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Despite the difficult time caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it has been with great enthusiasm that the issue of Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia Vol. 22 No. 3 (2021) on “Reading Javanese literature; New directions” has been prepared by Wacana in collaboration with experts in the field of the theme of the issue: Els Bogaerts and Tony Day. They represented the group of scholars who participated in the project “New Directions in the Study of Javanese Literature” in Jerusalem, Israel. This issue is mainly composed of the fruits of this project, namely: the revitalization of Javanese studies through reading, studying, and discussing various topics by a specialized group of scholars. Nine articles from the project which were intensively discussed in the weekly seminars held in Jerusalem between September 2018 and July 2019 have been compiled in this issue. Besides these articles, in line with the theme of the issue and to enrich the knowledge of Javanese literary texts from various periods, two more articles focusing on Javanese manuscripts have also been included. All the articles have been peer-reviewed, examined, and made ready for publication under the supervision of Els Bogaerts and Tony Day as the special editors of the issue. For more information especially about the project and the research behind it we refer to Purwaka written by Els Bogaerts and Tony Day with a comment by Danielle Chen Kleinman.