Dr. David Patterson

Hillel A. Feinberg and Mr. and Mrs. John H. Massey established the endowed position in November 2007. Patterson was appointed in September 2010. The position supports the scholarly, educational and community outreach activities of an internationally recognized scholar of Holocaust studies, including related aspects of European and American history. This includes literature, culture and politics that form the context of the Holocaust.


“When I think of my time here at UT Dallas and the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, my overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude. I am especially grateful to Hobson Wildenthal and my colleague, Zsuzsanna Ozsvath. I shall strive to merit the kindness and the confidence they have shown me.”

Dr. David Patterson is a 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 a consultant to many national organizations, including the Philadelphia Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He was also a participant in the Weinstein Symposium on the Holocaust.

He also serves as co-editor-in-chief for the Stephen S. Weinstein Series in Post-Holocaust Studies, published by the University of Washington Press.

A winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Koret Jewish Book Award, Patterson has published more 30 books and more than 140 articles and chapters in journals and books in philosophy, literature, Judaism, Holocaust and education.

Patterson 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 and Sarita Cargas) 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). He has also translated literary works by Ivan Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy.

Patterson’s most recent book is Genocide in Jewish Thought (2012). He has his doctorate from the University of Oregon.