The »Encyclopaedia Judaica« first appeared between 1928 and 1934. It was the result of the work of many Jewish authors, scholars and politicians from various countries, who looked at the concepts of existing encyclopedias and expanded on them. Using the history of the origins of the »Encyclopaedia Judaica« as an example, Arndt Engelhardt traces the paths of Jewish knowledge cultures in the 19th and 20th centuries. He interprets the publication of these volumes as the strategic attempt to create a new Jewish canon of the culture and science of modern times.