SAUL NOAM ZARITT
206 Dana-Palmer, 16 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 • zaritt at fas.harvard.edu • 617-495-1715
CURRENT POSITION
Harvard University, Associate Professor of Yiddish Literature in the Departments of Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
EDUCATION
The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, NY, PhD Jewish Literature, 2015
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, MA Hebrew Literature, with honors, 2009
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, BA Comparative Literature, with honors, 2004
BOOK
Maybe to Millions, Maybe to Nobody: Jewish American Writing and World Literature, Oxford University Press, 2020
PEER REVIEW PUBLICATIONS
“A Taytsh Manifesto: Yiddish, Translation, and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture,” Jewish Social Studies 26, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 186-222, https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.26.3.07.
“Yankev Glatshteyn/Jacob Glatstein,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies, 27 June 2018, http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/abstract/document/obo-9780199840731/obo-9780199840731-0172.xml.
“Maybe for Millions, Maybe for Nobody: Jewish American Writing and the Undecidability of World Literature,” American Literary History 28, no. 3 (2016): 542–573, doi: 10.1093/alh/ajw039.
“The World Awaits Your Yiddish Word: Jacob Glatstein and the Problem of World Literature,” Studies in American Jewish Literature 34, no. 2 (2015): 175–203, https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerjewilite.34.2.0175.
“Ruins of the Present: Yaakov Shabtai’s Anti-Nostalgia,” Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History 33, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 251–274, https://doi.org/10.2979/prooftexts.33.2.251.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
“A Yiddish Studies to Come: In Conversation with Adam Zachary Newton’s Jewish Studies as Counterlife,” In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (October 2020): https://ingeveb.org/articles/a-yiddish-studies-to-come-in-conversation-with-adam-zachary-newtons-jewish-studies-as-counterlife.
“Letters Without Addresses: Abraham Sutzkever’s Late Style,” in There’s a Jewish Way of Saying Things: Essays in Honor of David Roskies, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (June 2020): https://ingeveb.org/articles/letters-without-addresses.
“An Invitation to Polemical Enthusiasm and Near-Native Close Reading: In Memory of Alan Mintz,” Prooftexts 37, no. 3 (2019): 463–68, https://doi.org/10.2979/prooftexts.37.3.10.
“The Latest in Yiddish Studies in English: 2018,” with Joshua Price and Dory Fox, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, June 2019, https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-latest-in-yiddish-studies-in-english-2018.
“A Jewish Studies in Harness,” AJS Perspectives (Fall 2018), 25–27.
“Trickster, Chronicler, Traitor: An Impossible Portrait of Isaac Bashevis Singer,” Finding Aid: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish Book Center, Fall 2018, https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/yiddish-literature/finding-aid-isaac-bashevis-singer.
“The Latest in Yiddish Studies in English: 2017,” with Rachelle Grossman, Erin Faigin, and Jessica Kirzane, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, April 2018, https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-latest-in-yiddish-studies-in-english-2017.
“The Latest in Yiddish Studies in English: 2016,” with Rachelle Grossman, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, February 2017, https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-latest-in-yiddish-studies-in-english-2016.
“Irving Howe,” “Moyshe-Leyb Halpern,” “Anna Margolin,” and “Di yunge” in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, edited by Stephen Ross (London: Routledge Press, 2016).
“Precarious Chains: Reflections on Translating Yiddish,” In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, May 2016, https://ingeveb.org/blog/preacrious-chains-reflections-on-yiddish-translation.
“Yiddish Counterlives, or How to Think Beyond Broadway Yiddish,” with Diana Clarke, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, December 2015, https://ingeveb.org/blog/yiddish-counterlives-or-how-to-think-beyond-broadway-yiddish.
“The Latest in Yiddish Studies in English: 2014-2015,” In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, February 2016, https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-latest-in-yiddish-studies-in-english.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
“Ghostwriters and Ventriloquists: The Impossibility of the Yiddish Monologue”
“The Politics of shund: Rethinking the Yiddish Pulp Novel”
“Non-Jewish Literature: Impossible Communities of Modern Jewish Writing”
“Jew Theory”
TRANSLATIONS
“The Motif of the Porch” by Rachel Wischnitzer (Yiddish), with Rachelle Grossman, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, June 2018, https://ingeveb.org/texts-and-translations/the-motif-of-the-porch.
“The March to the Goyim” by Jacob Glatstein (Yiddish), In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, January 2017, https://ingeveb.org/texts-and-translations/the-march-to-the-goyim.
“A Jewish Historian from Lublin” by Jacob Glatstein (Yiddish), with Sunny Yudkoff, In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, January 2017, https://ingeveb.org/texts-and-translations/a-jewish-historian-from-lublin.
“The Jewish Soldier” by Sholem Asch (Yiddish) in Have I Got a Story for You: More Than a Century of Fiction from the Forward, edited by Ezra Glitner (New York: Norton, 2016).
“The Cantors” by S.Y. Agnon (Hebrew) in A City in its Fullness, edited by Alan Mintz (New York: Toby Press, 2016).
Selected essays by Hava Shapiro (Hebrew) in “To Tread on New Ground”: Selected Hebrew Writings of Hava Shapiro, edited by Carole B. Balin and Wendy Zierler (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014).
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Fall 2019 — Fellow at the Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan
May 2019 — Participant in AAJR Workshop for Early Career Faculty in Jewish Studies
2017-18 — Harvard CJS funding for digital project: “Yiddish World Literature”
2015-16 — Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Washington University in St. Louis
2014-16 — Naomi Foundation Grantee for the creation of an online journal of Yiddish Studies
2014-15 — Fellowship in East European Jewish Literature, YIVO Institute
2013-14 — Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Scholarship
June 2013 — Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship, University of Chicago
2009-14 — Arete Dissertation Fellowship, Jewish Theological Seminary
2010-11 — Menachem Ribalow Prize for Hebrew Literature, Jewish Theological Seminary
2007-09 — Lunski and Maasch Scholarships for Study in Yiddish Literature, Hebrew University
2006-08 — Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies Scholarship, Hebrew University
2004-05 — The United States Department of State J. William Fulbright Grant, Hebrew University
PRESENTATIONS
“A Taytsh Manifesto,” Yiddish and Translation Conference, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilization in Paris (INALCO) and the Paris Yiddish Center – Medem Library, August 2021 (keynote lecture)
“Tiptoed Waiting: Charney, Glatstein, and Margolin’s World Literatures,” Aesthetic Theories of Yiddish Conference, Johns Hopkins University, November 2019 (invited lecture)
“Hebrew and the Politics of Taytsh,” MLA Symposium, Lisbon, Portugal, July 2019
“Translation and Jewish Language Afterlives: A Taytsh Manifesto,” ACLA Annual Conference, Washington, DC, March 2019
“Translation and Jewish Language Afterlives: A Taytsh Manifesto,” MLA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, January 2019
“Taytsh, Translation, and Cultural Intimacy,” Linguistic Homelands Conference, University of Chicago, November 2018 (invited lecture)
“Yiddish, Translation, and a World Literature To-Come,” New Faculty Series, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, April 2018
“Translation in a Volcano: Yiddish and a World Literautre To-Come,” Poggioli Faculty/Student Colloquium, Harvard University, March 2018
“Isaac Bashevis Singer, Translation, and Ghost World Literature,” works in progress panel, Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Washington, DC, December 2017
“Ventriloquist and Ghostwriter: Sholem Aleichem’s Monologue,” invited lecture at Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as part of the conference “The Highs and Lows of Sholem Aleichem,” Madison, WI, November 2017
“Ventriloquists and Ghostwriters: The Yiddish Monologue,” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, January 2017
“Yiddish Afterlives and Critical Jewish Studies,” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, December 2016
“Yiddish, Translation, and a World Literature To-Come,” Jacob Pat Memorial Lecture, Judaica Division of the Harvard College Library, Harvard University, November 2016
“A World Literature To-come: Modern Jewish Writing and Untranslatability,” invited lecture at the Jewish Studies Workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 2016
“Yiddish, Translation, and a World Literature To-Come,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, March 2016
“Yiddish, Translation, and a World Literature To-Come,” invited lecture, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, February 2016
“The Worldly Zaddik: Sholem Asch Between Yiddish, German, and English,” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Austin, TX, January 2016
“Fartaytsht un farbesert? Translating Yiddish in the 21st Century,” roundtable organizer and participant, Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Boston, MA, December 2015
“Toward the Undecidability of Jewish American Writing,” Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Symposium, South Beach, FL, November 2015
“Mimeyle a velt-shrayber: Jacob Glatstein, Translation, and World Literature,” invited lecture [in Yiddish], YIVO Institute, New York, February 2015
“Maybe for Millions, Maybe for Nobody: Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and the Problem of World Literature,” invited lecture in the Yiddish Lecture Series, Harvard University, February 2015
“The Future of Yiddish Studies,” roundtable organizer and participant, Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, December 2014
“Sholem Asch’s Universal Tzaddik: Jewish Writing, World Literature, and World Redemption,” European Association for Jewish Studies Congress, Paris, France, July 2014
“Immigrant Capital: Jewish American Writing in the Global Literary Marketplace,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, March 2014
“Between Heaven and Earth: Saul Bellow and the Dialectics of World Literature,” Harvard University American Literature Colloquium, Cambridge, MA, February 2014 (invited)
“The Master from Krochmalna Street: Isaac Bashevis Singer and World Literature,” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Boston, MA, January 2013
“The World Awaits Your Yiddish Word: Jacob Glatstein and the Problem of World Literature,” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, December 2012
“The Wise and Humble Language of Us All: Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Problem of World Literature,” Harvard University Modern Jewish Worlds Workshop, Boston, MA, October 2012 (invited)
“Ruins of the Present: Yaakov Shabtai’s Anti-Nostalgia,” National Association of Professors of Hebrew International Conference on Hebrew Language, Literature and Culture, Los Angeles, CA, June 2012
“The New Problem of World Literature: Jacob Glatstein and the Politics of Translation,” The New, a conference jointly organized by the Columbia University Jewish and Israel Studies Graduate Student Association and the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, June 2012
“A Return to Exile: Jacob Glatstein’s Chronicle of a Lost Homeland,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, March 2012
“A Place for the Dead: Avrom Sutzkever’s Late Style,” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Boston, MA, December 2010
COURSES TAUGHT
The Politics of Yiddish
Writing Jewish Modernity
The Yiddish Short Story: Folk Tales, Monologues, and Post-Apocalyptic Parables
Ghostwriters and Ventriloquists: Postwar Jewish American Culture
Heretics, Gangsters, Writers
Jews, Humor, and the Politics of Laughter
ACADEMIC SERVICE
Academic Advisory Board Member, The Adventures of Saul Bellow (NEH funded documentary on Saul Bellow)
Peer Reviewer, Modernism/Modernity, 2016-present
Peer Reviewer, Jewish Social Studies, 2017-present
Senior editor, In geveb: An Online Journal of Yiddish Studies, 2016-present
Editor-in-chief, In geveb: An Online Journal of Yiddish Studies, 2014-2016
Conference Organizer, “Lost Texts: A Graduate Student Conference,” The Jewish Theological Seminary, Spring 2012
ADDITIONAL TRAINING
Wabash Center Teacher Training for Religious Studies, The Jewish Theological Seminary, 2012-13
Russian Language Study, Columbia University, New York, Summer 2010
Yiddish Language Study, Sholem Aleichem House/Tel Aviv University, Israel, Summer 2008
Yiddish Language Study, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Lithuania, Summer 2007
LANGUAGES
Fluency in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish
Reading and writing in Italian, German, Russian, and Romanian
Saul Noam Zaritt 