Born in 1948 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, David Patterson is married to Gerri Patterson and has two daughters: Miriam and Rachel.  He received a B.A. (1972) in philosophy from the University of Oregon and went on to earn an M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1978) in comparative literature from the same university.  In 1990 he converted to Judaism.

Dr. Patterson currently holds the Bornblum Chair of Excellence in Judaic Studies at The University of Memphis and is Director of the University’s Bornblum Judaic Studies Program.  He has taught at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oregon.  He has served as the Sutton Chair in the Humanities at the University of Oklahoma and as a guest professor at Pepperdine University.  He has taught courses on Israel, Jewish thought, Kabbalah, the Holocaust, Judaism, ethics, masterworks of philosophy and literature, Russian literature, and others.  An active member of the World Union of Jewish Studies and the Association for Jewish Studies, he has delivered lectures at numerous universities and community organizations throughout the world.  He is also a consultant to the Philadelphia Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, a participant in the Weinstein Symposium on the Holocaust, a member of the Advisory Board for the Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust, on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee State Holocaust Commission, the Facing History and Ourselves International Board of Advisors, Hadassah Academic Advisory Board, and a member of the Scholars’ Platform for the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre, Cambridge, England.  He also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Stephen S. Weinstein Series in Post-Holocaust Studies (formerly Goldner Series), published by the University of Washington Press.
  

A winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award and the National Jewish Book Award, Dr. Patterson has published more 30 books and more than 130 articles and chapters in journals and books in philosophy, literature, Judaism, Holocaust, and education.  His writings have been anthologized in Yom Kippur Readings (ed. Dov Peterz Elkins, 2005), Holocaust Theology (ed. Dan Cohn-Sherbok, 2002), The Holocaust: Readings and Interpretations (ed. J. R. Mitchell and H. B. Mitchell, 2001), and Great Jewish Quotations (ed. Alfred Kolatch, 1996).  His books include Sounding the Depths of the Soul (2009), Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Drawing Honey from the Rock (with Alan L. Berger, 2008), Overcoming Alienation: A Kabbalistic Reflection on the Five Levels of the Soul (2008), Emil L. Fackenheim: A Jewish Philosopher’s Response to the Holocaust (2008),  Open Wounds: The Crisis of Jewish Thought in the Aftermath of Auschwitz (2006), Wrestling with the Angel: Toward a Jewish Understanding of the Nazi Assault on the Name (2006), Hebrew Language and Jewish Thought (2005), Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary (1999; winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought/Philosophy); Sun Turned to Darkness: Memory and Recovery in the Holocaust Memoir (1998), The Greatest Jewish Stories Ever Told (1997), When Learned Men Murder (1996), Exile: Alienation in Modern Russian Letters (1995; winner of Choice Award), Pilgrimage of a Proselyte: From Auschwitz to Jerusalem (1993), The Shriek of Silence: A Phenomenology of the Holocaust Novel (1992), In Dialogue and Dilemma with Elie Wiesel (1991), Literature and Spirit (1988; first runner-up MMLA Book Award), The Affirming Flame (1988; winner of Choice Award), and Faith and Philosophy (1982). He is the editor and translator of the English edition of The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry (2002), and he is a major contributor and co-editor (with Alan L. Berger) of the Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature (2002), as well as co-editor (with John K. Roth) of Fire in the Ashes: God, Evil, and the Holocaust (2005) and After-Words: Post-Holocaust Struggles with Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Justice (2004).  

Dr. Patterson's CV