The Encyclopedia Judaica was published more than 30 years ago, but it remains one of the most comprehensive and reliable sources of information on Jewish history and religion. Still, the explosive growth of academic Jewish Studies in the last few decades — not to mention the march of history — guaranteed that a new edition would be needed at some point. Apparently, that some point is now.

JTA reports that a new edition of the EJ will be available on December 8. In addition to the 2,700 new entries, approximately 11,000 entries have been updated.

It will be interesting to see what was and wasn’t changed and how certain political issues were covered, but perhaps, just as interesting to see who will pay the encyclopedia’s $1,995 price tag.