-Z entries including Jewish personalities, theological concepts, historical events, institutions and more. The book targets young adults and was designed to "allow readers to access Judaism from both a historical and contemporary perspective." Born in Boston and raised in Palo Alto, California, Rabbi Hurvitz earned a BA in history in 1986 from UCLA where he was president of the Jewish Student Union and Assistant Director of Programming for Hillel. In 1991, he earned a Master of Hebrew Letters degree from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He moved to New York in 1992 to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He earned a second masters degree in Jewish Studies and rabbinic ordination with a concentration in Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Education from the Seminary in 1996. He came to Temple Sholom as assistant rabbi in June 1995. In 1998, he assumed responsibilities as the associate rabbi, and in 2001 he became the synagogue's senior rabbi. He and his wife, Roseanne, have four children, Simon, Naomi, Ezra and Faith. Rabbi Hurvitz has known Dr. Sara Karesh for 12 years. They were graduate students together at JTS, and worked together at Temple Israel in Great Neck N.Y. Karesh is a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and today is a teacher at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland. Rabbi Hurvitz recently spoke to the Ledger about their new collaboration. Q: How did this project "Encyclopedia of Judaism" come about? A: Dr. Karesh was approached in 2001 to write a book on the "Jewish Faith in America." She sought my co-authorship then, but I had just become senior rabbi at Temple Sholom and I didn't feel prepared to join in full partnership for this particular project. I referred her to my friend and a colleague, Dr. Shelley Buxbaum, and they co-authored the book together. I agreed to write the introduction for this book, and after the submission our publisher expressed an interest in having Dr. Karesh and I author their new "Encyclopedia of Judaism," which was to be part of their comparative religion encyclopedia series. We were given a window of several years to do our research, and with a disciplined schedule we were able to complete our task. Q: What made you want to do this work in encyclopedia form? Is doing an encyclopedia easier or harder than other kinds of books? A: The publisher desired the encyclopedia format, so we knew the direction we were heading from the very beginning. To some extent, the project resembled writing multiple mini-term papers. The challenge was to take expansive subject matters and attempt to keep each article under 650 words on average. The editing was much more difficult than the research or the writing itself. An additional challenge for me was taking the "rabbi" out of certain subject matters. When I write sermons, or my columns, I have the liberty to write as my feelings dictate, without the need for formal documentation, footnotes, etc. There is a significant difference between preaching, and scholarly research, and I had to readjust my own writing style to fit with what was required of us for this project. Our editor, Gordon Melton, is not Jewish, and he forced us to confront the reality that "no assumptions" could be made on behalf of our readers. He also wanted to ensure a "non-bias" on certain subjects in particular. This became one of the more interesting discussions with our publisher with the articles relating to Israel. Every word and idea was discussed and debated because the publisher wanted to make sure there was no bias. In the end, the essence of what we wrote was retained, but the challenge was important. Too often people state their opinions without the hard facts at their fingertips. This Encyclopedia project demanded the facts come first, and then the appropriate scholarly interpretation. Q: How did you go about deciding which entries to include and which not to include? A: One of the greater challenges was coming up with our proposed headword list. Dr. Karesh and I both wrote up our own lists and then compared. What we had similar, we mostly kept, and then we had friendly debates about the rest. The wrinkle came with submission to the publisher. They wanted us to include a greater amount of contemporary "popular" articles, especially on certain Jewish figures. I don't think previous to this project either Dr. Karesh or I would have ever believed we would one day write a published article on Barbra Streisand, but we actually found this particular challenge enjoyable. Q: Can you tell us about the process of writing and compiling the information in the book? A: After determining the headword list, writing the introduction, and fixing the historical chronology, we addressed each article. The bulk of the actual writing took place in 2003-2004. Dr. Karesh and I are fortunate in having friends who have areas of expertise in different areas within Judaism. They provided great help with our research, and helped shore up areas in which our personal knowledge was not as vast. An amazing learning element for us during this project is how much material is accessible via the web. The online library Questia.com was a great resource, and other reliable Jewish internet sites were very valuable. There are also so many wonderful resource books to utilize, and at times the challenge was to stop the research, and just start writing. We knew we were creating an overview for the history and collective civilization of the Jewish People. We attempted to create a balance between articles set in different historical periods: Biblical, Talmudic, Medieval, pre-Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment. The challenge of covering more than 3,000 years of history in only 600 pages is daunting. We had to prioritize the individuals, places, events, theologies, ideologies, organizations, movements, and denominations that helped to create the multi-faceted Judaism that exists today. Q: Who is the book geared toward? A: Our Encyclopedia is theoretically intended for a non-Jewish young adult audience. The irony in writing this book is that the publisher didn't appreciate how valuable to a Jewish audience this reference guide would be. Each article attempts to be very concise in its information. At the conclusion of every article we provide suggested resources for further readings. If someone were to read the entire book they would significantly increase their Jewish knowledge, and also have the ability to be guided for future productive study. Having had significant experience teaching Jewish adults, I believe our book would be a welcome addition to their personal libraries.