Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/28

xx The carrying out of the project on so large a scale presented peculiar difficulties. To reduce the work of nearly 400 contributors, writing in various tongues, to anything like uniformity was itself a task of great magnitude, and necessitated the establishment of a complete bureau of translation and revision. The selection of the topics suitable for insertion in such an encyclopedia involved labor extending over twelve months, and resulted in a trial index of over 25,000 captions. The determination of the appropriate space to which each of these subjects was entitled was no easy task in the absence of any previous attempt in the same direction. The problem of the transliteration of Hebrew and Arabic words has been very perplexing for the members of the Editorial Board. While they would have preferred to adhere strictly to the somewhat elaborate method current among most Semitic scholars, the repellent effect of strange characters, accentual marks, and superscript letter deterred them from using it in a work intended as much for the general public as for scholarly use. There were also typographic difficulties in the way of using the more elaborate scheme. The board trusts that the system pursued here, which is, in the main, that proposed by the Geneva Congress of Orientalists, and adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society of England, and the Société Asiatique of Paris, and the American Oriental Society, will suffice to recall to the Jewish scholar of original Hewbrew, while indicating to the layman as close an approximation to the proper pronunciation as possible. Even here, however, having to deal with contributions emanating from scholars using different schemes of transliteration, they can not hope to have succeeded altogether in avoiding the lack of uniformity. It may perhaps be well to emphasize the fact that names occurring in the Bible have been throughout kept in the form familiar from the King James Version of 1611.

While acknowledging the possibility—nay, the certainty—of errors and omissions in a work so comprehensive and so full of minute details as the present work is, the editors consider themselves justified in asserting that no pains have been spared to secure accuracy and thoroughness. Each article has been subjected to a most elaborate system of revisions and verification, extending in each case to no less than twelve different processes. , of the Budapest Seminary;, and other scholars, in addition to the departmental editors, have read through all the proof-sheets with this special end in view.

It remains only to give due acknowledgment to the many institutions and friends, other than contributors, who have rendered services to the. The, of Philadelphia, has loaned many valuable and rare works for the purposes of verification and illustration. Much is due to the, particularly to its director, , to , chief of the Readers' department, and to , chief of the Jewish department, for special privileges accorded and assistance rendered; to the , which has placed at the disposal of the photographs of many objects of Jewish worship preserved in the department of Oriental Antiquities; to the ; to the American Jewish press for repeated notices; and to the proprietors of the  (London), for having placed the files of their journal at the disposal of the  "Dictionaire de la Bible," now in process of publication, has been of especial value in suggesting the latest sources of Biblical illustration. Pictorial material has been loaned by, along others, and the, for which the editors and publishers beg to return their acknowledgments.