Signer un document, un livre, une œuvre d'art, semble aller de soi. Il n'en a pas toujours été ainsi. Il n'en est pas partout ainsi. Mais d'abord qu'est-ce que signer? Apposer son paraphe? son sceau? Imposer la marque de son style? La signature a aussi partie liée avec le masque et le secret, la personne de l'écrivain (ou de l'artiste), le besoin qu'il a de se voiler, se dévoiler, se rattacher à la tradition ou s'en écarter. Autant de questions qui trouvent leur place dans les pages de ce volume.

An important feature of this book on Language, Identity and Immigration is its broad representation of different disciplines, scholars, research methodologies and international perspectives. Such variation and plurality further enhance the overall complexity of global migration, while focusing on the central role of language in the identity crises caused by immigration. The volume consists of five different parts with the first two being devoted to the process of acculturation, the next two to processes of language maintenance and developing bilingualism, and the last focusing on the larger social context. The sixteen articles included in the book are mostly based on presentations given at the international conference on Immigration, Language Acquisition and Patterns of Social Integration, held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the summer of 1994, under the auspices of the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education.

The civic state functions by covenant, consensus, contract and compact to protect and enhance the lives of all citizens living in a defined territory. This book elaborates on the full range of conditions of a civic state drawing on literature from many branches of the social sciences.

Among the numerous texts in Jewish script from the Judean desert, only a small number, mostly non-literary texts, are written in a cursive hand, and to this day their script has not been systematically studied. These documents are presented in this collection together with comparative epigraphical material. Three main characteristics of the cursive script make its decipherment particularly difficult: The many variant forms of each letter on one hand, and the resemblance in form of different letters on the other. Ligatures of letters or words often lacking the characteristic features of the individual letters. And the omission of strokes or the change in their form as a result of rapid writing. Due to these difficulties, decipherment is often based on context. Reading texts in cursive script is only achieved through experience and practice, and requires a systematic analysis of the letterforms as well as a thorough examination of their components. The vocabulary of the documents becomes part of Aramaic and Hebrew dictionaries; erroneous readings will introduce false forms and ghost-words. The documents in this book are presented in transcription, translation, facsimile drawings traced from the original, and in alphabetic charts.

SHNATON - An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies – is the most important Hebrew Journal for the research of Biblical Verse and the world in which it existed. It includes article from all areas of research of Biblical Studies in which are included Biblical Verse, Ancient Near East and its History, Languages and Literature all of which are inter linked with Biblical Verse, External Literature, the Judean Desert Scrolls, Ancient translations and the History of Commentary through the generations. The Annual also includes a special critical section for comprehensive criticism of recently published books in these issues.