Jacob Zallel Lauterbach was an American Judaica scholar and author who served on the faculty of Hebrew Union College

Hebrew Union College

The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...

 and composed responsa

Responsa

Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Empire:Roman law recognised responsa prudentium, i.e...

 for the Reform

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...

 movement in America. He specialized in Midrashic and Talmudical literature, and is best known for his landmark critical edition and English translation of the Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael.

Life and work

Jacob Z. Lauterbach was first and foremost a talmudist . However, he was thoroughly familiar with all the modern techniques of critical scholarship, including manuscript comparison and decryption. After retiring from his position at Hebrew Union College

Hebrew Union College

The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...

, he continued to live at the College and to mentor students.

He was the author of several books besides the three-volume Mekilta, and was a prolific contributor to the Jewish Encyclopedia

Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...

, for which he authored or co-authored 260 articles, which are listed in and online at the Jewish Encyclopedia's page for the contributions of J.Z. Lauterbach. He additionally contributed 17 articles to the Hebrew Otzar Yisrael encyclopedia of Julius Eisenstein

Julius Eisenstein

Julius Eisenstein was a Polish-Jewish-American writer born in Międzyrzec Podlaski, a city in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, Congress Poland....

, which are also listed in .

Among his scholarly publications may be listed the following. Again, the full list is provided in .

• "The Talmud and Reform Judaism" (1911), American Israelite 58(18):p. 1.
• "The attitude of the Jew towards the non-Jew" (1921), C.C.A.R. Yearbook 31:186–233.
• "A significant controversy between the Sadducees and the Pharisees" (1927), H.U.C.A. 4:173–205.
• "Is it permissible to let a non-Jewish contractor, building a synagogue, work on the building on the Sabbath?" [A responsum] (1927), C.C.A.R. Yearbook 37:202–206.
• "Should one cover the head when participating in divine worship?" [A responsum] (1928), C.C.A.R. Yearbook 38:589–603.
• "Talmudic-rabbinic view on birth control" [A responsum] (1927), C.C.A.R. Yearbook 37:369–384.
• Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael: A Critical Edition on the Basis of the Manuscripts and Early Editions with an English Translation, Introduction, and Notes (1933)