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Jim Diamond

CURRICULUM VITAE

James A. Diamond (b. 1953)
Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies

Univ. Telephone: (519) 888-4567 x33351
Univ. Fax: (519) 746-3097
E-mail: jdiamond at uwaterloo.ca

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

  • 1975 - B.A. - University of Toronto, Philosophy
  • 1978 - LL.B. - Osgoode Hall Law School
  • 1979 - LL.M. - New York University School of Law, International Legal Studies
  • 1980-81 - Lady Davis Fellow, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, Institute for Research in Jewish Law
  • 1982-2000 - Lawyer and member of Bar in Province of Ontario
  • 1992 - M.A. - University of Toronto, Religious Studies
  • 1999 - Ph.D. - University of Toronto, Religious Studies, Medieval Jewish Thought
  • 2000 - Present - Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

  • 1978 - First Place - Bora Laskin Essay Competition on Jewish Law
  • 1980-81 - - Lady Davis Fellowship
  • 2003 - Canadian Jewish Book Award - Jewish Thought for Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment
  • 2008 - Canadian Jewish Book Award-  Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider
  • 2008 - Notable Selection- Jordan Scnitzer Book Award in the Category of Philosophy and Jewish Thought for best book in last 4 years

PUBLICATIONS

(1) ARTICLES

  • “Talmudic Jurisprudence, Equity and the Concept of Lifnim Meshurat Hadin,”Osgoode Hall Law Journal, vol. 17, (1979) pp. 616-631. - “The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem,”Vetus Testamentum 34, 2 (1984) 211.
  • "The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem," Vetus Testamentum 34,2 (1984) 211.
  • “The Use of Midrash in Maimonides’Guide of the Perplexed,”AJS Review 21/1 (1996) 39-60.
  • “‘Trial’ as Esoteric Preface in Maimonides’Guide of the Perplexed: A Case Study in the Interplay of Text and Prooftext,”Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol.7, no. 1, (1997), pp. 1-30.
  • “Jacob vs. The Married Harlot: Intertextual Foils in the Guide of the Perplexed”, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol. 10. no. 1, (2000), pp. 1-25.
  • The Failed Theodicy of a Rabbinic Pariah: A Maimonidean Recasting of Elisha ben Abuyah", Jewish Studies Quarterly , 9:4, (2002) pp 353-380.
  • "Maimonides and the Convert: A Juridical and Philosophical Embrace of the Outsider," Medieval Philosophy and Theology
  • “Maimonidean Scholarship; Pointing Beyond the Academy,” Jewish History, vol.18, no.2 (2004)pp.227-241.
  • Wieseltier's Kaddish: Mourning as a “Delirium of Study,” Philosophy and Literature, vol. 28, no. 1 (2004)pp.150-156
  • Agnon's Kaddish: Mourning for God”,  Shofar, Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish  Studies 22:4 (Summer,  2004)pp.22-42
  • "Maimonides on Leprosy: Illness as Contemplative Metaphor," Jewish Quarterly Review 96:1 (2006) pp.95-122.
  • Maimonides On Kingship: The Ethics of Imperial Humility,” Journal of Religious Ethics 34:1 (2006) pp. 89-114.
  • “The Biblical Monarch as Anarchy Personified: Narrative Configuring Law,” Hebraic Political Studies (2007) 2:1 pp.20-45.
  • “King David of the Sages: Rabbinic Rehabilitation or Ironic Parody?”  Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History  27:3 (2007) pp.373-426
  • “The Deuteronomic Pretty Woman Law: Prefiguring Feminism and Freud in  Nahmanides,”   Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society n.s. 14 no.2 (2008) pp.61-85.
     
  • “Nahmanides and Rashi on the One Flesh of Conjugal Union: Lovemaking vs. Duty,” Harvard Theological Review 102:2 (2009) pp.193-224.
  • ”Nahmanides on the Polis: Reading Exegesis and Kabbala as Political Theory,” Hebraic Political Studies 4:1(2009) pp.56-79.
  • "Exegetical Idealization: Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Maimonides” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 18:1 (2010) pp.49-73.
  • "The Warsaw Ghetto Rebbe: Diverting God's Gaze from a Utopian End to an Anguished Now" Modern Judaism 30:3 (2010) pp.299-330.

(2) BOOK REVIEWS

  • Problems and Parables of Law, Josef Stern (SUNY Press), Shofar an Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 20.1 (2001).
  • Maimonides and the Decline of the Generations, Menachem Kellner, (SUNY Press) Journal of Law and Religion. (2002) xvii, no. 1&2.
  • Joel L. Kraemer. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds, The American Historical Review, 114:514-514, April 2009
  • Aaron Hughes, “The Art of Dialogue in Jewish Philosophy”, Studies in Religion 39:2 (2010) pp. 315-317.

(3) REVIEW ESSAYS


(4) Chapters in Edited Collections:

  • 2007- “The First Word: The Face of Ethical Encounter"
    The Ten Commandments for Jews, Christians, and Others, ed., Roger VanHarn, (William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich., 2007) pp.3-15.
  • 2008 - “Rabbi Fackenheim and the Hermeneutics of Philosophic Encounter,” for edited volume ,Emil Fackenheim: Philosopher, Theologian, Jew ed., James A. Diamond, Martin Yaffe, Sharon Portnoff (Brill)
  • 2008 - “Maimonides on Leprosy: From Idle Gossip to Heresy,” (Hebrew) Maimonides: Conservatism, Originality, Revolution, ed., Aviezer Ravitzky, (Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History: Jerusalem, 2008) , vol.2, pp.375-394. 
  • 2010 - “Forging a New Righteous Nation: Midrashic Interweave of Verse and Text in Maimonides,” in New Directions in Jewish Philosophy, eds., Aaron Hughes, Elliot Wolfson, (Indiana University Press)pp. 286-325.

(5) Encyclopedia Entries

Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, publisher- ABC-CLIO:
(a)   Fatherhood
(b)   Saints

 

(6)  Editor

  • Emil Fackenheim: Philosopher, Theologian, Jew (Brill, 2008)

(7) BOOKS

  • Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment: Deciphering Scripture and Midrash in the Guide of the Perplexed , SUNY Press, Albany, N.Y. –Jewish Philosophy Series.  February, 2002
  • Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2007.

PAPERS PRESENTED-ACADEMIC CONFERENCES & CONGRESSES

  • 1998 - Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference - “Parabolic Precision and Parabolic Flourish in the Guide of the Perplexed.”- Boston.
  • 1999 - Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference - “The “Rising”of Immutability and the Role of Metatron In Maimonides’Guide”- Chicago.
  • 2000 - Association for Jewish Studies –“Praying for Success”; The Bracketing of Maimonides’Guide With Prophetic Yearning - Boston.
  • 2001 - 13th World Congress of Jewish Studies –Maimonides’Aher and the Corruption of God’s Ahor - Jerusalem.
  • 2001 - Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference –Providential Man vs. Natural Man in Maimonides’Guide - Washington, DC.
  • 2001 - Rabbinical Assembly of America –Torah as Philosophical Discourse in the Rambam - Toronto.
  • 2002/Nov. - American Academy of Religion Annual Conference: Organized and proposed theme and abstract for full session and presented paper: Session Theme - “The Intersection of Practical Law and Philosophical Theory: Maimonidean Responsa Concerning the Other
    Paper- Maimonides’Response to Obadyah the Convert
  • 2002/Dec- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Los Angeles
    Organized; proposed theme and abstract; obtained participants for full session entitled ‘Kaddish’: Mourning as a Delirium of Study. Participants included Elliot Wolfson, NYU (leading North American scholar in Jewish Mysticism); Jay Harris, Harvard (leading North American scholar in Rabbinics); Leon Wieseltier, Senior literary editor, New Republic (author of Kaddish ). My paper- Agnon: A Modern Classical Medieval Perspective
  • 2003/July- International Medieval Congress- University of Leeds, Leeds, England; Cutting the King Down to Size: A Maimonidean Prescription for Majestic Humility.
  • 2003/Dec- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Boston, MA
    Maimonides on Leprosy: Illness as Contemplative Metaphor
  • 2004/Dec.- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Chicago
    Organized session on "The Philosophical Dimension in Fackenheim’s Thought" Presented paper- "Rabbi Fackenheim and the Hermeneutics of Philosophical Encounter"
    Organized and chaired session entitled: Friedberg Genizah Project: Reshaping The Future of Genizah Studies
  • 2005/July- 29th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Paris, France      From Anarchy to Monarchy: King Saul and the Shaping of Legal Consciousness
  • 2005/Aug.- 14th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel
    Maimonides on the Sabbath: From Divine Will to Natural Order
    Helped organize and chair following session:  Friedberg Project for Genizah Research-Plans and Activities
  • 2005/Dec.- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Washington DC
    Paper: Maimonides on Shekhinah - Vacating the Divine Dwelling
  • 2006/May- Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, York U, Toronto.  Paper: Did The Rabbis Really Embrace King David?
  • 2006/Dec- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, San Diego Paper: Prefiguring Freud and Feminism in Nahmanides
  • 2007/June- International Congress on Law and Mental Health. Padua, Italy Paper:  Deuteronomic ‘Captive Woman’ Legislation: Rape as Criminal Apotheosis
  • 2007/Dec- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Toronto
    Paper: The “One Flesh” of Conjugal Union: Nahmanides’ Eros vs. Rashi’s Functionalism
  • 2008 June- Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, UBC, Vancouver- Paper: Nahmanides on Power and the State: Exegete as Political Theorist
     
  • 2008 December - Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Washington, DC.  Paper: The Nearness of Divine Distance: Cohen's Approximation of Maimonides' Proximity Proceedings
  • 2009/August- 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies-  paper - Sermons in the Inferno: Theological Turmoil in R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira’s Holy Fire.
  • 2009/Dec- Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Los Angeles,Ca.
    Paper: Translating 'Spirit' and the Spirit of Translation in Maimonides, Spinoza, and Buber.
  • 2010/July - European Association of Jewish Studies, Ravenna, Italy
    Paper: R. Abraham Isaac Kook's Maimonides: A Contemporary Mystic's Subversive Embrace of a Medieval Rationalist.
  • 2010/August - International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Helsinki, Finland
    Paper: Narrative Hell vs. Normative Bliss of Biblical Love


Invited Presentations

  • Sept. 2000- University of Waterloo Jewish Studies Distinguished Guest Lecture Series
    Title: Rabbinic Reflections on Living in the Shade
  • October, 2001- Multi-Faith Forum on Tragedy and Hope: Jewish/Christian / Muslim Dialogue
    Sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier Dept. of Religion and Culture
    My presentation- Jewish Responses to Tragedy
  • May, 2001- Kitchener/ Waterloo Annual Community Prayer Breakfast- Keynote Speaker
    Title: Moses: The Ethics and Anguish of Communal Leadership
  • October, 2001- Shmuel Yosef Agnon Literary Study Group- Toronto
    Title: Agnon's Kaddish- the Petihta
  • March 2002 University of Waterloo Jewish Studies Guest Lecture Series
    Title: The Sage is Greater than the Prophet: Judaism as a Religion of Freedom and Responsibility
  • November, 2002- University of Toronto
    Conference Theme- Blurred Boundaries: The Slippery Slope of Jewish Legal Status
    Paper - Maimonides: The Limits of Ethnicity as a Status Marker
  • May/04- International Conference for the 800th Anniversary of Maimonides'      Death- Jerusalem, Israel
  • Sponsors-Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard Univ.; Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem; Zalman Shazar Center for the History of Israel
    Paper- Radical Maimonidean Exegesis on Bible and Rabbinic Midrash
  • February, 2005 –Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Univ. of Toronto
    The Cairo Genizah: Reviving a Medieval Jewish Mediterranean Society from a "Battlefield "of Fragments
  • November 2005- University of Toronto:- “Sex, Status and Servitude in Judaism”
    Paper: “Pretty Woman: War Brides in Medieval Jewish Thought”.
  • May14-16 2006- University of Denver, Center for Judaic Studies
    Invited guest participant in “Decalogues: Where is God? Tracing the Sacred in Maimonides, Kabbalah and Modern Jewish Thought.”
  • May24 2006-  Northwestern University- Dept. of Philosophy & Crown Center for Jewish Studies- Invited Lecture- “Power and Corruption in the Hebrew Bible”
  • 2008/Sept.- Princeton University- Political Hebraism: Jewish Sources in the History of Political Thought .  Paper: Nahmanides on the Polis: Reading Exegesis and Kabbalah as Political Theory
  • 2010/June-University of Buffalo Institute of Jewish thought and heritage
    Paper- R. Abraham Isaac Kook's Maimonides: A Contemporary Mystic's Subversive Embrace of a Medieval Rationalist. 
 

ACADEMIC OFFERINGS TO THE COMMUNITY

  • Winter 2000 - Mekorot Institute for Jewish Learning, 12 WEEK
    Apples of Gold in Silver Filigree: Maimonides' Guide.
  • Fall 2001 - Mekorot Institute for Jewish Learning, 4 week course
    A Walk in the Garden with Elisha Ben Abuyah: Reflections on a Rabbinic Heretic
  • April 2002 Lecture- Beth Jacob Congregation, Kitchener
    Unity: A Rabbinic Perspective
  • May 2002 Lecture- Or Chaim Congregation, Toronto
    The Moral Implications of the 'Wayward Woman' Law
  • Sept. 31 2002 Lecture- Shaar Shalom Synagogue, Toronto
    Thirteen Attributes of Selichot: Unity of God as a Model for Unity of Israel
  • November 9, 2002 Lecture- Shaarei Tefillah Congregation
    Who is a Jew? Rambam and the Convert
  • October 3, 2002 Speaking Engagement- Israel's Book Store, Toronto
    Presentation on my book- Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment
  • November 5, 2002: Lecture- Waterloo County Holocaust Education Week
    Suffering of the Innocent and the Book of Job
  • April 2003: Waterloo Jewish Community
    • April 5-6 2003: Temple Har Zion- Scholar in Residence
      1. King Josiah's Revolutionary Passover
      2. Speeding Toward Redemption: A Maimonidean Perspective
  • May-June 2003 Beth Tzedek Congregation
    • May 14 2003: Argument and Dispute: The Elixir of Judaism
    • May 20 2003: The School of Abraham vs. The School of Balaam: Which Would you Send Your Child To?
    • May 28 2003: David and Jonathan: The Consummate Love
    • June 11 2003: The Last Remaining Legacy of a Rabbinic Heretic
  • September 20 2003 - Congregation or Shalom, London, Ontario
    Scholar in Residence
  • October 15 2003 - Kolel: Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning
    Reading Torah and the Rabbis with Maimonides: Religion for the Rationalist (Advanced)
  • February  2004 - Adath Israel Synagogue, Toronto
    Maimonides on Abraham and the Founding of Judaism
  • May 2004- Congregation Beth Haminyan, Toronto- The Ethics of Cursing God 
  • November 2004: Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning                     Advanced 4 week course on Maimonides
  • December 2004:  Torah In Motion- Beth Jacob Cong., Toronto: Maimonides Conference.  The Rambam on Abraham and Moses: Discovery and Rediscovery of Judaism
  • January 2005: Temple Emmanuelle, Toronto-  "Jewish Heresy"
  • February 2005 Congregation Beth Haminyan, Toronto- "Slavery and God as Liberator"
  • September 2005 :  Adath Israel Synagogue, Toronto. Selichot- Conversation with the Rabbi
  • May 2006:   Congregation Beth Haminyan, Toronto. “Aaron and the Theology of Silence”   
  • March 2007: Presenter- Public Panel:  Christians, Muslims, Jews: Do Our Sacred Texts Create Religious Intolerance?
  • April/May 2007: Torah in Motion 4 week course: Maimonides: Philosophy and  Halakha 
  • July 2007- Community Lecture (Torah in Motion): And Aaron was Silent: Resignation or Protest in the Face of Tragedy
  • January/February, 2008- Mekorot Institute of Jewish Learning, Toronto,  Four week course : My God, Why have You Abandoned Me: Innocent Suffering and Religious Agony
  • April 2008- Temple Anshe Shalom, Hamilton- And Aaron was Silent: Resignation or Protest in the Face of Tragedy? 
  • June 2008- Shaarei Shamayim Synagogue, Toronto: Who is A Jew- The First Conversion Controversy
  • Jan/Feb 09- Mekorot Institute of Jewish Learning, Toronto,  Four week course
    Wrestling With God: The Challenge of the Holocaust



COMMITTEES

  • Curriculum Committee- Religious Studies
  • Ph.D. Committee- Religious Studies
  • Jewish Studies Committee
  • Jewish Studies Distinguished Guest Lecture Series- Coordination, Planning, Speaker Introductions
  • Member- Interdisciplinary Studies Programmes Board

DIRECTOR - Friedberg Genizah Project

  • direction and coordination of 13 teams worldwide (Princeton, Cambridge, Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew University, Yeshivah University) cataloguing, transcribing, translating, digitizing medieval documents discovered in the Cairo Geniza. Project now associated chiefly with University of Waterloo.

COURSES TAUGHT:

  • Medieval Jewish Thought: The Challenge of Reason
  • History of Jewish Biblical Interpretation
  • Introduction to Judaism
  • Relationships in the Bible
  • Power & Corruption in the Bible
  • Judaism
  • Jewish Thought & Mysticism
  • Philosophical and Literary Responses to the Holocaust
  • Film & the Holocaust
  • Great Texts in Judaism
  • Kabbalah