Zachary J. Braiterman Assistant Professor Office: 509 Hall of Languages Phone: 315-443-3861 zbraiter@syr.edu

Professor Braiterman works in the field of modern Judaism, specializing in the 20th century. His latest project examines shifting aesthetic canons defined by Jugendstil, Expressionism, and Bauhaus as they shape modern Jewish thought and culture in Germany prior to the Holocaust. Research and teaching interests touch upon the impact of modernity upon Jewish self-expression, ritual, text-interpretation, and community life. These include modern Jewish philosophy, theoretical aesthetics, and classical Jewish sources.

Ph.D., Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies (1995)
B.A., University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (1988))

• Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, Syracuse University,
  1997-present.
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University
  of Pennsylvania, Spring 2001.
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies,
  Rice University, 1996-1997.
• Adjunct Lecturer, The University of Judaism, 1995.
• Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, Santa Clara
  University, 1994-1995.

Publications:

Books:

	The Shape of Revelation: Aesthetics and Modern Jewish Thought (Stanford University Press, 2007)
	(God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought (Princeton University Press, 1998)

Book Chapters:

• "A Modern Mitzvah-Space-Aesthetic," in an edited volume by Ezra Mendelssohn, collecting the proceedings from the 2001 symposium at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (forthcoming).
• "'Elu ve-Elu': Reading (the) Difference (between) Rabbinic Textuality (and) Postmodern Philosophy," to appear in Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study at the End of the Twentieth Century, Peter Ochs and Nancy Levene, eds. (forthcoming).
• "Cyclical Motions and the Force of Repetition in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig," in Beginning Again: Towards a Hermeneutic of Jewish Texts, eds. Aryeh Cohen and Shaul Magid. Seven Bridges Press, 2002.

Journal Articles:

• "Aesthetics and Judaism, Art and Revelation" in Jewish Studies Quarterly, (11:4, 2004), 366-85.
• "Against Leo Strauss" in The Journal of the Society for Textual Reasoning, (online) (3:1, 2004).
• Response to Peter Ochs, "Behind the Mechitza: Reflections on the Rules of Textual Reasoning," in The Journal of Textual Reasoning: Rereading Judaism After Modernity (1:1, 2002).
• Response to Marc Bregman, "AQEDAH: Midrash as Visualization" in Textual Reasoning: A Journal of the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network (Vol. 10, 2001).
• "Joseph Soloveitchik and Immanuel Kant's Mitzvah-Aesthetic," AJS Review (25:1, 2000-2001).
• "Against Holocaust-Sublime: Naive Reference and the Generation of Memory," History and Memory (12:2, 2000).
• "Der Ästhet Franz Rosenzweig: Beautiful Form and Religious Thought," Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (Vol. 10, 2000).
• "Response to Jacob Neusner," in Religious Education (95:1, 2000).
• "Teaching Jewish Studies in a Radically Gentile Space: Some Personal Reflections," Religious Education (94:4, 1999).
• "`Into Life'? Franz Rosenzweig and the Figure of Death," in AJS Review (23:2, 1998).
• "Fideism Redux: Emil Fackenheim and The State of Israel," in Jewish Social Studies (4:1, 1997).
• "`Hitler's Accomplice'?! The Tragic Theology of Richard Rubenstein" in Modern Judaism (17, 1997).
• "Anti/theodic Faith in the Thought of Eliezer Berkovits" in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (7:1, 1997).

Booknotes and reviews:

• Review of Leora Batnitzky, Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered, for AJS Review (in press).
• Note on Kalman Bland, The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual, for Religious Studies Review (27:4, 2001).
• Note on Vivian Mann (ed.), Jewish Texts on the Visual Arts, for Religious Studies Review (27:4, 2001).
• Note on Eleonore Lappin, Der Jude 1916-1928, in Religious Studies Review (27:3, 2001).
• Note on Cordula Hufnagel, Die kultische Gebärde: Kunst, Politik, Religion im Denken Franz Rosenzweigs, in Religious Studies Review (27:3, 2001).
• Review of Irving Greenberg, Living in the Image of God, in Conservative Judaism (52:3, 2000).
• Note on Noah Isenberg, Between Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Ernest Rubinstein, An Episode of Jewish Romanticism: Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Avraham Shapira, Hope for our Time: Key Themes in the Thought of Martin Buber, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Paul Mendes-Flohr, German Jews: A Dual Identity, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Gilya G. Schmidt (ed & trans), The First Buber: Youthful Zionist Writings of Martin Buber, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Inga Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust, in Religious Studies Review (26, 2000).
• Note on Jonathan R. Herman, I and Tao: Martin Buber's Encounter with Chuang Tzu, in Religious Studies Review (26:1, 2000).
• Note on Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner, Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness, in Religious Studies Review (26:1, 2000).
• Note on Barbara E. Galli (ed. and trans.), Franz Rosenzweig's "The New Thinking," in Religious Studies Review, (26:1, 2000).
• Note on Barbara E. Galli (ed. and trans.), God, Man, and the World: Lectures and Essays of Franz Rosenzweig, in Religious Studies Review (26:1, 2000).
• Note on Rebecca Alpert, Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition, in Religious Studies Review (26:1, 2000).
• Note on Steven Kepnes, Peter Ochs, and Robert Gibbs (eds.), Reasoning after Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Note on Michael Fishbane and Judith Glatzer Wechsler (eds.), The Memoirs of Nahum N. Glatzer, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Note on Ezra Mendelsohn (ed.), Art and Its Uses: The Visual Image and Modern Jewish Society, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Note on Gideon Ofrat, One Hundred Years of Art in Israel, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Note on Andrew Benjamin, Present Hope: Philosophy, Architecture, Judaism, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Note on Michael Andre Bernstein, Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History, in Religious Studies Review (25:2, 1999).
• Review of Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, Better than Wine: Love, Poetry, and Prayer in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, in Textual Reasoning: Journal of the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network (7:3, 1998).
• Note on Ezra Mendelsohn (ed.), Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts, in Religious Studies Review, (24:4, 1998).
• Note on T.L. Brink, Holocaust Survivors' Mental Health, in Religious Studies Review (22:4, 1996).
• Note on Aaron Hass, The Aftermath: Living with the Holocaust, in Religious Studies Review (22:2, 1996).