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Dr. Omri Yitzhak Abadi is a historian and archaeologist of ancient Judaism and a Research Fellow at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa (2026–2027). He received his Ph.D. from the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, where his dissertation examined the social dimensions of burial in Judea and Jerusalem during the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. His research combines archaeological evidence, historical sources, and social and anthropological approaches to the study of ancient Jewish society.
Prof. Reinhard Achenbach is Professor for Old Testament at the University of Münster. He did his doctoral work at the University of Göttingen and his Habilitation at the University of Munich. He is the author of, Israel between promise and commandment. Literary-Critical Studies of Deuteronomy 5-11 (German 1991); The Completion of the Torah: Studies on the Editorial History of the Book of Numbers in the Context of the Hexateuch and Pentateuch (German, 2003), and Torah in the Persian Period: Collected Studies on Theology and Legal History of Judah (German, forthcoming), and is co-editor of Torah in the Hebrew Bible: Studies on the History of Redaction and the Synchronic Logic of Diachronic Transformations (German, 2007). Achenbach has been a member of the Cluster of Excellency on Religion and Politics at the University of Münster since 2007.
Prof. Susan Ackerman is Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, Emerita, at Dartmouth College. She received a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. Her books include Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality: Women’s Life-Cycle Rituals in Ancient Israel; Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them; Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel; and When Heroes Love: The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David. She is the co-editor of Celebrate Her for the Fruit of Her Hands: Essays in Honor of Carol L. Meyers. She served on board of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (2007–2013) and on the board of the American Society of Overseas Research formerly the American Schools of Oriental Research) from 2007–2024, including a six-year term as the organization’s president (2014–2019). She also served as the president of the New England and Eastern Canada Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (2013–2014).
Prof. Rav Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College, where she also received ordination. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009), based on her dissertation, and The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015), written under the auspices of the Women's Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard. Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press). When she is not writing books, papers, or divrei Torah, it is poetry that flows from her pen.
Prof. Rabbi Rachel Adler is the David Ellenson Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at HUC-JIR Los Angeles. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR. She is the author of Engendering Judaism, and among her many articles are “The Jew Who Wasn’t There,” “For These I Weep: A Theology of Lament” and (with Ayesha Chaudhry), “Approaching Jewish and Islamic Marriage Law From Feminist Perspectives.”
Prof. Yonatan Adler is an Associate Professor at the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Ariel University, where he also heads the Institute of Archaeology. He studied at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, where he received rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in archaeology from Bar-Ilan University. Adler was appointed in 2018 by the Minister of Culture to serve as a member of the Israeli Council for Archaeology. He has written extensively on the subject of archaeological evidence relating to the observance of Torah law, covering topics such as ancient ritual immersion pools, dietary laws, ancient tefillin found in the Judean Desert, and chalk vessels (used by Jews who observed the purity laws). Adler has directed excavations at several sites throughout Israel, most recently at ‘Einot Amitai and at Reina, two sites in Galilee where Roman-era chalk vessel workshops have been unearthed. His book, The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal, is due out with Yale University Press in November 2022.
Prof. Patricia D. Ahearne-Kroll is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Religions and Cultures at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Aseneth of Egypt: The Composition of a Jewish Narrative (Society of Biblical Literature, 2020) and the translation and commentary of “Joseph and Aseneth” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture (The University of Nebraska Press, 2013). She has also written on pseudepigrapha and Jewish Greek literature from the Hellenistic period. Her current research focuses on religious practices in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods and how these practices operated in terms of political power and identity formation.
Prof. Mika Ahuvia is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington and currently holds the Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. She received her Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University. She is the author of several books, including On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture (University of California Press, 2021).
Shai Alleson-Gerberg is a graduate student at the Hebrew University and a Fellow in the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. His field of interest is Sabbateanism and Jewish-Christian relations. Among his articles are “The Way of a Man with a Maiden, The Way of a Serpent upon a Rock – R. Jonathan Eibeschütz View of Christianity” and “Regarding the Ethos of Poverty among Jews in the Muslim World in the Middle Ages” [Hebrew].
Rabbi David Almog is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Talmud and Rabbinics at JTS. He received semicha in 2005 from YCT Rabbinical School and served as the campus rabbi for the Hillel at Columbia University and Barnard college until 2009.
Dr. Baruch Alster teaches Bible at Givat Washington College in Israel. He received his Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University in 2007, writing his dissertation on the history of Jewish interpretation of the Song of Songs. He has published articles on various aspects of the Bible and the history of Jewish exegesis, and is currently working on a critical edition of a medieval French commentary on the Megillot.
Dr. Emilie Amar-Zifkin is the Harwood Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. She just finished two years at McGill University as the Flegg Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies, where her work focused on medieval history, disability studies, and occasionally ghosts. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in the History of Judaism from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a B.A in from Fordham University in Theology and Stage Management. Dr. Amar-Zifkin is currently finishing her first monograph, Acting out in Ashkenaz, which offers an analysis of Jewish-Christian relations in medieval towns that conceptualizes both the history and the primary sources as texts with their own theatrical components.
Dr. Aryeh Amihay is a lecturer in the Dept of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches courses on Judaism and Law. He holds a PhD in Religion from Princeton University. He co-edited the volume Noah and His Book(s) (SBL Press, 2010), and authored Theory and Practice in Essene Law (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Prof. Rabbi Yehoyada Amir is Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at HUC-JIR's Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. He received a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994, and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College in 2004. Amir headed HUC-JIR Israel’s rabbinic seminary from 2000–2009, is a past Chairman of the Council of Progressive Rabbis in Israel (Maram), and was a member of the board of directors Rabbis for Human Rights and the steering committee of the Israel Religious Action Center. Among his books are Reason out of Faith: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig (Hebrew, 2004), A Small Still Voice: Theological Critical Reflections (Hebrew, 2009), Gates to Pure Faith: Renewal of Jewish life in the Philosophy of Nachman Krochmal (Hebrew, 2018), and The Philosophy of Eliezer Schweid: Jewish Culture and Universal Perspectives (edited with Yossi Turner, Hebrew, 2020).
Prof. Yairah Amit is Professor (Emerita) of Hebrew Bible in Tel Aviv University's Department of Hebrew Bible. She is the author of The Book of Judges: The Art of Editing (1999), History and Ideology: An Introduction to Historiography in the Hebrew Bible (1999), Hidden Polemics in Biblical Narrative (2000), Reading Biblical Narratives: Literary Criticism and the Hebrew Bible (2001). Her exegetical work is to be found in her Hebrew commentary to the book of Judges (in the Mikra Leyisra’el series) and in the commentary to the book of Judges in the Jewish Study Bible (JPS: 2004). Prof. Amit emphasizes critical approaches and is especially interested in aspects of story, history, ideology and editing. Her most recent publication is: In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect (2012).
Dr. Monika Amsler is Senior Research Assistant at the University of Bern’s Department of Ancient History and the Classical Tradition. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich, and is the author of The Babylonian Talmud and Late Antique Book Culture (Cambridge, 2023), and the editor of Knowledge Construction in Late Antiquity (Berlin, 2023).
Dr. Nissim Amzallag was a Research Fellow (2013-2021) at the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies of the Ben Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev (Beer Sheba, Israel). He holds a Ph.D. in Biology, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and another Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from BGU. Amzallag investigates the cultural dimension of metallurgy in antiquity, the metallurgical background of ancient Yahwism and its involvement in the emergence of Israel and its theology. He is the author of: The Copper Revolution – Smelters from Canaan and the Beginning of Civilization (Livna [Israel]: Hameara, 2008, in Hebrew); Esau in Jerusalem – The Rise of a Seirite Religious Elite in Zion at the Persian Period (Leuven: Peeters, 2015 ); La Forge de Dieu, Aux origines de la Bible (Paris: Cerf, 2020, in French); Psalm 29: A Canaanite Hymn to YHWH in the Psalter (Leuven: Peeters, 2021); and YHWH and the Origins of Israel – Insight from the Archaeological Record (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, scheduled to May 2023).
Dr. Rabbi Elisha Ancselovits teaches in The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Yeshivat Maale Gilboa, and Midreshet Ein Hanatziv. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Law from Liverpool Hope University, and rabbinic ordinations (Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin) from Yeshiva University. Among his articles are, “Embarrassment as a Means of Embracing Authorial Intent,” “The Prosbul, a Legal Fiction?,” and “Liberté, égalité, fraternité: The Biblical and Tannaitic Roots of the Different Medieval Customs Regarding Legumes on Passover” [Hebrew].
Prof. Gary A. Anderson is Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought at Notre Dame University's Department of Theology. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and is the author of Sin: A History (Yale, 2009), Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition (Yale 2013), Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis (Baker, 2017), and most recently, That I May Dwell Among Them: Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative (Eerdmans, 2023).
Dr. Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson is the rabbi of Temple Israel of Albany. She received her M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Academy for Jewish Religion, where she also received rabbinic ordination, and her Ph.D in History of Christianity from the University of Chicago. She is the author of The Discernment of Spirits: Assessing Visions and Visionaries in the Late Middle Ages.
Dr. Rabbi Marc D. Angel is Founder and Director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals (jewishideas.org), and Editor of its journal, Conversations. He is Rabbi Emeritus of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York City. He received his B.A., M.S., Ph.D and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, and an M.A. in English Literature from the City University of New York. Among his many books are The Wisdom of Solomon and Us, Maimonides, Spinoza and Us, and a commentary on Pirkei Avot. Angel is a past president of the RCA, and co-founder (with Avi Weiss) as well as founding president of the IRF.
Dr. Anna Angelini is Assistant Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Siena (Italy) and Research associate at the University of Zurich. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Siena (Italy). She is the author of Dal Leviatano al drago: mostri marini e zoologia antica fra Grecia e Levante (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2018) and L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante: Une analyse comparée de la notion de démon dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque (Leiden: Brill, 2021), and co-author of To Eat or Not to Eat: Studies on the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions, with Peter Altmann (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024). She serves as associate editor for the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (jhsonline.org).
Prof. Amar Annus is the Associate Professor of Middle Eastern History of Religions at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He received his doctorate in cuneiform studies from the University of Helsinki, Finland and was post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures in University of Chicago. Annus has published many translations of ancient Near Eastern texts in his native Estonian. Among his books in English are The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzu (Eisenbrauns 2001); The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia (Eisenbrauns 2003); and The Overturned Boat: Intertextuality of the Adapa Myth and Exorcistic Literature (Eisenbrauns 2016); and the edited volume, Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World (UChicago 2010).
Dr. Flora Brooke Anthony is an Egyptologist and Subject Matter Expert featured on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. She earned her Ph.D. in Art History from Emory University and holds a master’s from the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis. Flora is the author of Foreigners in Ancient Egypt: Theban Tomb Paintings from the Early Eighteenth Dynasty (2016). She currently serves as Director of Grants at the Academic Torah Institute - TheTorah.com.
Prof. Rami Arav is Professor at the Department of Religion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has been the director of the Bethsaida Excavation Project since 1987. Arav is the author of Hellenistic Palestine (London 1989), and co-author (with John J. Rousseau) of the Fortress Press bestseller, Jesus and His World (1995). He is also the editor of Cities through the Looking Glass (2008), and a series of four volumes titled: Bethsaida, a City on the Northern Shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Dr. Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is the AJU Goldstine Distinguished Scholar and previously served as the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies since July, 2000, while also serving as Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Rabbi Artson has long been a passionate advocate for social justice, human dignity, diversity and inclusion. Formerly a Professor in the Philosophy Department, he is particularly interested in theology, ethics, and the integration of science and religion. He is also Rabbinic Leader of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Seminary in Potsdam, Germany, ordaining Conservative rabbis for Europe, after founding the first Conservative/Masorti seminary in Europe since the Holocaust. Rabbi Artson is the author of 12 books and over 250 articles. He is currently publishing a new book, Judaism Beyond Belief: Wisdom for People who Simply Want to Thrive (Monkfish Book Publishing).
Prof. Nehama Aschkenasy is Professor (emerita) of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut. She holds degrees in Hebrew and English Literature from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from New York University. Aschkenasy is the author of Eve’s Journey: Feminine Images in Hebraic Literary Tradition (U. of Pennsylvania, 1987), a Choice selection and winner of the Present Tense Literary Award, and Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape (Wayne State, 1998). She is the editor of Biblical Patterns in Modern Literature (with David Hirsch, Brown, 1984), and Recreating the Canon: The Biblical Presence in Contemporary Hebrew Literature and Culture (a dedicated volume of the AJS Review, 28:1, Cambridge, 2004). She has also contributed numerous chapters and articles to edited books and scholarly journals, and served as Associate Editor of the AJS Review. Her teaching and research focus on the reappearance of biblical patterns in Hebraic and English literary traditions, literary art in the Bible, women in Hebraic literary tradition, and politics and society in contemporary Israeli fiction. For more, see her UConn profile.
Prof. Jan Assmann, z”l, was a Professor of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg and is now Honorary Professor of Cultural and Religious Studies at Constance. He received his Ph.D and Dr.habil from Heidelberg, as well as honorary degrees from Muenster, Yale and the Hebrew University Jerusalem. Among his many books are Moses the Egyptian; The Search for God in Ancient Egypt; The Mind of Egypt; Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt; Of God and Gods; The Price of Monotheism; and From Akhenaten to Moses.
Prof. Michael Avioz is Associate Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Bar Ilan University. Avioz’s books include Nathan’s Oracle (2 Samuel 7) and Its Interpreters, I Sat Alone: Jeremiah among the Prophets, and Josephus’ Interpretation of the Books of Samuel. His forthcoming book is Legal Exegesis of Scripture in the Works of Josephus (Bloomsbury).
Dr. Rotem Avneri Meir is a Visiting Fellow in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Classics at Harvard University, and a Doctoral Researcher at the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE) at the University of Helsinki, where he is writing his dissertation “The Rise of the Hasmonean Dynasty on the Margins of the Seleucid Empire.” Avneri Meir’s research centers on the social history of Hellenistic Judea and and his dissertation examines the establishment of Hasmonean dynastic rule through its brokerage with the Seleucid empire in Judea and the responses to these processes within contemporary Jewish society more broadly. He holds a B.A. in History and Philosophy and an M.A. in Ancient History, both from Tel Aviv University. In 2019 he was awarded the European Association of Biblical Studies’ student prize for excellence in Biblical Studies. His article “Plotting Antiochus’s Death: The Book of Daniel on the End of Seleucid Rule” recently appeared in Vetus Testamentum. He has forthcoming publications in the Journal of Ancient Judaism, and several collective volumes.
Dr. Orit Avnery is a lecturer in Bible at Shalem College and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Kogod Research Center. She holds a Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University and an M.A. (cum laude) from the Hebrew University. She is the author of Liminal Women: Belonging and Otherness in the Books of Ruth and Esther (Keter and SHI, 2015 [Hebrew]).
Dr. Yael Avrahami is a Senior Lecturer for Biblical Studies and Biblical Hebrew at Oranim: Academic College of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Biblical studies from the University of Haifa and an M.A. in Comparative Religion from the Hebrew University. Yael is the author of The Senses of Scripture: Sensory Experience in the Hebrew Bible, for which she won the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. She is also a co-author of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: A Reader’s Edition. Her studies focus on Socio-cultural interpretation, Semantics, and Inner biblical interpretation. She is mostly interested in the windows that ancient texts open for us into ancient cultures and minds. She is also amazed by the extent to which reading ancient texts can improve our understanding of contemporary cultures and minds.
A. Avreich is a pseudonym for a man learning in a Haredi kollel.
Dr. Noga Ayali-Darshan is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages at Bar Ilan University. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and is the the author of Treading on the Back of the Sea [Hebrew], recently published in a revised English edition: The Storm-God and the Sea: The Origin, Versions, and Diffusion of a Myth throughout the Ancient Near East (Mohr-Siebeck, 2020).
Prof. Elizabeth Backfish is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Jessup University in Rocklin, CA. She holds a PhD from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL, and serves on the board of the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR) as the director of IBR Women. She is the author of Hebrew Wordplay and Septuagint Translation Technique in the Fourth Book of the Psalter (Bloomsbury, 2019).
Prof. Joel Baden is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Among his many books are, The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis, The Promise to the Patriarchs, and Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness.
Dr. Clinton Bailey, z”l, is a leading authority on Bedouin culture, and has done fieldwork in Sinai and the Negev for the past 50 years. His B.A. is from the Hebrew University; his M.A. and Ph.D from Columbia University. His publications include, Bedouin Poetry (OUP 1991), A Culture of Desert Survival: Bedouin Proverbs (YUP, 2004), Bedouin Law (YUP, 2010) and, most recently, Bedouin Culture in the Bible (YUP, 2018). Bailey was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and made Aliya in 1958. In 1994, he was awarded the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award for his efforts to obtain civil rights for Bedouin in Israel.
Prof. Carol Bakhos is Robert E. Archer Professor in the Study of Religion in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UCLA. She is the Director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Religion, and Chair of the Study of Religion Interdisciplinary Program. She received her M.A. in Theological Studies from Harvard, and her Ph.D. in rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is author of Ishmael on the Border: Rabbinic Portrayals of the First Arab (SUNY 2006), winner of a Koret Foundation Award, and The Family of Abraham: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Interpretations (Harvard University Press, 2014). In addition to monographs, Bakhos has edited several volumes: Ancient Judaism in its Hellenistic Context (Brill 2005), Current Trends in the Study of Midrash (Brill 2006), and co-edited The Talmud in its Iranian Context (with Rahim Shayegan, Mohr Siebeck 2010), Islam and its Past: Jahiliyya and Late Antiquity in Early Muslim Souces (with Michael Cook, Oxford 2017), and The Jewish Middle Ages. The Bible and Women Series (with Gerhard Langer, SBL Press, 2023). More recently she edited Emerging Judaism, the second volume of the Posen Jewish Anthology of Culture and Civilization (Yale University Press), recipient of the Association for Jewish Libraries 2026 Reference Award.
Gábor Balázs
Prof. Gábor Balázs serves as Rector of the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies (OR-ZSE) in Budapest. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University (Israel). His research focuses on the intersections of morality, politics, and religion, with particular emphasis on contemporary Jewish identity and philosophical interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. He is currently collaborating with fellow scholars on a new Hungarian translation of the Torah, accompanied by a contemporary commentary.
Prof. Shaul Bar is Professor of Judaic Studies and Director of the Bornblum Judaic Studies program at the University of Memphis. He holds a Ph.D. in Ancient Semitic Languages and Literature from New York University, and is the author of Abraham: A Man Fearing God (Wipf and Stock 2025); Here Comes the Dreamer: The Joseph Story (Wipf and Stock 2023); Samuel: The Man of God (Wipf and Stock 2022); Isaac: The Passive Patriarch (Wipf and Stock 2020); The Samson Story: Love, Seduction, Betrayal, Violence, Riddles, Myth (Wipf and Stock 2018); A Nation Is Born: The Jacob Story (Wipf and Stock 2016); Daily Life of the Patriarchs: The Way It Was (Peter Lang 2014); God's First King - The Story of Saul (Cascade 2013); I Deal Death and Give Life - Biblical Perspective on Death (Gorgias 2010); A Letter That Has not Been Read - Dreams in the Hebrew Bible (HUC 2001).
David Bar-Cohn is Manager of Operations at the Academic Torah Institute, TheTorah.com and its Hebrew companion site TheTorah.co.il. He holds an M.A. in Bible (magna cum laude) from Bar-Ilan University; his thesis is titled, Rites of Replenishment: Observations on Priestly Purification (Bar-Ilan, 2022). He is the author of the book Ohr HaShachar: Torah, Kabbalah and Consciousness in the Daily Morning Blessings (Urim, 2014), an analysis of the birkhot hashachar prayers. David also holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and received semikha in Yoreh De’ah.
Dr. Rabbi Shraga Bar-On is the Director of the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought and the David Hartman Center for Intellectual Excellence at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and teaches Talmud and Jewish Thought at Shalem College. He received his Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University, and is the author of Lot Casting, God, and Man in Jewish Literature From the Bible to the Renaissance (Bar-Ilan, 2020).
Prof. Elinoar Bareket is a Senior Lecturer at Achva Academic College, where she serves as the head of the History Department. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Tel Aviv University in Jewish History. Among her books are, The Jews of Egypt 1007-1055, based on Documents from the ‘Archive’ of Efraim ben Shemarya [Hebrew], Fustat on the Nile; The Jewish Elite in Medieval Egypt, and The Gaonite Era; Jews Under Islamic Rule During 7-12 Centuries.
Dr. Gabriel Barkay is the co-founder and co-director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project and a lecturer on archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Tel Aviv University, and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1996. During Barkay’s large-scale excavation of Jerusalem’s Ketef Hinnom, his team discovered silvers scrolls from the 7th century containing a version of the Torah’s “Priestly Blessing.”
Prof. Rabbi Pamela Barmash is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a B.A. from Yale University, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is the author of The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions (Oxford 2020) and Homicide in the Biblical World (Cambridge 2005). She is the co-editor of the Exodus: Echoes and Reverberations in the Jewish Experience, and the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law. She is the editor of the scholarly journal Hebrew Studies, and she serves as co-chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly and as a dayyan on the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative/Masorti movement.
Dr. Gad Barnea is a research fellow at the department of biblical studies at the University of Haifa, where he did his Ph.D. He is currently working on a new critical edition of 4Q550 for Brill’s DSSE collection. Barnea is co-author of Hosea—The Word of the Lord that Happened to Hosea, for the collection “the Bible in its traditions,” and he is now working on the volume for Genesis.
Prof. Rev. John Barton is Emeritus Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, UK, and a Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford. He holds a D.Phil and a D.Litt from the University of Oxford and is an ordained priest of the Anglican Church. Among his many books are Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study (Westminster, 1984), The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster-John Knox 2007), Ethics in Ancient Israel (Oxford 2014), and A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book (Viking 2019).
Dr. Eyal Baruch teaches at the Department of Jewish Art and at the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology in Bar-Ilan University, where he completed his Ph.D. in archaeology as well as his M.A. and B.A. from Bar Ilan University. Baruch specializes in the archaeology of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods and is co-editor of the periodical New Studies of Jerusalem, published by the Ingeborg Rennert Center of Jerusalem Studies, at Bar Ilan University.
Dr. Amitai Baruchi-Unna is lecturer in Bible at the David Yellin College of Education. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as editor and editorial coordinator for a collection of articles on Biblical and Assyrian historiography. Among his articles are, “Esarhaddon’s Prayer in the Inscription AsBbA as related to the mīs pî Ritual” and “The Story of the Zeal of Phinehas and Congregational Weeping at Bethel.”
Prof. Rabbi Herbert Basser is Professor (Emeritus) of Religion and Jewish Studies at Queen’s University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and his B.A. from Yeshiva University. Basser served as Hillel Rabbi in the University of Florida and the University of Manitoba. He is the author/editor of 11 Books, among which are The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions: A Relevance-Based Commentary (with Marsha B. Cohen), Studies in Exegesis: Christian Critiques of Jewish Law and Rabbinic Responses 70-300 C.E., and The Mystical Study of Ruth: Midrash HaNe’elam of the Zohar to the Book of Ruth (with Lawrence Englander)
Prof. Albert I. Baumgarten is Professor (Emeritus) at the Department of Jewish History in Bar Ilan University. He holds a B.H.L. in Talmud from JTS and a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Strasbourg and a Principal Investigator at The McMaster Project: Judaism and Christianity in the Graeco-Roman Era. Baumgarten is the author of The Flourishing of Jewish Sects in the Maccabean Era: An Interpretation and Second Temple Sectarianism – A Social and Religious Historical Essay (2000), and more recently “The Preface to the Hebrew Edition of Purity and Danger” (2020), part of his larger effort to present the work of Dame Mary Douglas (1921-2007) to a wider audience.
Dr. Steven Bayme serves as Director of the William Petschek Contemporary Jewish Life Department, AJC. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in Jewish History and a B.A. in history from Yeshiva University. He is the author of Understanding Jewish History: Texts and Commentary, the co-editor (with Manfred Gerstenfeld) of American Jewry’s Comfort Level: Present and Future, and the co-editor (with Steven Katz) of Continuity and Change: A Festschrift in Honor of Irving Greenberg.
Dr. Adam L. Bean is Visiting Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Milligan University and holds a Ph.D and M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the Johns Hopkins University. He is co-author with Christopher A. Rollston, P. Kyle McCarter, and Stefan J. Wimmer of “An Inscribed Altar from the Khirbat Ataruz Moabite Sanctuary” (the editio princeps of the new Moabite inscriptions from Khirbat Ataruz, Jordan) published in the journal Levant, and author of “A Curse of the Division of Land: A New Reading of the Bukān Aramaic Inscription Lines 9–10,” in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (SBL Press 2022), along with several reference articles in the Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-biblical Antiquity. He has been actively involved in archaeological fieldwork and grant-funded epigraphic research projects in Jordan.
Dr. Shlomit Bechar is a post-doctoral fellow at The Haifa Center for Mediterranean History at the University of Haifa. She also conducts ongoing research at the Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is co-director of the excavations at Tel Hazor. Shlomit received her MA in 2012 and PhD in 2019, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has been digging at Tel Hazor since 2007 and became co-director of the excavations in 2015. Among her articles are "Take a Stone and Set It Up as a Massebah: The Tradition of Standing Stones at Hazor," (ZDPV, 2018) and "A Renewed Analysis of the Black Wheel-Made Ware of the Intermediate Bronze Age," (Tel-Aviv 2015). Her book, The Effects of Political Changes on Material Culture: The Middle Bronze Age-Late Bronze Age Transition in Northern Canaan as a Test Case is forthcoming with Eisenbrauns, and she is co-author of Hazor VII and is currently co-authoring Hazor VIIII.
Prof. Jonathan (יונתן) Ben-Dov is Professor of Bible and Second Temple Literature at the Department of Bible, Tel Aviv University. He is co-author (with Asaf Gayer and Eshbal Ratzon) of Material and Digital Reconstruction of Fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: Brill, 2022).
Prof. Eyal Ben-Eliyahu is the head of the Department of Jewish History, University of Haifa. He earned his Ph.D at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was a researcher at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, conducted post-doctoral studies as the Harry Star Fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University and at Tel-Aviv University, and was a fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Ben-Eliyahu's fields of interest include the perceptions of geographic space, borders, holy places in Jewish consciousness in antiquity, and comparing these perceptions to those prevalent in Roman tradition and ancient Christian beliefs in the same period. He is the author of Between Borders: Jewish Consciousness in the Second Temple and Roman-Byzantine Periods (Yad Ben-Zvi, 2013); Jewish Literature from Late Antiquity (135-700 CE): A Handbook, (Oxford 2013 [with (the late) Fergus Millar and Yehudah Cohen]), and most recently, Identity and Territory: The Jewish Perceptions of Space in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 2019). Ben-Eliyahu also founded a digital atlas focused on mapping the Jewish world in antiquity (https://jatlas.
Dr. David Ben-Gad HaCohen (Dudu Cohen) has a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the Hebrew University. His dissertation is titled, Kadesh in the Pentateuchal Narratives, and deals with issues of biblical criticism and historical geography. Dudu has been a licensed Israeli guide since 1972. He conducts tours in Israel as well as Jordan.
Meir Ben-Shahar
Dr. Ben Shahar was born in Jerusalem. He studied and received His Ph.D. in Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He teaches at the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University and Sha’anan College. His primary research interests are historical consciousness in ancient Judaism, rabbinic literature, Second Temple literature and Josephus.
Prof. David Ben-Shlomo is an Associate Professor of Archaeology at Ariel University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in archaeology from the Hebrew University and is Co-Director of the Tel Hebron and the Jordan Valley Excavation Projects. Among his many publications are “Ritual Baths from the Second Temple Period at Hebron” (Judea and Samaria Resarch Studies), “Hebron: Still Jewish in Second Temple Times” (BAR), and Tel Hebron Excavations: Final Report (with Emanuel Eisenberg).
Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and the Head of the Timna Valley Archaeological Expedition. He studied archaeology and geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A., B.Sc., M.Sc.) and archaeology and anthropology at the University of California, San Diego (M.A., Ph.D.). Ben-Yosef has authored multiple research papers on archaeometallurgy, archaeomagnetism, and Iron Age archaeology of the Southern Levant, and edited the recently published volume Mining for Ancient Copper: Essays in Memory of Beno Rothenberg (The Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and Eisenbrauns, 2018).
Prof. Ehud Ben Zvi is Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. He holds a Ph.D. from Emory University, and was the founding editor of the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures and SBL’s book series, Ancient Near Eastern Monographs. Among his many publications are Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud, History, Literature and Theology in the Book of Chronicles, historical-critical studies of the books of Zephaniah and Obadiah, and commentaries on Micah and Hosea.
Prof. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite is Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU. He holds a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. He is the author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China and The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History and is working on a new monograph, Crescent China: Islam and the Nation After Empire.
Dr. A.J. Berkovitz is a scholar of Antiquity who writes about Jewish texts, traditions, and history from their origins through the rise of Islam. He received his Ph.D. in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity from Princeton University and was a Starr Fellow at Harvard University. His most recent book, A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) received awards from the Association for Jewish Studies and the American Academy of Jewish Research. He is the co-editor of Rethinking ‘Authority’ in Late Antiquity: Authorship, Law, and Transmission in Jewish and Christian Tradition (Routledge, 2018) and the author of numerous academic articles. His public writings also appear in Tablet, Lehrhaus, Arcmag.org, and the Jewish Review of Books. He teaches at HUC-JIR in NYC.
Prof. Beth A. Berkowitz is the Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Judaic Studies at Barnard College. She holds an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a PhD in Religion from Columbia University. She is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research and Vice President of the Jewish Law Association. Berkowitz was awarded Salo Baron Prize for Outstanding First Book in Jewish Studies for Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2007). Her most recent books include What Animals Teach Us About Families Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature (University of California Press, 2026) and Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Prof. Adele Berlin is the Robert H. Smith Professor (Emerita) of Biblical Studies at the University of Maryland. She taught at Maryland since 1979 in the Jewish Studies Program, the Hebrew Program, and the English Department.
Dr. David Bernat is Consultant in Outreach and Development with JALSA, The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. He has a PhD in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Brandeis, is the author of Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Priestly Tradition and co-editor of Religion and Violence: The Biblical Heritage. Bernat has held faculty positions at UMass Amherst and Wellesley College, and regularly leads adult education tours to Israel with an historical and archaeological focus.
Prof. Christoph Berner is Professor for Old Testament Studies/Hebrew Bible at the University of Kiel. He holds a Th.D. in Jewish Studies/New Testament and a Priv-Doz in Old Testament Studies/Hebrew Bible, both from the University of Göttingen. He is the author of Jahre, Jahrwochen und Jubiläen: Heptadische Geschichtskonzeptionen im Antiken Judentum, (de Gruyter, 2006); Die Exoduserzählung: Das literarische Werden einer Ursprungslegende Israels, (Mohr Siebeck, 2010); and the editor of The Reception of Biblical War Legislation in Narrative Contexts, (2015) and Book-Seams in the Hexateuch I: The Literary Transitions between the Books of Genesis/ Exodus and Joshua/Judges (2018) [both with Harald Samuel]; Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible (2019) [with Manuel Schäfer / Martin Schott / Sarah Schulz / Martina Weingärtner].
Prof. Katell Berthelot is a CNRS Professor within the University of Aix-Marseille, France. She holds a Ph.D. from Sorbonne University, dealing with the accusations of misanthropy against the Jews in Antiquity and the Jewish responses to these charges. It was published as Philanthrôpia judaica: Le débat autour de la “misanthropie” des lois juives dans l’Antiquité (Brill, 2003). Berthelot’s research focuses on the history of Jews and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world. Other books are In Search of the Promised Land? The Hasmonean Dynasty Between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018), which analyzes Hasmonean rule in light of biblical and Hellenistic models of war and kingship, and her most recent monograph, Jews and their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome’s Challenge to Israel (Princeton University Press, 2021), which won the National Jewish Book Award in the category “Scholarship” in 2021. In 2014–2019, she coordinated an international research program funded by the European Research Council (ERC), on the impact of the Jews’ encounter with the Roman Empire on Jewish thought (www.judaism-and-rome.org).
Prof. Noah Benjamin Bickart holds the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University. He earned his Ph.D. in Talmud and Rabbinic Studies from JTS, where he also received his rabbinic ordination. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Harvard, he was also a post-doctoral fellow at Yale. He is the author of The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Gorgias, 2022).
Rabbi David Bigman has been the Rosh HaYeshiva at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa since 1995. Before becoming Rosh HaYeshiva at YMG, he served as the Rabbi of Kibbutz Maale Gilboa, and as the Rosh HaYeshiva in Yeshivat haKibbutz HaDati Ein Tzurim. He was one of the founders of Midreshet haBanot b’Ein Hanatziv.
Dr. Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun is one of the founders of Yeshivat Har Etzion. He received his rabbinic training at Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav and his Ph.D. from Hebrew University. In 1986, he established Michlelet Yaakov Herzog for training Jewish Studies teachers, especially in Bible instruction. Between 2000-2006 he served as the Rosh Ha-Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati in Ein Tzurim.
Stéphanie É. Binder
Dr. Stéphanie É. Binder teaches in Bar-Ilan University's Department of Classics, where she received her Ph.D. in Classical Studies. She studies the relations between Jews, Greeks and Romans during the Second Temple period as well as the question of the parting of the ways between Christians and Jews in late Antiquity. She is the author of two books: Tertullian, On Idolatry and Mishnah Avodah Zarah: Questioning the Parting of the Ways between Christians and Jews (Brill 2012) and Tertullien et moi (Cerf 2022), and is the managing editor of Mediterranean Historical Review.
Dr. Ellen Birnbaum is an independent scholar living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University and has taught and/or done post-doctoral research at Harvard, Brandeis, and Boston University. She is the author of The Place of Judaism in Philo’s Thought: Israel, Jews, and Proselytes. Together with Professor John Dillon (Trinity College Dublin), she has also co-authored Philo of Alexandria, On the Life of Abraham: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Currently, she is preparing a collection of studies about Philo and the ancient Alexandrian Jewish community.
Dr. Thomas R. Blanton IV is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University and Research Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt (Germany). He holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (Yale, 2017) and Constructing a New Covenant: Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians (Mohr Siebeck, 2007); and co-editor of The History of Religions School Today: Essays on the New Testament and Related Ancient Mediterranean Texts (Mohr Siebeck, 2014), Paul and Economics: A Handbook (Fortress, 2017), Taxation, Economy, and Revolt in Ancient Rome, Galilee, and Egypt (Routledge, 2022), and Imitating Abraham: Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts (Brill, 2025).
Dr. Emmanuel Bloch holds a Ph.D. in Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His recently completed doctoral thesis, written under the co-supervision of Profs. Suzanne Last Stone and Benjamin Brown, examines how and why the concept of female modesty (tsni’ut), which was always understood as a mimetic way of life, has recently morphed into a legal domain of its own. Previously, Bloch was an attorney-at-law in Europe. His mother tongue is French, and he has published academic articles in three languages. Bloch’s work draws mostly from legal philosophy but is enriched by concepts borrowed from the sociology of law and religion.
René Bloch
Prof. René Bloch is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Bern (Switzerland), where he holds a joint appointment in the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Institute of Classics. He obtained his Ph.D. (Dr. phil.) as well as his “habilitation” from the University of Basel. Bloch’s most recent publications include: “Bringing Philo Home: Responses to Harry A. Wolfson’s Philo (1947) in the Aftermath of World War II,” “Dying in Egypt: Philo’s Joseph as a Cosmopolitan Citizen,” and “Jüdische Bibelkritik in Antike und Mittelalter: Von Philon von Alexandrien bis Spinoza.”
Dr. Yigal Bloch is a curator at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish History, with specialization in the biblical period, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Bloch is the author of Alphabet Scribes in the Land of Cuneiform: Sēpiru Professionals in Mesopotamia in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods (Gorgias Press, 2018), and co-author (with Prof. Nathan Wasserman) of The Amorites: Mesopotamia in the Early Second Millennium BCE (Carmel, 2019 [Hebrew]).
Rabbi Yoseif Bloch is an Orthodox rabbi who has taught at Yeshivat HaKotel, Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshivat Shvilei Hatorah and served as a congregational rabbi in Canada. He currently works as an editor, translator and publisher. As a blogger and podcaster, he is known as Rabbi Joe in Jerusalem.
Dr. Elizabeth Bloch-Smith teaches Bible and archaeology at Princeton Theological Seminary. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Among her publications are Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead, “The Impact of Siege Warfare on Biblical Conceptualizations of Yahweh” and “Archaeological and Inscriptional Evidence for Phoenician Astarte.”
Prof. Rabbi David R. Blumenthal is the Jay and Leslie Cohen Professor of Judaic Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and his ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Professor Blumenthal is most well known for his books, Facing the Abusing God: A Theology of Protest and The Banality of Good and Evil: Moral Lessons from the Shoah and Jewish Tradition.
Prof. Liz Boase is Dean of the School of Graduate Research at the University of Divinity in Australia. She holds a BAppSci, BD (Honours), and a PhD from Murdoch University (Perth, Australia). Her research focuses on trauma studies and the Hebrew Bible, with particular interest in Jeremiah, Lamentations, and prophetic literature. Her publications include Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah (Sheffield Phoenix, 2024), which received the ANZATS Established Scholars Book Prize in 2025, and The Fulfilment of Doom? The Dialogic Interaction between the Book of Lamentation and the Pre-Exilic/Early Exilic Prophetic Literature (T&T Clark, 2006).
Rabbi Steven Bob is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, IL. He serves Guest Faculty at Wheaton College and as an Instructor at the Hebrew Seminary for the Deaf and the Hearing. He is the author of: When Judaism Began; Exploring the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah ( Wipf & Stock 2026), Jonah and the Meaning of Our Lives: A Verse-by-Verse Contemporary Commentary (JPS, 2016) and Go to Nineveh: Medieval Jewish Commentaries on the Book of Jonah translated and Explained (Pickwick Publications, 2013).
Harvey N. Bock is the Hebrew Language Coordinator in the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, where he teaches Hebrew and Aramaic. A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, he was previously general counsel of Discover Card.
Prof. Daniel Bodi is Professor of History of Religions of Antiquity at Sorbonne University in Paris. He earned his M.A. from Fuller Theological Seminary, M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in N.Y., Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of Strasbourg, France, and Habilitation-State Doctorate from Sorbonne University, History Department (’96). He published a monograph on each one of King David’s wives, The Michal Affair. From Zimri-Lim to the Rabbis (2005), The Demise of the Warlord. A New Look at the David Story (2010); (ed.), Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women (2013). Abishag as Administrator of King David’s Household (2021) all published with Sheffield Phoenix Press. He also authored a Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel (2009) in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, an Akkadian grammar in French, Petite grammaire de l’akkadien à l’usage des débutants (2001) and Israël à l’ombre des Babyloniens et des Perses (2010).
Prof. Francis Borchardt is Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Department of Theology, Religion, and Philosophy at NLA University College (Bergen, Norway). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, and is the author of The Torah in 1 Maccabees: A Literary-Critical Approach to the Text (De Gruyter, 2014).
Prof. Oded Borowski is Professor (Emeritus) of Biblical Archaeology and Hebrew at Emory University. He is the director of the Lahav Research Project, Phase IV, and of the excavations at Tel Halif. Borowski holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and is a member of the board of trustees of the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem. Among his many publications are Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (1987), Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel (1998), Daily Life in Biblical Times (2003), and Lahav III: The Iron Age II Cemetery at Tell Halif, Site 72 (2013).
Dr. Miryam Brand is an Associate Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. She is the author of Evil Within and Without: The Source of Sin and Its Nature as Portrayed in Second Temple Judaism and a commentary on 1 Enoch. She holds a Ph.D. in Bible and Second Temple Literature from New York University.
Dr. Rabbi Yehuda Brandes is the president of Herzog college in Alon Shvut, and was previously head of Beit Morasha, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and Leadership in Jerusalem, and was among the founders of the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts. Brandes holds a Ph.D. in Talmud from the Hebrew University and rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. He is the author of Judaism and Human Rights [Hebrew] and coeditor (with Tova Ganzel and Chayuta Deutsch) of People of Faith and Bible Criticism [Hebrew].
Prof. Athalya Brenner-Idan is Professor (Emerita) of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament chair at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and was Professor of Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University. She holds a Ph.D. from Manchester University, an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, and an M.A. from the Hebrew University. Among her publications are, I Am: Biblical Women Tell their own Stories and The Israelite Woman: Social Role and Literary Type in Biblical Narrative. She is also the editor of the series, A Feminist Companion to the Bible (20 volumes), and co-editor (with Archie Lee and Gale Yee) of the Texts@Contexts Series (7 volumes to date).
Prof. Mark G. Brett is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Whitley College, University of Divinity (Melbourne, Australia). He holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament and Philosophy from the University of Sheffield and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Brett is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) and has edited several volumes, including Ethnicity and the Bible (1996) and most recently (with Rachelle Gilmour) Political Theologies in the Hebrew Bible (Brill, forthcoming). He is the author of Biblical Criticism in Crisis (Cambridge, 1991); Genesis: Procreation and the Politics of Identity (Routledge, 2000); Decolonizing God (Sheffield 2008); Political Trauma and Healing (Eerdmans, 2016), and Locations of God: Political Theology in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford, 2019).
Prof. Marc Zvi Brettler is Bernice & Morton Lerner Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Judaic Studies at Duke University, Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies (Emeritus) at Brandeis University, and a research professor at Hebrew University. He is author of many books and articles, including How to Read the Jewish Bible (also published in Hebrew), co-editor of The Jewish Study Bible and The Jewish Annotated New Testament (with Amy-Jill Levine), and co-author of The Bible and the Believer (with Peter Enns and Daniel J. Harrington), and The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (with Amy-Jill Levine). Brettler is a cofounder of TheTorah.com.
Prof. Edward Breuer is a native of Montreal Canada and received his Ph.D. from Harvard; he currently teaches at the Hebrew University. Breuer writes about the history of biblical scholarship in the modern era, and is the co-author with Chanan Gafni of “Jewish Biblical Scholarship between Tradition and Innovation” and, with David Sorkin, Moses Mendelssohn's Hebrew Writings (Yale, 2018).
Dr. Marian Broida is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College. She received an MA in Jewish Studies and PhD in Hebrew Bible from Emory University. She is the author of Forestalling Doom: “Apotropaic Intercession” in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (2015).
Dr. Erica Brown is a writer and educator who works as the scholar-in-residence for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and consults with for the Jewish Agency and other Jewish non-profits. Among her books are Happier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death and Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anxiety in the Book of Numbers.
Prof. Esther Brownsmith is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, following time as a Postdoctoral Researcher at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society. She holds a master's degree from Yale Divinity School, summa cum laude, and a doctorate from Brandeis University. She is author of Three Biblical Metaphors of Women as Food: The Cutlet, the Dumpling, and the Vine, forthcoming in Routledge's series "The Ancient Word," and is editor-in-chief of the forthcoming edited volume, Unruly Books: Rethinking Ancient and Academic Imaginations of Religious Texts.
Rabbi Lee Buckman is Head of School at TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto. He received his M.A. from the University of Minnesota, Rabbinic Ordination and another M.A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Orthodox semicha from Rabbi Daniel Channan and Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, and is currently working on his MBA. He manages Mifgashim, a weekly educational e-bulletin sponsored by the Lookstein Center and blogs at http://thebuckstopshere.tanenbaumchat.org/.
Dr. Aubrey E. Buster is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College (IL). She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Emory University. She is the author of Remembering the Story of Israel: Historical Summaries and Memory Formation in Second Temple Judaism (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and she is currently completing the volume on the book of Daniel for the New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) series with Dr. John H. Walton.
Dr. Michael Carasik is the creator of The Commentators' Bible and of the Torah Talk podcast. He received his B.A. from New College, B.A. and M.A. from Spertus College of Judaica, and a Ph.D. in Bible and the ancient Near East from Brandeis University. He lives in Jerusalem and blogs as The Bible Guy and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo holds Yoreh Yoreh ordination from the Beth Joseph Yeshiva in Gateshead and a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia Pacific University. He is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew.
Prof. David M. Carr is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York and the author of Unmaking Eden: Genesis and the Domestication of the World (Cambridge University Press, 2026), along with several other books, including Genesis 1-11, International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (Kohlhammer, 2021), The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors (Oxford University Press, 2020), The Hebrew Bible: A Contemporary Introduction to the Christian Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh (Wiley Blackwell, 2020), and Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins (Yale University Press, 2014). He holds a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate School and an M.T.S. from Emory University's Candler School of Theology.
Prof. Cynthia Chapman is the Adelia A. F. Johnston and Harry Thomas Frank Professor of Religion and the Chair of the Jewish Studies Program Committee at Oberlin College where she has taught biblical studies for eighteen years. She is the author of The House of the Mother: The Social Function of Maternal Kin in Biblical Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Gendered Language of Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter (Eisenbrauns, 2004). She has also produced a course for the Teaching Company’s Great Courses series called The World of Biblical Israel and has served as co-editor with Michael D. Coogan on A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament and The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019). Her current research traces the growing importance of maternally specific kinship categories, including food-based kinship, during the post-exilic period in order to document the origins of defining Jewishness through the mother.
Dr. Simeon Chavel is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Bible at The Hebrew University and is the author of Oracular Law and Priestly Historiography in the Torah.
Esther Chazon
Prof. Esther G. Chazon is Professor Emerita in the Hebrew Literature Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She served as Director of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature in the Hebrew University’s Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies. She earned her Ph. D. from the Hebrew University and has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford Universities. Chazon has edited or co-edited nine books, including Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology (Routledge, 1997), Things Revealed: Studies in Early Jewish and Christian Literature in Honor of Michael E. Stone (Brill 2004), and seven volumes of the Proceedings of the Orion Center. Her Words of the Luminaries: 4Q504, 4Q505, 4Q506, a critical edition and commentary on a scroll of weekly prayers found at Qumran, is forthcoming from Brill in its Dead Sea Scrolls Edition (DSSE 3).
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow is Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivat Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv. A graduate of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Rabbi Cherlow was one of the founders of Tzohar, and serves as the chair of their ethics committee. Among his books are אחריך נרוצה, a commentary on the Song of Songs (2003) and יראה ללבב, on prophecy (2007), and In His Image (2014).
Prof. Rabbi Michael Chernick holds the Deutsch Family Chair in Jewish Jurisprudence and Social Justice at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He received his doctorate in Rabbinics from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and his semicha from R. Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Chernick’s area of expertise is the Talmud. He focuses on early rabbinic legal interpretation of the Bible and is the author of A Great Voice That Did Not Cease.
Prof. Mordechai Cogan is Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Jewish History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and has written widely on the political and cultural connections between ancient Israel and the empires of the ancient Near East. Cogan is the author of many studies and books, among them: Imperialism and Religion; The Raging Torrent: Historical Inscriptions from Assyria and Babylonia Relating to Ancient Israel; Bound for Exile: Israelites and Judeans Under Imperial Yoke, Documents from Assyria and Babylonia; commentaries in the Anchor Bible series on 1 Kings; 2 Kings (with Prof. Hayim Tadmor); commentaries in Hebrew in the Mikra Leyisrael (Bible for Israel) series on Obadiah, Joel, Nahum and Kings, and the recently published Under the Yoke Ashur: The Assyrian Century in the Land of Israel. His well-received The Raging Torrent just appeared in its 3rd updated and expanded edition.
Prof. Rabbi Mordechai Z. Cohen is Professor of Bible and Associate Dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Director of the Chinese-Jewish Conversation at Yeshiva University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Bible from Yeshiva University, an M.A. in comparative literature from Columbia University, and Rabbinic Ordination from YU's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is the author of Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution (Cambridge, 2021), The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270 (UPenn, 2020); Opening the Gates of Interpretation: Maimonides’ Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu (Brill, 2011), and Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor: From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi (Brill 2003), and co-editor of Semitic, Biblical and Jewish Studies in Honor of Richard C. Steiner (Bialik, 2020) and Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries (Cambridge, 2016). Cohen has been granted many research fellowships, including a Lady Davis (2011).
Dr. Noam Cohen is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He received his PhD from NYU, with a dissertation examining portrayals of spousal violence in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient West Asian texts.
Prof. Rabbi Shaye J. D. Cohen is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Ancient History from Columbia University and his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Among his many books are Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, The Beginnings of Jewishness, and The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism.
Rabbi Shoshana Cohen teaches Midrash, Talmud and Gender Studies at the Conservative Yeshiva and is the founder of Yeshivat Talpiot, a new egalitarian yeshiva for Israelis in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the Advanced Talmud Institute of Matan, holds a B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University, completed the Hartman Institute’s Melamdim educator’s program, and is currently pursuing semicha.
Prof. Rabbi Naftali S. Cohn is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University. He received a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania and Rabbinic Ordination from RIETS (Yeshiva University). He is the author of The Memory of the Temple and the Making of the Rabbis.
Dr. Yehudah Cohn is a research associate at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. He holds a D. Phil. in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford and an M. A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Cohn is the author of Tangled Up in Text: Tefillin and the Ancient World and co-author (with Fergus Millar and Eyal Ben-Eliyahu) of a Handbook of Jewish Literature from Late Antiquity (135-700 CE).
Prof. Emily Colbert Cairns is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Salve Regina University. She graduated with a Ph.D. and M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of California, Irvine. She is the co-editor of, Confined Women: The Walls of Female Space in Early Modern Spain (Hispanic Issues Online 2020) and the author of Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas (Palgrave 2017). Colbert Cairns specializes in gender, converso and crypto-Jewish identity in the early modern period and has published with eHumanista, Chasqui, Cervantes Journal and Hispanófila. She spent the fall of 2019 conducting research in the Archivo de la Diputación de Sevilla in support of her current book project on breastfeeding practices in the early modern period.
Prof. John J. Collins is Holmes Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University. He received his Ph. D. from Harvard (1972) and holds honorary degrees from the University College Dublin and the University of Zurich. Collins' most recent books are The Invention of Judaism. Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul (University of California, 2017), and What Are Biblical Values? (Yale, 2019). He serves as general editor of the Anchor Yale Bible and Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library and has received the Burkitt medal for biblical scholarship from the British Academy.
Prof. Alan Cooper is the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies and provost of The Jewish Theological Seminary. He holds an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Religion from Yale University and a B.A. in religion from Columbia University. His recent publications include “Some Aspects of Traditional Jewish Psalms Interpretation,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms and “Introduction to the Book of Leviticus,” to appear (in German) in Die Tora in der Übersetzung Ludwig Philippsons.
Dr. Amy Cooper Robertson is the Director of Lifelong Learning and Music at Congregation Or Hadash, a Conservative synagogue in Sandy Springs, GA. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion in the area of Hebrew Bible from Emory University. Her dissertation, “He Kept the Measurements in His Memory as a Treasure”: The Role of the Tabernacle Text in Religious Experience is available online through the Emory library. She is one of the vocalists in the Jewish music group, The Mamalehs.
Prof. Sidnie White Crawford is Willa Cather Professor (emerita) of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a Visiting Scholar in the Dept. of Bible at Princeton Theological Seminary. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1988, where she was a student of Frank Moore Cross. Crawford was a member of the international team responsible for the editio princeps of the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, with special responsibility for the manuscripts of Deuteronomy (see Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XIII and XIV). In her most recent publication, Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran (Eerdmans, 2019), a synthetic treatment of the texts and archaeology of Qumran, she argues that Qumran was founded in the early first century B.C.E. as a scribal center and library for the wider Essene movement in Second Temple Judaism. Crawford serves on the Council of the Society of Biblical Literature, and is Board Chair Emerita of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.
C. L. Crouch
Prof. Carly L. Crouch is a Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Ancient Judaism and Chair of the Department of Textual, Historical and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity at Radboud University, the Netherlands. She is also a Research Associate of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She is author of several books, including Israel and Judah Redefined (CUP, 2021), Translating Empire (with Jeremy Hutton; Mohr Siebeck, 2019), An Introduction to the Study of Jeremiah (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Making of Israel (Brill, 2014), Israel and the Assyrians (SBL, 2014), War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East (de Gruyter, 2009), and Isaiah: An Introduction and Study Guide (with Christopher B. Hays; Bloomsbury, 2022), as well as editor of volumes on the Bible and American gun culture, involuntary migration and the prophets, and the Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics (CUP, 2021).
Dr. Monika Czekanowska-Gutman is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on twentieth-century Jewish art and culture in Israel and the America, and the contribution of modern Jewish artists to modern art. She has recently published a book by Brill based on her Ph.D. thesis on visual representations of Judith, Esther, and the Shulamite in modern Jewish art. She has also published in Ars Judaica, Images, and Religion and the Arts. Her current research project on depictions of the akedah as an actual sacrifice in modern and contemporary Jewish visual culture, funded by the National Science Centre, is being conducted in joint cooperation with Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld and Dr. Amitai Mendelsohn.
Erin D. Darby
Prof. Erin Darby is Associate Professor of Early Judaism in the University of Tennessee's Department of Religious Studies and the UT Faculty Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Missouri State University and a Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University. She is the author of Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual (Mohr Siebeck, 2014) and co-editor of the new volume, Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context (Brill, 2021). Her work has been supported by an Educational and Cultural Affairs Research Fellowship and a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. She has also received institutional funding to support research at the American Center of Research in Amman, Jordan and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus. Erin is also an active field archaeologist, working in Israel and Jordan. Since 2009, she and her husband, Dr. Robert Darby, have co-directed the Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan.
Dr. Guy Darshan is a faculty member in the department of Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and served as a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica in the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. His book, After the Flood: Stories of Origins in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Mediterranean Literature [Hebrew].
David Goldenberg
Prof. David M. Goldenberg (retired) taught Bible and Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Cape Town, and Dropsie College, where he served as Dean and President in the 1980s. He served as the Editor of The Jewish Quarterly Review from 1982 to 2003. He holds a Ph.D. from Dropsie College in Post-Biblical Literature, with a dissertation titled, Halakhah in Josephus and in Tannaitic Literature: A Comparative Study. Goldenberg is the author of The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton, 2003) and Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017).
Dr. Daniel Davies is a Research Associate in the PESHAT project based at the University of Hamburg. His Ph.D. is from the University of Cambridge and he is currently working on medieval Hebrew translations of Arabic philosophical works. He is the author of Method and Metaphysics in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed.
Prof. John Day is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies in the University of Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow & Tutor in Theology & Religion, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He holds two doctorates, a Ph.D. from Cambridge and a D.D. from Oxford, and has written or edited 17 books, almost 80 articles and about 200 book reviews. In 2014 he was President of the Society for Old Testament Study. In his earlier years his work centered mostly on Canaanite religion and the Hebrew Bible, his middle years were much taken up with editing volumes on a wide variety of biblical topics, while most recently his work has concentrated on Genesis 1–11. This has resulted in the volumes From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1–11 (2013) and From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1–11 (2021), which together contain a total of 22 essays. These volumes are both spin-offs from his ongoing work on the forthcoming ICC commentary on Genesis 1–11.
Prof. J. Cornelis de Vos is Extraordinary Professor of New Testament and Ancient Judaism at Münster University, Germany. He received his PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and his Habilitation in Ancient Judaism and New Testament from the University of Münster. He specializes in ancient ethics and the meaning of the land of Israel for Jews and Christians. His publications include Rezeption und Wirkung des Dekalogs in jüdischen und christlichen Schriften bis 200 n.Chr. (Brill, 2016) and Heiliges Land und Nähe Gottes: Wandlungen alttestamentlicher Landvorstellungen in frühjüdischen und neutestamentlichen Schriften (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012).
Prof. Aaron Demsky is Professor (emeritus) of Biblical History at The Israel and Golda Koschitsky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar Ilan University. He is also the founder and director of The Project for the Study of Jewish Names. Demsky received the Bialik Prize (2014) for his book, Literacy in Ancient Israel.
Dr. Avi Dentelski holds a Ph.D. in Bible studies from Ariel University, where he also earned his M.A. degree (summa cum laude). His dissertation deals with chance and accidentalness in the biblical historiography and in post-biblical theology. Avi is the author of the “ארץ העברים” blog, where he shares his insights on Bible, Judaism and… flamenco (his hobby).
Dr. Idan Dershowitz completed his undergraduate and graduate training at the Hebrew University, following several years of study at Yeshivat Har Etzion. In 2017, he was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows. Dershowitz was previously Chair of Hebrew Bible and Its Exegesis at the University of Potsdam and is currently Senior Lecturer of Premodern Jewish Studies at Monash University. He is the author of two books: The Dismembered Bible: Cutting and Pasting Scripture in Antiquity and The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book.
Prof. James A. Diamond is the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo and former director of the university’s Friedberg Genizah Project. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Medieval Jewish Thought from the University of Toronto, and an LL.M. from New York University’s Law School. He is the author of Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment, Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider and, Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon.
Prof. Devorah Dimant is Professor (Emerita) of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and is a leading Qumran scholar. She is the author of Connected Vessels: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Literature of the Second Temple Period (Hebrew), and the editor of The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective: A History of Research and The Dynamics of Language and Exegesis at Qumran (with Reinhard Kratz).
Prof. Shawna Dolansky is Professor of Religion and Humanities at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. She received her M.A. in Judaic Studies and Ph.D. in History from the University of California, San Diego program in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. Dolansky is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion (Pryor Pettengill Press, Eisenbrauns, 2008) and co-author with Richard E. Friedman of The Bible Now (Oxford University Press, 2011).
DovBear has been blogging at dovbear.blogspot.com since 2004. A member of the first generation of Orthodox Jewish bloggers, he has published close to 10,000 posts discussing nearly every Jewish topic and generated over 5 million page views. In 2007 several of his earliest parsha posts were assembled into a book.
Dr. Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan is Director of Inter-Religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. She is also Rabbi Emerita of Or Shalom Synagogue, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a faculty member at ALEPH Ordination Programs. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate University and rabbinic ordination from ALEPH. Duhan-Kaplan's recent books include Mouth of the Donkey: Re-Imagining Biblical Animals (2021) and her most recent co-edited anthologies are Visions of the End Times (2022) and Multireligious Reflections on Friendship (2023). She has received many teaching awards, including the American Academy of Religion’s Cannon award (2022). www.sophiastreet.com.
Zachi Dvira (Zweig) is the co-founder and co-director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project and a Ph.D. candidate at Bar-Ilan University. Among Dvira’s articles are, “New Information from Various Temple Mount Excavations from the Last Hundred Years,” “Using Data Mining Techniques for the Analysis of Pottery from Tell es-Safi/Gath,” and “Hebrew Clay Sealing from the Temple Mount and the Temple Treasury” (forthcoming).
Prof. Jennie Ebeling is Associate Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Evansville. She earned the M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies with an emphasis on Syro-Palestinian Archaeology from the University of Arizona. A former Fulbright scholar, she has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Lady Davis Trust to support research in Israel and Jordan and was appointed Annual Professor of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem in 2015–16. Ebeling co-directed the Jezreel Expedition in Israel with Norma Franklin 2012–2018 and is the ground stone artifact specialist for numerous archaeological projects in Israel. She also produced several films based on her ethnographic research of traditional bread ovens in Jordan; one is on permanent display in the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. Ebeling currently edits ASOR's Archaeological Report Series and has co-edited four volumes. She is the author of Women's Lives in Biblical Times (T&T Clark Int’l, 2010).
Dr. Juliane Eckstein is an Interim Professor of Catholic Theology/Religious Education at the Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg [College for Education] in Southwestern Germany. She received her PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and she previously taught at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz, at the Ruhruniversität Bochum, and at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen. She is the author of Die Semantik von Ijob 6-7: Erschließung ihrer Struktur und einzelner Lexeme mittels Isotopieanalyse [The Semantics of Job 6-7. Interpretation of Its Structure and of Individual Lexemes Using Isotopy Analysis] (Mohr Siebeck, 2021).
Diana Edelman
Prof. Diana V. Edelman is Professor (emerita) of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies in the University of Oslo's Department of Theology. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago. Edelman is the author of The Origins of the ‘Second’ Temple: Persian Imperial Policies and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem (Equinox, 2005) and King Saul in the Historiography of Judah (JSOT, 1991), as well as co-author, editor, and co-editor of many more.
Dr. Cynthia Edenburg taught at the Open University of Israel and Tel Aviv University. She received her Ph.D. in biblical studies from Tel Aviv University. Many of Edenburg’s publications focus on Deuteronomy, biblical historiography, and exegetical method. She is currently preparing a commentary on the Book of Joshua.
Staff Editors: Every essay published on TheTorah.com undergoes multiple rounds of editing by at least three part- or full-time editors. This process ensures that the scholarship is accessible to a broad readership while preserving academic rigor. Our editors help shape the narrative arc, incorporate primary sources in Hebrew and English, and maintain consistency of style across the site. A Staff Editors attribution may indicate an essay based on an author’s work, co-authored with our staff, or written entirely in-house. To see our editorial team, visit academictorah.org.
Dr. Shlomi Efrati is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC funded project ‘TEXTEVOLVE’ for the study of Targum at KU Leuven. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the department of Talmud and Halakhah in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2019, he joined the Scripta Qumranica Electronica project at the University of Haifa as a postdoctoral research associate, participating in the preparation of a new edition of the Qumran wisdom composition Instruction. Since 2021 he has taken part in the preparation of a new edition of the Aramaic writings from Qumran, directed by Prof. Elisha Qimron. He collaborated with Prof. Michael Stone in the publication of an early Armenian Commentary on Genesis: The Genesis Commentary by Step‘anos of Siwnik‘ (DUB.) [CSCO 695, Scriptores Armeniaci 32], Louvain: Peeters, 2021).
Prof. Carl S. Ehrlich (Ph.D. Harvard ’91) is University Professor of History and Humanities and former Director of the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University in Toronto. Among his more recent publications are the (co-)edited collections From an Antique Land: An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature (2009), Purity, Holiness, and Identity in Judaism and Christianity: Essays in Memory of Susan Haber (2013), and Israel and the Diaspora: Jewish Connectivity in a Changing World (2022).
Prof. Raanan Eichler is an Associate Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed fellowships at Harvard University and Tel Aviv University. He is the author of The Ark and the Cherubim (Mohr Siebeck, 2021) and many academic articles.
Dr. Rabbi Amy Eilberg serves as the director of the Pardes Rodef Shalom (Pursuer of Peace) Communities Program and as a spiritual director and interfaith activist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a DM (Doctor of Ministry) from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and was the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by JTS. She is the author of From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace.
Prof. Robert Eisen is professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Brandeis University, and is the co-editor (with Charles Manekin) of Philosophers and the Jewish Bible. Eisen is the author of, Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People (1995); The Book of Job in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (2004); The Peace and Violence of Judaism: From the Bible to Modern Zionism (2011); and Religious Zionism, Jewish Law, and the Morality of War (2017). He is also active as a consultant on issues of religion and international conflict, working to improve relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Dr. Yedida Eisenstat is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and the program in Jewish Studies at Colgate University. She holds an M.A. in Religion, Culture, & Values from York University and a Ph.D. from the Kekst Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary where she studied Midrash & Scriptural Interpretation. Eisenstat is the author of “Taking Stock of the Text(s) of Rashi’s Torah Commentary: Some 21st Century Considerations,” and “Sanctification and Shame: Bialik’s in the City of Slaughter in Light of Leviticus and Ezekiel,” and her current book project explores Rashi’s use of midrash in his Torah commentary.
Dr. Aly Elrefaei is a post-doctoral researcher in the Theology Faculty at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, where he completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies. His current research focuses on Arabic versions of the Story of Ahiqar. He is the author of Wellhausen and Kaufmann: Ancient Israel and Its Religious History in the Works of Julius Wellhausen and Yehezkel Kaufmann (De Gruyter 2016) and Eschatology in the Old Testament (in Arabic; Noor Publishing 2017).
Prof. Peter Enns is the Abram A. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University in Philadelphia. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary. He speaks actively in academic and ecclesiastical venues on topics pertaining the Bible and Christian faith, and he has written or edited over a dozen books and many articles and essays on the Bible and the ancient Near East, biblical theology, wisdom literature, Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, and the intersection of biblical studies and contemporary Christian faith.
Dr. Angela Roskop Erisman is owner of Angela Roskop Erisman Editorial and was the founding editorial director of the Marginalia Review of Books. She earned her M.A. in Hebrew and Northwest Semitics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in Bible and Ancient Near East at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is the author of The Wilderness Itineraries: Genre, Geography, and the Growth of Torah (2011), for which she won a Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise in 2014. Her most recent book, The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible: Religion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation (2025) is available from Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Esther Eshel is an Associate Professor in the Bible department at Bar Ilan University, and is the head of the Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center for Jewish History. She holds a Ph.D. in Bible from the Hebrew University. Eshel is a member of the international team publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls and has published 13 scrolls from Cave 4. She is co-author (with J.C. Greenfild and M.E. Stone) of The Aramaic Levi Document.
Dr. Tzilla Eshel is a lecturer at Haifa University's Zinman Institute of Archaeology, where she completed her M.A. (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. Her dissertation deals with the provenance of silver hoards from the Bronze and Iron Ages, and she has authored several articles dealing with the ancient use of silver.
Prof. Esias E. Meyer is an Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria in the Department of Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures. He holds a D.Th. in Old Testament Studies from Stellenbosch University. He started lecturing at UP in 2010, and before that he was a minister in a reformed congregation near Cape Town. His research is focused on Leviticus and the Pentateuch. He is the author of The Jubilee in Leviticus 25: A Theological Ethical Interpretation from a South African Perspective (2005).
Prof. Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is The Effie Wise Ochs Professor Emerita of Biblical Literature and History at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, LA. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology and her ordination from HUC-JIR. Eskenazi is co-author of the award-winning JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth and co-editor of the award-winning The Torah: A Women’s Commentary.
Prof. Rebecca K. Esterson is the Dean of the Center for Swedenborgian Studies and the chair of the Department of Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation at the Graduate Theological Union, where she teaches courses on the history of biblical interpretation and the history of Jewish-Christian relations. She earned her Ph.D. from the Graduate Division of Religious Studies at Boston University, and her M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School. Esterson’s book Jewish Allegory in Eighteenth-Century Christian Imagination (Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2023) explores the how the relationship between self and other figured in the discourse about biblical literalism and biblical allegory in early modernity.
Prof. Rabbi Alexander Even-Chen is Professor of Jewish Thought at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. in Jewish thought, all from the Hebrew University and rabbinic ordination from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem. Among his many publications are A Voice from the Darkness, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Phenomenology and Mysticism (Hebrew), The Binding of Isaac – Mystical and Philosophical Interpretations of the Bible (Hebrew), and (with Ephraim Meir) Between Heschel and Buber. A Comparative Study.
Dr. Shirly Ben-Dor Evian is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Theology, University of Lausanne. She received her Ph.D., M.A., B.A., and LL.B. Adv. all from Tel Aviv University. Her dissertation is titled: Egypt and Philistia in the early Iron Age: The Historical Record and the Archaeological Remains.
Dr. Morris M. Faierstein is an independent scholar of Hasidism, Kabbalah, Early Modern Popular Jewish Culture and Early Modern Yiddish literature. His M.A. is from JTS and his Ph.D. from Temple University (Religious Studies), and he also holds rabbini ordination from Yeshiva Pri Etz Hayyim in Jerusalem. Among his 15 books are, Jewish Mystical Autobiographies: Book of Visions and Book of Secrets (Paulist Press, 1999); Ze’enah U-Re’enah: A Critical Translation into English (De Gruyter, 2017); ספר החזיונות: יומנו של ר׳ חיים ויטאל [Book of Visions: The Diary of R. Hayyim Vital] (Machon Ben Zvi, 2005); The Dybbuk: It Origins and History (SUNY Press, 2024); and Isaac Luria and Jewish Mystical Hagiography (SUNY Press, 2026).
Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber is the Senior Editor of TheTorah.com at the Academic Torah Institute. He holds a Ph.D. from Emory University in Jewish Religious Cultures and Hebrew Bible, an M.A. from Hebrew University in Jewish History (biblical period), as well as ordination (yoreh yoreh) and advanced ordination (yadin yadin) from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) Rabbinical School. He is the author of Images of Joshua in the Bible and their Reception (De Gruyter 2016) and co-author of The Bible's First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon (Cambridge 2025), and editor (with Jacob L. Wright) of Archaeology and History of Eighth Century Judah (SBL 2018). For more, go to zfarber.com.
Avshalom Farjun is a teacher of Spoken Arabic, Palestinian dialect, from beginner to advanced. He researches the interrelationships between Hebrew and Arabic, from the language of the Bible to the present day. Farjun is also a qanun player, and he formed the Bustan Avraham band. Together with Buthayna Shahadeh, he is the author of a collection of Arabic sayings and stories (בְּאֵין גְּבָרִים קָרְאוּ לַתַּרְנְגוֹל אַבּוּ עַלִי), and another of Arabic jokes (وَقِّف تّقُولَّك / שְמע קטע), both with Hebrew translation, transcription, and explanatory notes. To learn about his classes, see here.
Oren Fass, M.D., is an ophthalmic surgeon in the Dallas area.
Prof. Steven E. Fassberg is the Caspar Levias Chair Emeritus in Ancient Semitic Languages in the Department of Hebrew Language at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has also served as Director of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature (2006–2009) and Director of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies (2018–2021). He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Fassberg has been a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language since 2004, and he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Academy’s Historical Dictionary Project. His most recent publications include An Introduction to the Syntax of Biblical Hebrew (Bialik Institute, 2019) and The Hebrew of Qumran (forthcoming from Ugarit-Verlag).
Prof. Avraham (Avi) Faust is Professor of archaeology at the Martin (Szusz) department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Bar-Ilan University and thethe director of its excavations at Tel ‘Eton. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Bar Ilan University. Among his many publications are Israel’s Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance, The Archaeology of the Israelite Society in the Iron Age II, and Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The Archaeology of Desolation.
Dr. Yitzhaq Feder is a lecturer at the University of Haifa. He is the author of Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context and Meaning (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011). His most recent book, Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible: From Embodied Experience to Moral Metaphor (Cambridge University Press, 2021), examines the psychological foundations of impurity in ancient Israel.
Nurit Feig is a senior archaeologist, researcher, and excavator at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), where she has worked since 1980. Previously she was the director of their archive, and led its digitalization project. Feig holds an M.A. in archaeology from Tel Aviv University, where she is also a Ph.D. candidate. She has directed more than 50 salvage excavations, among them the Third Wall and Khirbet er-Ras (Rephaim Valley) at Jerusalem, as well as Tel Afula, Akko and Tel Agol in the North. Among Feig’s articles are “New Discoveries in the Rephaim Valley, Jerusalem” (PEQ 1996); “The Environs of Jerusalem in the Iron Age II (2000); “Excavations at Beith Safafa” (Atiqot 2004), and “Tel ‘Amal – An Iron Age II Settlement in the Beth-Shean Valley” (2013).
Sarah Fein
Dr. Sarah (Sari) E.G. Fein is Visiting Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies at Smith College in Northampton, MA. She received her PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and an MTS in Hebrew Bible from Harvard Divinity School. Her book Conceiving Motherhood: Biblical Mothers and the Birth of the Jewish People is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Dr. Eve Levavi Feinstein holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. Her dissertation, “Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible” (Oxford University Press), explores the Bible’s use of purity and contamination language to describe sexual relationships. She has also written articles for Jewish Ideas Daily and Vetus Testamentum.
Dr. Yonatan Feintuch teaches Talmud and Rabbinics at Bar Ilan University and Herzog College, and specializes in talmudic narratives. He holds a PhD in Talmud from Bar Ilan University.
Dr. Liane Feldman is Assistant Professor in New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from The University of Chicago, M.A.s from Yale University and Boston College. She is the author of, “The Composition of Numbers 32: A New Proposal” (Vetus Testamentum) and “Ritual Sequence and Narrative Constraints in Leviticus 9:1–10:3” (Journal of Hebrew Scriptures).
Dr. Ruth Fidler is a senior lecturer in the department of Biblical Studies at Gordon Academic College of Education, Haifa. She holds an M.A. from the University of Manchester, UK and a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; co-author (with Prof. Ze’ev Weisman) and academic developer in the Open University course מבוא למקרא [Introduction to the Bible]; author of ‘Dreams Speak Falsely’? Dream Theophanies in the Bible: Their Place in Ancient Israelite Faith and Traditions (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2005) [Hebrew].
Dr. Elad Filler is a lecturer in Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Jewish Thought, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. He is the Chair of the SBL’s Judaica Unit, and among his articles are “On Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife in Philo” (Daat [ Hebrew]), “Philosophical and Political Aspects of the Migration of Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans in Philo” (Jewish Studies [Hebrew]),and “Philo’s Threefold Divine Vision and the Christian Trinity” (HUCA).
Elisha Fine is an activist, social worker and historian living in New York City. He holds an MA in Jewish History and a Masters of Social Work, both from Yeshiva University. Fine is a leader of the international Hostage sticker movement and the founder of the Hatikvah Collective, an international community of activists dedicated to Israel, Jewish Life, and the return of all our hostages. His work is featured in the documentary Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets.
Prof. Steven Fine is a Distinguished Professor at Yeshiva University (New York, NY) and holds the Churgin Chair of Jewish History. He is founding director of the YU Center for Israel Studies. Fine’s numerous books include Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in the Ancient World (1997), Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology (2005) and The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel (2016). Fine recently announced the multi-year YU Archaeology and the Talmud Project.
Eliezer Finkelman
Dr. Rabbi Eliezer (Louis) Finkelman received semikhah at R.I.E.T.S. of Yeshiva University and earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at City University of New York, writing on the theme of Cain and Abel in the Romantic Period. He served as Hillel Director at Wayne State University and synagogue Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel (Berkeley). He currently teaches at Lawrence Technological University.
Prof. Israel Finkelstein is the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University, whence he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in archaeology. He and is the director of the Megiddo expedition, is well known for his revised lower chronology, for which he won the Dan David Prize. Among his many publications are The Forgotten Kingdom, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement, and his best selling The Bible Unearthed (with Neil Asher Silberman).
Prof. Rabbi Reuven Firestone is the Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he earned his M.A. and his rabbinic ordination, while his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies is from New York University. Firestone is the author of Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (SUNY, 1990), Jihad. The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Oxford, 1999), Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims (Ktav, 2001), Trialogue: Jews, Christians, Muslims in Dialogue: A Practical Handbook (Twenty-Third Publications, 2007), Who are the Real Chosen People? The Meaning of Chosenness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Skylight Paths, 2008), An Introduction to Islam for Jews (JPS, 2008), Learned Ignorance: An Investigation into Humility in Interreligious Dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews (Oxford , 2011), Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea (Oxford, 2012).
Mitchell First is an attorney, with an M.A. in Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. He is the author of Roots and Rituals: Insights into Hebrew, Holidays, and History, as well as Esther Unmasked: Solving Eleven Mysteries of the Jewish Holidays and Liturgy and Jewish History in Conflict: A Study of the Major Discrepancy Between Rabbinic and Conventional Chronology, and Links to Our Legacy: Insights into Hebrew, History, and Liturgy, and Words for the Wise: Sixty-Two Insights on Hebrew, Holidays, History and Liturgy. His website is www.rootsandrituals.org.
Alan Flashman, M.D. is the Director of the Family Institute of Neve Yerushalyim in Jerusalem. He is a child psychiatrist, practicing in Beer Sheba. Flashman has “advanced amateur” status in Judaic and Greek scholarship, having studied with the late Professor Morton Smith At Columbia University. He is the author of From Protection to Passover: Transformation of a Holiday (2018), which was dedicated to the late Chaim (Harold) Cohen, z”l, a good friend who gave this research emotional and scholarly support.
Prof. Sam Fleischacker is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and, in 2013-14, a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His most recent books include What is Enlightenment? (Routledge, 2013) and Divine Teaching and the Way of the World (Oxford, 2011).
Prof. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University and is (returning) Director of Stanford’s Taube Center of Jewish Studies. She received her Ph.D. from Berkeley GTU, Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author of Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender, and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature and Talmudic Transgressions.
Prof. Everett Fox is the Allen M. Glick professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. Fox is the translator of The Five Books of Moses (Schocken Books, 1995), and The Early Prophets (Schocken Books, 2014).
Prof. Rabbi Michael V. Fox , z”l, is the Jay C. and Ruth Halls-Bascom Professor (Emeritus) of Hebrew at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until his retirement in 2010. He received his his Ph.D. in Bible, Semitics, and Egyptology from Hebrew University, and his Rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College. Fox’s books include studies of the Song of Songs and the Egyptian love songs, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs.
Prof. Steven Fraade is Mark Taper Professor Emeritus of the History of Judaism at Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. in “Post-Biblical Studies” from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Oriental Studies. Among his many books are Enosh and His Generation: Pre-Israelite Hero and History in Post-Biblical Interpretation, From Tradition to Commentary: Torah and Its Interpretation in the Midrash Sifre to Deuteronomy, and Legal Fictions: Law and Narrative in the Discursive Worlds of Ancient Jewish Sectarians and Sages.
Prof. Rabbi David Frankel is Associate Professor of Bible at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where he teaches M.A. and rabbinical students. He did his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Moshe Weinfeld, and is the author or The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School (VTSupp 89) and The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel (Eisenbrauns).
Dr. Norma Franklin is a Research Fellow at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology of the University of Haifa and an Associate Fellow of the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research. She received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. She is the co-directer of the Jezreel Expedition with Dr. Jennie Ebeling. Among her articles are: “Dispelling the fog (אפל) around the Ophel ( עֹפֶל),” “Correlation and Chronology: Samaria and Megiddo Redux,” and “Samaria: From the Bedrock to the Omride Palace.”
Dr. Lisa Fredman is a Lecturer in Bible at Efrata College of Education and Shaanan Academic Teachers’ College. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Bible from Bar-Ilan University. Focusing upon Rashi’s biblical exegesis, she has published a critical edition of Rashi’s commentary on the book of Proverbs (World Union of Jewish Studies, 2019) and numerous scholarly articles. Her most recent book is The Commentator and the King: Rashi’s Holistic Readings of Solomon’s Song, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (Koren Publishers, 2026).
Dr. Harry Freedman is a British author of popular works of Jewish culture and history. His publications include Reason to Believe: The Controversial Life of Rabbi Louis Jacobs; The Talmud: A Biography (Bloomsbury, 2021); Kabbalah: Secrecy, Scandal and the Soul and The Murderous History of Bible Translations. His forthcoming book is Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius. Freedman holds an M.A. in Jewish Studies and a Ph.D. in Targum, both from London University. He lives in London with his wife Karen and has two children, two step-children, and a growing number of grandchildren.
Dr. Rabbi David M. Freidenreich is the Pulver Family Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College, where he also serves as deputy director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of the award-winning book, Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law. His most recent book is Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy.
Dr. Lisbeth S. Fried is Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan’s Department of Middle East Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from NYU and another in psychology from University of Michigan. Among her many publications are The Priest and the Great King: Temple-Palace Relations in the Persian Empire, Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition, Ezra, a Commentary (Sheffield Academic Press, 2015), Nehemiah: A Commentary (Sheffield Academic Press, 2021), and Ruth a Commentary (Sheffield Academic Press, 2023).
Dr. Albert D. Friedberg holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilization of the University of Toronto and attended Ner Israel Rabbinical College. He is the author of, Crafting the 613 Commandments: Maimonides on the Enumeration, Classification and Formulation of the Scriptural Commandments. He currently runs an investment firm in Toronto.
Bill Friedlieb is a retired NYPD Deputy Inspector. Over his 35 years as a member of Congregation Tifereth Israel (CTI), Glen Cove, NY, Bill has been an educator on many levels. He served as President, Treasurer, Ritual Chair, head of the Cemetery committee and teacher of a weekly Torah Talk study class.
Avram Friedman
Avram (Avi) Friedman is a Retired Managing Member of Davidson Kempner Capital Management where he co-ran the credit investing areas. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School.
Rachel Friedman is the founder and Dean of Lamdeinu, the center for Jewish learning in Teaneck, New Jersey. She served for many years as Associate Dean and Chair of Tanakh Studies at Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York City. She holds an M.A. in Bible from the Bernard Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Friedman has been a scholar-in-residence at synagogues and educational institutions throughout the United States and abroad.
Prof. Richard Elliott Friedman is the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and is the Katzin Professor (Emeritus) of Jewish Civilization of the University of California, San Diego. He earned his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible at Harvard, and is the author of Who Wrote the Bible?, The Disappearance of God, The Hidden Book in the Bible, Commentary on the Torah, The Bible with Sources Revealed, The Bible Now, and The Exile and Biblical Narrative.
Dr. Alexandria Frisch is an Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at George Mason University. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Temple Judaism from New York University, an M.A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School, and an M.A. in Jewish Education from Baltimore Hebrew University. Frisch is the author of The Danielic Discourse on Empire in Second Temple Literature (Brill 2017), which examines empire in Second Temple literature through a postcolonial lens. Her latest article, “The Power of Pain: A Literary Reading of the Wicked Priest’s Death(s) in 1QpHab” appears in the recent festschrift for Prof. Lawrence Schiffman, her doctoral adviser.
Prof. Serge Frolov is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Nate and Ann Levine Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at Southern Methodist University. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Clairmont Graduate University and another Ph.D. in modern history from Leningrad University. He is currently the editor of Hebrew Studies.
Prof. Deirdre Fulton is an associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Baylor University. She holds a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University (2011) and has published on topics in both Bible and Archaeology. She is the author of Reconsidering Nehemiah’s Judah: The Case of MT and LXX Nehemiah 11-12 (FAT II 80. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015) and editor [with Gary N. Knoppers and Lester Grabbe] of Exile and Restoration Revisited: Essays in Memory of Peter R. Ackroyd (T & T Clark Continuum, 2009). Fulton has also written several articles in the area of zooarchaeology and has been part of the Leon Levy Excavations to Ashkelon (2008-2016), the Jezreel Valley Regional Project (2011-2015), the Ramat Rahel Excavations (2012-2014), and the Tel Shimron Excavations (2017-present). She has also analyzed faunal remains from several other sites including Al Qisha (Yemen), the Carthage Tophet (Tunisia), and San Giuliano (Italy). Fulton is currently working on a book-length treatment with Paula Hesse on the Persian and Early Hellenistic period dog burials at Ashkelon, Israel.
Prof. Uri Gabbay is Associate Professor of Assyriology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of Archaeology. He received his Ph.D. in Assyriology from the Hebrew University in 2008. He edited (with Shai Secunda) the book Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity.
Prof. Rev. Wil Gafney is The Right. Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Duke University and is an ordained Episcopal priest. Gafney is a womanist Bible scholar, and the author of A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church (vols. A and W, 2021); Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and of the Throne, (Westminster/John Knox, 2017); Nahum, Habakkuk and, Zephaniah (Wisdom Commentary, 2017) and Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel (Fortress Press, 2007). For more on Gafney and her work, see her website, wilgafney.com.
Dr. Jason Gaines is Senior Professor of Practice in Hebrew Bible, and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Jewish Studies, at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and is the author of The Poetic Priestly Source (Fortress Press).
Dr. Abdulla Galadari is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Khalifa University of Science & Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Arabic & Islamic Studies from the University of Aberdeen. His research focuses on scriptural hermeneutics focusing on the intertextuality between the Qur’an and biblical, rabbinic, and extra-biblical literature. He is the author of Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Between Science, History, and the Bible (2018).
Prof. Tova Ganzel is an Associate Professor in the Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies and serves as the head of Olamot, the School of Jewish and Israeli Culture, at Bar-Ilan University. Within the Multidisciplinary Department, she founded the Cramim Honors Program in Jewish Studies. Her research focuses on the Hebrew Bible within the broader context of the ancient Near Eastern world, with special emphasis on prophetic literature and temple-centered communities, and also explores the Book of Ezekiel in light of Neo-Babylonian culture, and the temple and its community during the Persian period, especially in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Her work also examines the development of biblical criticism in Jewish thought from the eighteenth century onward, and the role of women as Halakhic professionals.
Prof. Zev Garber is (Emeritus) Chair of Jewish Studies and Philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Studies in Shoah and Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies and is the editor of the journal, Shofar. Among Garber’s publications are Methodology in the Academic Teaching of Judaism; Shoah: The Paradigmatic Genocide; Perspectives on Zionism; and Double Takes: Thinking and Rethinking Issues of Modern Judaism in Ancient Contexts.
Dr. Gregg E. Gardner is Associate Professor and the Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia. He holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University and was a Newcombe Foundation Fellow, a Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University, and a Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Fellow at Brown University. His research focuses on Judaism in late antiquity and classical rabbinic literature, with a special interest in poverty, charity, and material culture. Gardner is the author of The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and co-editor of Antiquity in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World (Mohr Siebeck, 2008). For more, visit https://ubc.academia.edu/GreggGardner
Dr. Rabbi Stephen Garfinkel is associate provost and an assistant professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He also serves as chair of the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion. Garfinkel received his master’s degree and rabbinic ordination from JTS. He later received a second master’s degree, and the degrees of M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Middle East Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.
Prof. Yosef Garfinkel is Yigael Yadin Professor of Archaeology of the Land of Israel at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has been the head since 2017. In the early part of his career, he specialized in the late prehistory of the Levant, the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. As part of this work, he excavated various Proto-historic sites such as, Yiftahel, Gesher, Tel Ali, Shaar Hagolan, Neolithic Ashkelon, and Tel Tsaf. Since 2007, he has shifted his concentration to the early phases of the Kingdom of Judah in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C.E. As such, he has conducted excavations and surveys at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Socoh, Tel Lachish and Khirbet al-Rai, uncovering new data on the early kings of the kingdom: David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. In addition to his archaeological excavations, analysis, and publication of finds, Garfinkel specializes in ancient dance research. His publications include Dance at the Dawn of Agriculture (Texas University Press 2003), and about ten articles on the history of dance.
Dr. Rabbi Joshua Garroway is the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judaeo-Christian Studies at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles. He holds a Ph.D. from the Religious Studies Department at Yale and ordination from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. He is the author of, The Beginning of the Gospel: Paul, Philippi, and the Origins of Christianity.
Kristine Henriksen Garroway
Dr. Kristine Henrikson Garroway is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the HUC-JIR. She received her doctorate in Hebrew Bible and Cognate Studies at HUC-JIR. Garroway is the author of Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household.
Evie Gassner is a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at Ariel University, and holds an M.A. from the Hebrew University. She is part of the Givat Ze’ev expedition and was previously part of the Horvat Midras and David expeditions. Gassner’s research focuses on Herodian landscape archaeology.
Prof. Rabbi Stephen A. Geller is the Irma Cameron Milstein Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and his ordination from JTS. Geller is the author of Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible. He is currently working on a commentary on the Book of Psalms.
Prof. Deborah Levine Gera is the Shalom Horowitz Professor of Classics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She holds a D. Phil. from Oxford University and an M.A. from the Hebrew University. Her most recent book is Judith (Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014).
Dr. Stephen Germany is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Basel, where he is a member of the research project “Transforming Memories of Collective Violence in the Hebrew Bible,” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. He holds a Master of Theologies Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Emory University and is the author of The Exodus-Conquest Narrative: The Composition of the Non-Priestly Narratives in Exodus–Joshua (Mohr Siebeck, 2017).
Prof. Shimon Gesundheit is Professor Emeritus in the Bible Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his PhD in Bible from the Hebrew University. His research has focused on Biblical law, narrative, theology, prophecy, medieval and modern Jewish exegesis, and the literary history of the Hebrew Bible. His publications include Three Times a Year: Studies on Festival Legislation in the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck), and he has published widely on the literary and theological dimensions of biblical texts.
Rabbi Yehudah Gilad is a Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivat Maaleh Gilboa and the rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi. He has semicha from the chief rabbinate of Israel and a teaching certificate from Herzog College. Rabbi Gilad was one of the founders of the Memad party and served in the Knesset.
Dr. David Gillis is an independent scholar living in Tel Aviv. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from the University of Haifa and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford. He is the author of Reading Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah(2015) and, co-author with Menachem Kellner of, Maimonides the Universalist(2021), both published by The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
Dr. Abigail Gillman is Associate Professor of Hebrew, German and Comparative Literature at Boston University and Acting Director of its Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literature from Harvard and a B.A. in Literature from Yale. She is the author of Viennese Jewish Modernism: Freud, Hofmannsthal, Beer-Hofmann, and Schnitzler, and A History of German Jewish Bible Translation.
Dr. Rabbi Samuel Z. Glaser, z”l, was Rabbi Emeritus of the Elmont Jewish Center and Adjunct Associate Professor at Hofstra University, NY. He earned his Smicha at Yeshiva University and his PhD in Clinical Psychology at St. John’s University, NY.
Dr. David A. Glatt-Gilad taught for thirty years in the Department of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, specializing in Deuteronomistic literature and Chronicles. Currently, he has commenced work on a book to be entitled History and Faith: 'Biblical Criticism' and the Modern, Traditional Jew.
Dr. Naama Golan is a Lecturer at the Kibbutzim College of Education and at Bar-Ilan University. She received her Ph.D. in Bible from Bar Ilan University, where she wrote on The Daniel Narratives: A Literary Analysis of Daniel 1-6. She has published a number of articles on Daniel, including "Metal and Stone: An Analogy between the Story of David and Goliath and the Story of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream" (ZAW 2019), and "The Surprise and the Role reversal in the Lion's-Den Narrative" (Beit Mikra 2019).
Dr. Shira Golani is Academic Lead of Biblical Studies and Jewish Culture at Gordon Academic College (Haifa), teaches at Bar Ilan University (Ramat Gan), and is a researcher at the Hebrew University Bible Project (Jerusalem). Her Ph.D. is from the Hebrew University. Among her articles are “Swords that are Ploughshares: Another Case of (Bilingual) Wordplay in Biblical Prophecy?,” Biblica 98.3 (2017): 425-434, and “Characterizing Kings and Kingship Through the Lists of Enemies of Saul, David, and Jehoiakim,” in: Explorations in the Interpretation of Samuel: Intertextuality and Reception (SBR 26), ed. Rachelle Gilmour and Benjamin J.M. Johnson (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2025), 99–109.
Dr. Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg is the current editor of the CCAR [Central Conference of American Rabbis] Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly. He was ordained in 1989 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and earned a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree at HUC-JIR in 1994. He is the author of Midrash for Beginners (Aaronson, 1996), Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most (with Naomi Levy, Jewish Lights, 2013), Because My Soul Longs for You: Integrating Theology into Our Lives (with Elaine Zecher, CCAR 2021), and co-editor of the Reform Movement's high holidays Mahzor, Mishkan HaNefesh.
Ari L. Goldman is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he directs the Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. He is the author of four books, including the best-selling The Search for God at Harvard and his newest book, The Late Starters Orchestra.
Prof. Miriam Goldstein is Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she received her Ph.D. A specialist in medieval Judeo-Arabic texts, Goldstein focuses on interreligious relations in the medieval Arabic-speaking world as well as Judeo-Arabic Bible exegesis. Goldstein is author of A Judeo-Arabic Parody of the Life of Jesus: The Toledot Yeshu Helene Narrative (2023) and Karaite Exegesis in Medieval Jerusalem (2011), and is co-editor of Beyond Religious Borders: Interaction and Intellectual Exchange in the Medieval Islamic World (2011) and Authorship in Mediaeval Arabic and Persian Literatures (2019). She is currently completing a critical edition and translation of the Judeo-Arabic Genesis commentary of the tenth-century Karaite scholar Ya‘qub al-Qirqisani, and leads the project “Parodies on the Life of Jesus in Yemen: Towards the Origins and Development of the Toledot Yeshu Literature” (Israel Science Foundation 2063/22).
Prof. Ronnie Goldstein is an Associate Professor at the Department of Bible in the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in biblical studies. His research focuses mainly on the interpretation of biblical literature and its historical context, and the cultural interactions between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern literature. Goldstein is one of the editors-in-chief of the academic journal Tarbiz, and is the author of, The Life of Jeremiah: Traditions about the Prophet and Their Evolution in Biblical Times (2013). He is currently working on a commentary to First Isaiah for the Mikra LeYisrael series.
Prof. Rabbi David Golinkin is the President of The Schechter Institutes, Inc., Jerusalem; President Emeritus of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies; and a Professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute. He is the author or editor of over 60 books and over 200 articles.
Dr. Elaine Goodfriend is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and the Jewish Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. She has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from U.C. Berkeley. Among her publications are “Food in the Hebrew Bible,” in Food and Jewish Traditions (forthcoming) and “Leviticus 22:24: A Prohibition of Gelding for the Land of Israel?”
Prof. Martin Goodman is Emeritus Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, and Supernumerary Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He holds M.A., D.Phil. and D.Litt. degrees from the University of Oxford and an Honorary D.Litt. from the University of Southampton. Goodman is a Fellow of the British Academy, and has written widely on both Jewish and Roman history. His books include The Ruling Class of Judaea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66-70 (1987), Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire (1994), Judaism in The Roman World (2007), Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations (2007), A History of Judaism (2017) and Josephus’s The Jewish War: A Biography (2019). He was the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (2002), which was awarded a National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.
Dr. Rabbi Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, in Jerusalem. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Among his many books are The Promise of Israel, Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul, and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn.
Dr. Isaac Gottlieb is an associate professor in the Bible Department at Bar-Ilan University. He received his M.A. from Yeshiva University and his Ph.D. from New York University. He is the author of The Bible in Rabbinic Interpretation (with Menachem Ben-Yashar and Jordan S. Penkower) and Order in the Bible.
Naomi Graetz taught English (now retired) at Ben-Gurion University and still teaches a course on feminist approaches to Jewish texts in the their Overseas Program. She is the author of Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God, The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder, S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Stories, and Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating.
Dr. Deena Grant is associate professor of of Jewish Studies at Hartford Seminary. She received her Ph.D. from New York University in Hebrew and Judaic Studies, with a focus on the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern setting. Dr. Grant taught at Hofstra University and Drisha. She is the author of Divine Anger in the Hebrew Bible.
Prof. Michael Graves serves as Professor of Old Testament and Carl and Hudson T. Armerding Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College, Illinois. He holds a Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and is the author of Jerome, Epistle 106 (On the Psalms): Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (SBL Press, 2022), How Scripture Interprets Scripture: What Biblical Writers Can Teach Us about Reading the Bible (Baker Academic, 2021), Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church (Fortress Press, 2017), and Jerome’s Hebrew Philology (Brill, 2007). His particular areas of interest are Jerome and the Latin Bible, and also the intertwined history of how Christians, Jews, and Muslims have engaged the biblical tradition.
Dr. Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg is the founder and former president of Clal, the former president of the Jewish Life Network and the rabbi emeritus of the Riverdale Jewish Center. Greenberg was ordained at Yeshiva Beis Yosef and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is the author of, The Jewish Way, For the Sake of Heaven and Earth, and "Covenantal Pluralism".
Dr. Aaron Greener is a post-doctoral fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, and at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at Haifa University. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Bar-Ilan University. Greener directs “Dig the Past”, which recreates Israeli archaeological excavations at North American camps. He is currently preparing for publication the numerous figurine fragments discovered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project directed by Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira.
Prof. Frederick E. Greenspahn is the Gimelstob Eminent Scholar of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He earned his M.A. in Hebrew Letters from HUC-JIR and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. He is the author of When Brothers Dwell Together, The Preeminence of Younger Siblings in the Hebrew Bible (1994) and An Introduction to Aramaic.
Prof. Leonard Greenspoon, z"l, held the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish civilization at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and was also Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Theology there. His Ph.D. is from Harvard University. Greenspoon was the editor of Purdue University Press’s Studies in Jewish Civilization series and among his many edited and author books are, Max Leopold Margolis: A Scholar’s Scholar, Fashioning Jews: Clothing, Culture and Commerce, and (with Sidnie White Crawford) The Book of Esther in Modern Research.
Prof. Edward L. Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He received the EMET Prize (“Israel’s Nobel”) in Humanities-Biblical Studies for 2020, and his book, Job: A New Translation (Yale University Press, 2019), won the acclaim of the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and many others. He has been writing a commentary on Lamentations for the Jewish Publication Society.
Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz is Associate Professor of Theology in the Theology Department at Fordham University and the co-director of Fordham's Center for Jewish Studies. Her first book, Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, received a National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship and a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award from the Association for Jewish Studies. Her next book, A Queen in Jerusalem: Helena of Adiabene through the Ages, is under contract with Princeton University Press.
Prof. Marianne Grohmann is Professor at the Institute of Old Testament Research and Biblical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. She studied Protestant Theology and German literature in Vienna and Berlin and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007. She recently published a commentary on Lamentations, (Klagelieder, Theologischer Verlag Zürich 2022) and is the author of Fruchtbarkeit und Geburt in den Psalmen (Mohr Siebeck 2007) and Aneignung der Schrift: Wege einer christlichen Rezeption jüdischer Hermeneutik (Neukirchener 2000).
Prof. Andrew D. Gross is an associate professor in the department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University in 2006, and is the author of Continuity and Innovation in the Aramaic Legal Tradition (Brill, 2008) and (with Lawrence H. Schiffman) The Temple Scroll: 11Q19, 11Q20, 11Q21, 4Q524, 5Q21 with 4Q365a (Brill, 2021).
Dr. Eliav Grossman is the Blaustein Postdoctoral Associate in Ancient Judaism at Yale University. He holds a PhD from the Department of Religion at Princeton University, and formerly served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University (2024–2026). He studies Jews and Judaism in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, and his research explores rabbinic literature as it developed from the product of a narrow class of provincial elites to the dominant cultural idiom for Jews across the eastern Mediterranean.
Rabbi Eric Grossman studied in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, Yeshivat HaMivtar, and York University. He was a fellow at the Hartman Institute and at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a two-time recipient of the Hebrew University Bible Prize as well as the Claus Nobel Educator of Distinction award. His “Lesson Plans” is a leading podcast on educational theory. He is the headmaster of The Akiva School of Montreal.
Prof. Jonathan Grossman is a professor in the Bible departments of both Bar Ilan University and Herzog College. He holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Bar Ilan University and an M.A. in Jewish thought from the Hebrew University. Among Grossman’s many publications are Esther: The Outer Narrative and the Hidden Meaning, Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries, Abram to Abraham: A Literary Analysis of the Abraham Narrative, and The Sacrificial Service: Gestures of Flesh and Spirit.
Lawrence Grossman is Director of Publications at the American Jewish Committee. He received smicha from Yeshiva University and a PhD in American History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Grossman was editor of the American Jewish Year Book (2000-2008). Grossman in now retired.
Dr. Rabbi Zvi Grumet is currently Director of Education at The Lookstein Center of Bar-Ilan University, where he is Editor-in-Chief of Jewish Educational Leadership. He was ordained by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and holds an Ed.D. from Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School. Grumet has more than four decades of experience in formal and informal Jewish education, from high school through adult education, and in professional development for teachers and school leaders. His books include Moses and the Path to Leadership (Urim, 2013) and Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), the Humash Koren Lev Lada’at (Koren), and his forthcoming Exodus: The Genesis of God’s People (Maggid Books).
Prof. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is professor of Hebrew Bible Studies at the University of Oslo. She is the author of Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance (De Gruyter, 2013) on the dedicatory inscriptions from the YHWH sanctuary on Mount Gerizim, and she is working on a book on hospitality in the Hebrew Bible. Gudme has written several articles and book chapters on ritual, food, materiality, and the senses in the Hebrew Bible and in the Iron Age Southern Levant, and she is the convener of the digital lecture series “Ancient Attraction” (2020), “Ancient Attire” (2022), and “Ancient Adornment” (2024).
Dr. David Gurevich is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology in the Hebrew University. He holds a Ph.D in Classical Archaeology from the University of Haifa, with a dissertation focused on Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple period. In addition to his academic pursuits, Gurevich works as a licensed tour guide in Israel, and lectures worldwide on Israel-related topics.
Prof. Malachi Haim Hacohen is Professor of History, Jewish Studies, German Studies, and Religion at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and his research interests focus on Central Europe and include social theory, political philosophy, and rabbinic culture. His Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna (Cambridge, 2000) won the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the AHA and Austria's Victor Adler State Prize. His Jacob & Esau: Jewish European History Between Nation and Empire (Cambridge, 2019) won the Center for Austrian Studies' Biannual Book Prize. He has published on the European Jewish intelligentsia, Cold War liberalism, and cosmopolitanism and Jewish identity in leading professional journals. He was a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, and the IFK in Vienna. He was Leibniz Professor at Leipzig University in the Summer Semester of 2023.
Dr. Elana Stein Hain is the Rosh Beit Midrash and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She holds a PhD in Religion from Columbia University, where she studied with Professor David Weiss Halivni z”l. Elana is the author of Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Loopholes and Legal Integrity (Penn Press, 2024), as well as a chapter in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Jewish Law (Oxford, 2025) on the rabbinic penchant for decontextualized interpretation, called “Close, Yet Creative, Reading: Understanding Rabbinic Interpretative Strategies.”
Dr. Rabbi Michael Harris is the rabbi of Hampstead Synagogue, a Research Fellow at The London School of Jewish Studies and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He holds rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, of the University of London, and an M.A. in philosophy from the Hebrew University. Harris is the author of Divine Command Ethics: Jewish and Christian Perspectives and Faith Without Fear: Unresolved Issues in Modern Orthodoxy.
Prof. Rabbi Robert Harris is professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis.
Prof. Tova Hartman is the (recently appointed) Dean of Humanities at Ono Academic College in Israel. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she studied under Carol GiIlligan. She is the author of Appropriately Subversive: Modern Mothers in Traditional Religions, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism, and Are You Not a Man of God: Devotion, Betrayal, and Social Criticism in Jewish Tradition. Hartman is the co-founder of Congregation Shira Chadashah.
Dr. Eric J. Harvey is a current Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and a recent Postdoctoral Fellow of Digital Humanities at Stanford University’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis. University. He writes on material factors in the transmission of Hebrew Psalms and on blindness across the ancient Near East. He also maintains a blog on blindness, academia, and Bible at www.blindscholar.com.
Prof. Warren Zev Harvey is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has taught since 1977. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University (1973) and is the author of many studies on medieval and modern philosophy, including Physics and Metaphysics in Hasdai Crescas (1998). Harvey is an EMET Prize laureate in the humanities (2009).
Prof. Ziva R. Hassenfeld is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Education at Brandeis University. She completed her PhD at Stanford University. She studies reading comprehension from a sociocultural perspective, focusing on how children develop interpretations of the Hebrew Bible as a lens on reading development more broadly. Her qualitative methods include ethnographic observation, stimulated recall interviews and think-aloud interviews. This work draws on biblical hermeneutics, both contemporary and rabbinic, as well as literary theory and criticism. Ziva is also a passionate educator who has continued teaching Hebrew Bible throughout her move from high school classroom to academia. Her first book, The Second Conversation: Interpretive Authority in the Bible Classroom (Brandeis University Press, 2024), grew out of a two-year teacher-research project in which she taught seventh-grade Hebrew Bible during her postdoctoral fellowship, supported by the Ettenberg Research Grant in Jewish Education.
Prof. Rabbi Judith Hauptman is the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture at JTS and a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Talmud from JTS and rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion. Among her books are Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice, Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources, andRereading the Mishnah: A New Approach to Ancient Jewish Texts.
Rabbi Yehuda Hausman is a writer and a teacher. He has taught at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJRCA), the American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies, and Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. He also served as the spiritual leader of the The Shul on Duxbury, an independent Orthodox minyan. Hausman received his ordination from YCT Rabbinical School and holds a B.A. and M.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. He is the author of Against History: Essays and Literary Commentary on Genesis (2023) and for several years, wrote about the weekly Torah portion on his blog: rabbihausman.com.
Dr. Rachel Havrelock is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Rachel’s book, River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line combines biblical studies, literary and political theory, and the politics of interpretation. Rachel’s current book project, The Joshua Generation: Politics and the Promised Land, focuses on the structure and meaning of the book of Joshua and its interpretation. Her co-authored book, Women on the Biblical Road, was the beginning of her work on gender and the Bible.
Shira Hecht-Koller is Director of Education for 929 English, a platform for the daily global study of Tanakh. She is also a faculty member at Drisha, where she teaches Talmud and designs immersive text study experiences, and was a fellow in the Paradigm Program of the Paideia Institute of Jewish Studies in Sweden. Shira holds a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was a Golding Scholar, and she is a graduate of the Beruria Scholars Program in Advanced Talmud Studies at Midreshet Lindenbaum. Before embarking on her Jewish studies career, she was an associate in the Intellectual Property department at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP.
Prof. Joel Hecker is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Mysticism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He received his Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from New York University in 1996, and his rabbinic ordination and a M.A. in Jewish Philosophy from Yeshiva University in 1990. He is the author of Volumes 11 and (with Nathan Wolski) Volume 12 of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition and is the author of Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Wayne State University Press, 2005. He is also co-editor with Lawrence Fine and Rut Kara-Ivanov Kaniel of the forthcoming "Emotion in the Jewish Mystical Tradition" (Littman Library, 2026).
Rabbi Herzl Hefter is the Rosh Beit Midrash Har’el, in memory of Belda Kaufman Lindenbaum, in Jerusalem, an advanced Halacha study program for rabbinic ordination, open to men and women. Rabbi Hefter has taught the Kollel fellows at Yeshivat Hamivtar, the Gruss Kollel of Yeshiva University and served as the head of the Bruria Scholars Program at Midreshet Lindenbaum. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University and received his ordination from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein at Yeshiva Har Etzion.
Prof. Samuel Heilman is Harold Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies (Emeritus) at the Graduate Center and Distinguished Professor of Sociology (Emeritus) at Queens College of the City University of New York. His Ph.D. is from the University of Pennsylvania, and three of his many books won the National Jewish Book Award: The Gate Behind the Wall, A Walker in Jerusalem, and The Rebbe (with Menachem Friedman).
Dr. Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at the Hadar Institute. He holds a Ph.D in Religion from Harvard University and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (Indiana University Press, 2013), and his two volume collection of divrei Torah called The Heart of Torah (JPS 2017). In 2011, Held was a recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education.
Prof. Ronald Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biblical History and Northwest Semitic Philology and is author of many articles and books, including The Book of Genesis: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013) and Genesis 1-11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Yale Bible; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024). He is a general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition, a text-critical project sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature.
Prof. Meghan Henning is the Associate Professor of Christian Origins at the University of Dayton. She holds a Masters degree in Biblical Studies from Yale Divinity School, and a doctorate in New Testament from Emory University. Henning is the author of Educating Early Christians through the Rhetoric of Hell (Mohr Siebeck) on the pedagogical function of Hell and Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christianity (Yale), which examines hell through the lenses of gender and disability studies. She is the recipient of grants and awards from the Jacob K. Javits foundation, the Society of Biblical Literature, Yale Divinity School, and Emory University and has appeared in a documentary for the National Geographic Channel and on CNN.
Prof. Matthias Henze is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at Rice University. He holds a M.Div. in Protestant Theology from the University of Heidelberg and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism from Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the director of Rice's Jewish Studies program, which he founded, and has won multiple prizes for teaching excellence. Henze is the author of a number of books such as, Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus (Fortress 2017) and Jewish Apocalypticism in Late First Century Israel: Reading Second Baruch in Context (Mohr Siebeck, 2011), and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha.
Dr. John W. Herbst is the Scholar-in-Residence for the Virginia Peninsula Baptist Association, for which he writes a blog about Bible and theology. He holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Union Presbyterian Seminary, an M.Div. from Southern Baptist theological Seminary, and is an ordained Baptist minister. Herbst is the author of Development of an Icon: Solomon Before and After King David (Pickwick, 2016).
Prof. Geoffrey Herman holds the Chair of Ancient Judaism and Rabbinic Literature in the Department of Religious Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL in Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish History, Rabbinic Period, from the Hebrew University, and his research focuses on Babylonian Jewish history in the Sasanian era, and its neighboring religious and cultural world. Herman’s recent authored or edited volumes include: A Prince without a Kingdom: the Exilarch in the Sasanian Era (Mohr Siebeck, 2012); Persian Martyr Acts under King Yazdgird I (Gorgias Press, 2016); and Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians: Religious Dynamics in a Sasanian Context (Gorgias Press, 2014).
Dr. Marc Herman is an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York University and a core member of The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies. His Ph.D. is from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Religious Studies. He coedited Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism (2020) and has published in the Jewish Quarterly Review, Jewish History, and the Journal of the American Oriental Society, among other venues.
Hila Hershkoviz is an editor and translator for TheTorah.co.il. She holds an M.A. in Bible Studies from Yaakov Herzog College. Hershkoviz was formerly a writer for Vision magazine and a blogger for The Times of Israel, and has been an alternative peace activist as well as a lecturer on Israeli advocacy and indigenous rights.
Prof. Rabbi Richard Hidary is Professor of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University and a rabbi at Sephardic Synagogue. He is the author of Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud (Brown University Press, 2010) and Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Currently, he is writing a literary and philosophical commentary on Talmudic discussions of Jewish holidays. His Daf Yomi classes are accessible at YouTube.com/rhidary and he also runs the websites teachtorah.org, pizmonim.org, and rabbinics.org.
Dr. Rabbi Michael C. Hilton is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester; Scholar in Residence at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London; and Lehrhaus Tutor in Ancient Greek, Leo Baeck College London. He is the author of The Gospels and Rabbinic Judaism: A Study Guide (with Father Gordian Marshall OP); of The Christian Effect on Jewish Life; and of Bar Mitzvah: A History. His current research is on the historical impact of Islam on Judaism over the centuries.
Prof. Martha Himmelfarb is the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion emerita at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981. Her most recent book is Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel (2017). Other books include A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and Merit in Ancient Judaism (2006) and The Apocalypse: A Brief History (2010).
Dr. Rabbi Avital Hochstein is President of Hadar Israel, a research fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute and a former Rosh Kollel at the Pardes Institute, all institutions at which she also teaches, primarily Talmud. She holds a Ph.D. in Talmud and Gender Studies from Bar-Ilan University, and received ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes, as well as from the Beit Midrash Le'Rabanut Yisraelit. She is co-author of The Place of Women in Midrash (Yedioth Ahronoth 2008). She published a weekly online Parashat HaShavua and is a founder of Kehilat Shirah Hadashah in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Evan Hoffman is the rabbi of Congregation Anshe Sholom in New Rochelle, NY. He previously served as Assistant Rabbi of Park East Synagogue is Manhattan. He received semicha from Yeshiva University’s RIETS, earned an M.A. in Modern Jewish History from Revel Graduate School and did advanced graduate work in American Jewish History. Hoffman’s weekly essay series, “Thoughts on the Parashah,” is widely disseminated.
Dr. Rabbi Jeff Hoffman is Rabbi-in-Residence and Professor of Liturgy at The Academy for Jewish Religion. He holds a D.H.L in liturgy, rabbinic ordination, and an M.A. all from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Hoffman is the editor of Siddur Tisha B’Av for the Rabbinical Assembly. His article, “The Image of the Other in Jewish Interpretations of Alenu” will appear in the online journal Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations.
Prof. Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman is Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual at HUC-JIR, where he was ordained and where received his Ph.D. He is the editor of the the multi-volume My People’s Prayerbook, and among his many books are Beyond the Text, Rethinking Synagogues,and Canonization of the Synagogue Service.
Prof. Yair Hoffman, z”l, was Professor at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Bible, where he chaired the department. He was the head of the Chaim Rosenberg School for Jewish Studies and also the Chairman of the Bible Department at Seminar Hakibuzim College. Hoffman received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University, was the author of The Doctrine of the Exodus, A Blemished Perfection: The Book of Job in Context, and Jeremiah, A Commentary vol. 1-2, and was the editor of the journal, Beit Mikra.
Prof. Shalom E. Holtz is David A. and Fannie M. Denenberg Chair in Biblical Studies at Yeshiva University He did his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Neo-Babylonian Court Procedure (Cuneiform Monographs 38; Leiden: Brill, 2009) and Neo-Babylonian Trial Records (Society of Biblical Literature, 2014) and Praying Legally (Brown Judaic Studies, 2019).
Prof. Michael M. Homan, z”l, was Professor of Theology at Xavier University of Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Ancient History with a focus on Hebrew Bible from UC San Diego. Homan authored To Your Tents, O Israel! , which won the Frank Moore Cross Publications award, and co-authored The Bible for Dummies and The Nine Commandments.
Prof. Wayne Horowitz is Professor of Assyriology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. under the direction of W.G. Lambert at the University of Birmingham, England, which was published as the monograph Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. He writes extensively on Ancient Near Eastern Science, Literature and Religion, with an emphasis on the Heavens and Astronomy and is co-editor of several books, including, Cuneiform in Canaan (2007 [updated 2018]), Writing Science before the Greeks (2011), Living the Lunar Calendar (2012), Between Text and Text (2013), A Woman of Valor (2014, Westenholtz FS); and The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations (2018).
Dr. Brandon Hurlbert is a lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Durham University, where he received his PhD. He is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of the Bible and Violence and a co-host on the Two Cities Podcast. He has published essays on biblical violence, hermeneutics, and the Bible and film, most recently: “Taking the Absurdity Seriously: Questioning the Complicity of YHWH in Judges 20–21,” in Violent Biblical Texts: New Approaches, edited by Helen Paynter and Trevor Laurence (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2022).
Jeremy M. Hutton
Prof. Jeremy Hutton is Professor of Classical Hebrew Language and Biblical Literature in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Notre Dame, and an A.M. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Philology from Harvard University. He is the author of The Transjordanian Palimpsest: The Overwritten Texts of Personal Exile and Transformation in the Deuteronomistic History (2009) and co-author (with C. L. Crouch) of Translating Empire: Tell Fekheriyeh, Deuteronomy, and the Akkadian Treaty Tradition (2019), as well as the author or co-author of dozens of articles. He is currently working on projects in several sub-fields of Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitics, including the composition and reception history of the book of Samuel; translation in antiquity; Palmyrene Aramaic epigraphy; the roles of priests and Levites in Iron Age Israel; and cognitive linguistic approaches to Hebrew semantics.
Jürg Hutzli
Dr. Jürg Hutzli is Lecturer in Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hebrew Bible at the Universities of Lausanne, Geneva, and Zurich. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Berne and his Habilitation from the University of Zurich. He is the author of The Origins of P: Literary Profiles and Strata of the Priestly Texts in Genesis 1 – Exodus 40 (Mohr Siebeck, 2023) and Die Erzählung von Hanna und Samuel: Textkritische und literarische Analyse von 1. Samuel 1–2 unter Berücksichtigung des Kontextes (Theologischer Verlag, 2007). He is the co-editor, with Jean-Marie Durand and Thomas Römer, of Les vivants et leurs morts: Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 14–15 avril 2010 (Academic Press/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013).
David Ilan
Dr. David llan was the director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem from 2003 to 2025 and directed the excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel from 2005 to 2022. His BA and MA degrees are from Hebrew University, and his PhD is from Tel Aviv University (supervisor Prof. Israel Finkelstein). Aside from the Tel Dan excavations, David has excavated at Tel Arad and Tel Megiddo. David still teaches at Hebrew Union College and has taught at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and at Johns Hopkins University. He specializes in mortuary archaeology, religion and ritual in the Chalcolithic period, the Middle Bronze Age and the early Iron Age of the southern Levant. He has authored or co-authored four books and more than 60 peer-reviewed papers. He is the editor of the journal NGSBA Archaeology.
Prof. Liv Ingeborg Lied is Professor of the Study of Religion at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo, Norway. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bergen and is the author of Invisible Manuscripts: Textual Scholarship and the Survival of 2 Baruch (Mohr Siebeck, 2021), co-author of Working with Manuscripts: A Guide for Textual Scholars (Yale, 2025), and co-editor of Unruly Books: Rethinking Ancient and Academic Imaginations of Religious Texts (Bloomsbury, 2024). Together with Marianne B. Kartzow, Lied directed the research project: Books Known Only by Title: Exploring the Gendered Structures of the First Millennium Imagined Library (2020-2022).
Dr. Ronit Irshai is a Senior Lecturer in the Gender Studies Program, and Chair of the Department, at Bar Ilan University and is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Kogod Center. Irshai holds a Ph.D. in Gender Studies and Jewish Philosophy from Bar Ilan University. She is the author of Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature (Brandeis 2012) and “Woman” or “Eve”? Abortion in the Orthodox Halakhic Discourse of the 20th Century (Magnes, 2022 [Hebrew]), and co-editor (with Dov Schwartz) of New Spirit in the Palace of Torah - Jubilee Volume in Honor of Professor Tamar Ross (2018 [Hebrew]).
Dr. Daniel Jackson is a professor of computer science at MIT, and a member of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton, MA.
Prof. Jonathan Jacobs is a Professor in Bar Ilan University’s Bible Department. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from this same department, and rabbinic ordination from Israel’s chief rabbinate. In addition to his many articles, Jacobs is the author of Measure for Measure in the Biblical Storytelling, Nahmanides’ Torah Commentary Addenda Written in the Land of Israel [with Prof. Yosef Ofer], and Bekhor Shoro Hadar Lo – R. Joseph Bekhor Shor between Continuity and Innovation (all in Hebrew).
Lisa Jacobs is the Director of Family Education and Engagement at Bet Am Shalom Synagogue, a Reconstructionist community in White Plains, NY. She previously served as Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham, Massachusetts. Lisa holds a B.A. from Tufts University in Child Development and Comparative Religion, an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, an M.A. from Lesley University in Expressive Therapies, and an M.A. from George Washington University in Israel Education. Lisa is a board-certified music therapist and licensed mental health counselor, has performed as a vocalist with the Klezmer Conservatory Band and other Boston-based ensembles and has written, composed, and arranged pieces for Jewish a cappella and choral groups in the Northeast.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs is president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Before that he spent 20 years as the spiritual leader of Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) in Scarsdale, New York, and earlier, as the rabbi of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, where he created the first homeless shelter in a New York City synagogue. Jacobs was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York where he also earned his M.A. in Hebrew Literature, and has studied for two decades at Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is a senior rabbinic fellow. One of Jacobs’ current foci is as an advocate for an Israel that is secure, Jewish, democratic, and pluralistic, with a vibrant Reform Jewish community.
Dr. Sandra Jacobs was awarded her doctorate on physical disfigurement and corporal punishment in ancient Hebrew and cuneiform legal sources in 2010, supervised by Bernard Jackson, at the University of Manchester. Her research was published as The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2014 repr. in 2015). From 2010-2016 she worked as Book Review Editor for Strata: The Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. During 2016-2019 she worked on the Leverhulme International Network project, Dispersed Qumran Cave Artefacts and Archives, at King’s College, London, where she is currently a Visiting Research Fellow. She continues also to teach at Leo Baeck College, London.
Dr. Elaine T. James is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her research interests are in biblical Hebrew poetry, the idea of art in the ancient world, and hermeneutical issues of land and gender. She is the author of Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place (Oxford University Press, 2017), and co-editor of Biblical Poetry and the Art of Close Reading with J. Blake Couey (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and is currently completing a handbook on Biblical poetry for Oxford University Press. She holds the Ph.D. in Old Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr. Mark Janzen is assistant professor of history and archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theologocial Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. in history/Egyptology from the University of Memphis, and an M.A. in Biblical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. His dissertation is titled, “The Iconography of Humiliation: The Depiction and Treatment of Foreign Captives in New Kingdom Egypt.”
Prof. Sara Japhet z"l was Professor (Emerita) of Bible at the Hebrew University whence she received her Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. Among her many publications are The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and its Place in Biblical Thought and The Commentary of Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam) on Qohelet (with Robert B. Salters).
Dr. Alex P. Jassen is Associate Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from New York University. He is the author of Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism (Brill, 2007), which won the 2009 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Scripture and Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Dr. Jaeyoung Jeon is a research associate at Collège de France (Paris, France). He is also a Research Associate at the University of Pretoria. He holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Tel-Aviv University and an M.A. from Hebrew University’s Rothberg School. Jeon has conducted multiple projects funded by Swiss National Science Foundation and Korean Research Foundation. He is the co-editor (with Louis Jonker) of Chronicles and the Priestly Literature of the Hebrew Bible (De Gruyter, forthcoming) and the author of, The Call of Moses and the Exodus Story: A Redactional-Critical Study in Exodus 3-4 and 5-13 (Mohr Siebeck, 2013); From the Reed Sea to Kadesh: A Redaction-Critical and Socio-Historical Study of the Pentateuchal Wilderness Narrative (Mohr Siebeck, 2023); and Social Groups behind the Pentateuch (SBL, 2022); MISHNAH: Seder Kodashim. Vol 5/7. Translated and annotated by Jaeyoung Joen. Hangil Great Books 191. Seoul: Hangilsa, 2024 (Korean).
Elie Jesner is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in London, and an educator at a variety of Jewish communal institutions. He holds M.A.s in Philosophy from Cambridge University and the University of Warwick. Elie blogs at thinkingdafyomi.com and the Times of Israel.
Dr. Alison L. Joseph is the Assistant Managing Editor of The Posen Library for Jewish Culture and Civilization and an adjunct assistant professor of Bible and its Interpretation at JTS. She holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Emory University. Her first book Portrait of the Kings: The Davidic Prototype in Deuteronomistic Poetics received the 2016 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise.
Dr. Rabbi Seth (Avi) Kadish teaches medieval Jewish philosophy, history and exegesis at Oranim Teacher’s College, and in the Overseas School at the University of Haifa. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Haifa in Medieval Jewish Philosophy, his M.A. in Bible and Jewish education from Yeshiva University, and his semicha from Yeshiva University’s RIETS. Kadish is the author of Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish Prayer and The Book of Abraham: Rabbi Shimon ben Zemah Duran and the School of Rabbenu Nissim Gerondi.
Dan’el Kahn
Prof. Dan’el Kahn is Professor of Bible and Ancient Near East in the University of Haifa's Department of Biblical Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Egyptology and the History of Israel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he focused on Egypt's 25th dynasty. He is the co-editor of Treasures on Camels' Humps (Magnes 2008); Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature (Brill, 2009); The Ancient Near East in the 12th-10th Centuries BCE (Ugarit Verlag, 2012), and the author of Sennacherib's Campaign Against Judah: A Source Analysis of Isaiah 36–37 (Cambridge, 2020).
Prof. Isaac Kalimi is Gutenberg-Forschungsprofessor in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israelite History, at the Seminar für Altes Testament und Biblische Archäologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany, and Senior Research Associate in the University of Chicago, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kalimi is the author of The Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles and The Retelling of Chronicles in Jewish Tradition and Literature: A Historical Journey.
Prof. Jason Kalman is Professor of Classical Hebrew Literature and Interpretation at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he also serves as co-Director of HUC Press and co-editor of the Hebrew Union College Annual. He is also a research fellow in the Department of Old and New Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion, at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Kalman received his Ph.D. from McGill University. He is the author of Hebrew Union College and the Dead Sea Scrolls (HUC, 2012), The Book of Job in Jewish Life and Thought: Critical Essays (HUC Press, 2021; Russian Edition, Academic Studies Press, 2025), and Abraham ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Book of Job (TEAMS; Medieval Institute publications, Western Michigan, 2024), as well as co-author with Jaqueline S. du Toit of Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010).
Prof. Joel Kaminsky is the Morningstar Professor of Jewish Studies and a Professor of Religion at Smith College. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Chicago. Among his publications are The Hebrew Bible for Beginners: A Jewish and Christian Introduction (with Joel N. Lohr), and Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election.
Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski is professor of biblical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Tamar is the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel and co-editor of Bodies, Embodiment and Theological of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Prof. Ben Zion Katz, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an Attending Physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases of the Anne and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He has also written on topics of Jewish interest related to Bible, liturgy and the calendar. He recently published A Journey Through Torah: A Critique of the Documentary Hypothesis.
Dr. Hayah Katz is a Senior Lecturer of Iron Age Archaeology at the Department of Land of Israel Studies in Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. She holds an M.A. in archaeology from Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in archaeology from Bar-Ilan University. Her research focus is the history of archaeological research in the Land of Israel from the 1920s until modern times. In a desire to develop this field she founded a Chair named after Zev Vilnay in the Department of the Land of Israel Studies. In addition, she is director of the Meron Ridges Project and the Tel Rosh excavations, focusing on a comprehensive study of settlement processes in the Upper Galilee region during the first millennium B.C.E.
Dr. Jill (Citron) Katz is clinical assistant professor of archaeology and anthropology at Yeshiva University. She received her A.B. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Katz excavates at Tell es-Safi/Gath where she serves as an area supervisor. Her book, The Archaeology of Cult in Middle Bronze Age Canaan: The Sacred Area at Tel Haror, Israel was published by Gorgias Press in 2009.
Dr. Menachem Katz is Academic Director of the Friedberg Manuscripts Project in Jerusalem. He also lectures at the Open University of Israel and at the Graduate School of Givat Washington College. Dr. Katz spends much of his time poring over handwritten fragments from around the world and has published widely on the Jerusalem Talmud, Aggadic literature, as well as in the field of Digital Humanities. His latest book, A Critical Edition and a Short Explanation of Talmud Yerusalmi’s Tractate Qiddushin, was published by last year (Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi & Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem 2016).
Prof. Robert S. Kawashima is an associate professor at the University of Florida, in the Department of Religion and the Center for Jewish Studies. He was awarded the Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author most notably of Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode (2004) and The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge (2022), both published with Indiana University Press.
Prof. Thomas Kazen is professor of Biblical Studies at Stockholm School of Theology, University College Stockholm. He received his PhD in 2002 from Uppsala University, Sweden. His numerous books include Jesus and Purity Halakhah: Was Jesus Indifferent to Impurity? (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2002); Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism (Eisenbrauns, 2010); Emotions in Biblical Law: A Cognitive Science Approach (Sheffield Phoenix, 2011); Scripture, Interpretation, or Authority? Motives and Arguments in Jesus’ Halakic Conflicts (Mohr Siebeck, 2013); Smuts, skam, status: Perspektiv på samkönad sexualitet i Bibeln och antiken (Makadam, 2018); Impurity and Purification in Early Judaism and the Jesus Tradition (SBL, 2021); Moral Infringement and Repair in Antiquity: Supplement 1: Emotions and Hierarchies (EHS, 2022); (co-author, with Rikard Roitto) Revenge, Compensation, and Forgiveness in the Ancient World: A Comparative Study of Interpersonal Infringement and Moral Repair (Mohr Siebeck, 2024); and Dirt, Shame, Status: Perspectives on Same-Sex Relationships in the Bible and the Ancient World (Eerdmans, 2024). Between 2017 and 2021, he led a research project on "Dynamics of moral repair in antiquity"—a comparative analysis of early Jewish, early Christian, and Greco-Roman ideals, practices, and rituals for forgiveness, reconciliation, atonement, compensation, and revenge, funded by the Swedish Research Council.
Prof. Menachem Kellner was founding chair of Shalem College’s Interdisciplinary Program in Philosophy and Jewish Thought. He is Emeritus Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, where, among things, he held the Sir Isaac and Lady Edith Wolfson Chair of Religious Thought. He did his B.A, M.A. and Ph.D. at Washington University. Kellner is probably best known for his book, Must a Jew Believe Anything? His most recent book is We are Not Alone: A Maimonidean Theology of the Other (Boston 2021).
Dr. Joseph Ryan Kelly is the Teacher Licensure Coordinator in Educational Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and an M.Div. from Harding School of Theology. He has written several articles and is now working on a monograph that examines the relationship between ethical norms, concepts of justice, and gods in ancient Mesopotamia and Greece and compares it to the same in the Hebrew Bible.
Prof. Meira Z. Kensky is Director of Undergraduate Advising and Senior Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. Kensky received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (New Testament) from the University of Chicago. Her first book was Trying Man, Trying God: The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck 2010). Currently, she is working on her second book, an examination of the figure of Timothy in Early Christian literature, and a book on the Apocalypse of Peter and Early Christian tours of Hell. She currently serves on the Society of Biblical Literature's Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, and on editorial boards for SBL Press and E. J. Brill.
Prof. Geoffrey Khan is the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. He holds a Ph.D from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, as well as honorary doctorates from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Uppsala. Khan is a Fellow of the British Academy Search Results, an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, and an Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society. Among his many publications are The Early Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Grammatical Thought, Exegesis and Grammar in Medieval Karaite Texts, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (editor), A Short Introduction to the Tiberian Masoretic Bible and Its Reading Tradition, and The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew (2 vols.).
Dr. Rabbi Yishai Kiel is a scholar of Jewish law and religion in the ancient and early medieval periods. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of the Jewish tradition with Zoroastrian, Christian, Islamic, and Manichean traditions in the Sasanian and early Islamicate Near East. He also works on the Iranian and Persian context of the post-exilic strata of the Hebrew Bible. Kiel completed two Ph.D. degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one in Rabbinics and Iranian Studies (2011) and one in law (2020; LL.D./J.S.D. equivalent). He received his rabbinical ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He served as a lecturer in the Religious Studies Department and Directed Studies Program (Historical and Political Thought) at Yale University and in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; he was also a Blaustein postdoctoral associate at Yale’s Program in Judaic Studies; a Harry Starr fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University; a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard, and a Cheshin fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kiel is the author of Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Prof. Hyun Chul Paul Kim is Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Williams Chair of Biblical Studies at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He holds a Th.M and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of Ambiguity, Tension, and Multiplicity in Deutero-Isaiah (2003), You Are My People: An Introduction to Prophetic Literature (2010, with Louis Stulman); and Reading Isaiah: A Literary and Theological Commentary (2016). He is also the co-editor of several books: Literary Encounters with the Reign of God: Robert C. Tannehill Festschrift (2004); The Desert Will Bloom: Poetic Visions in Isaiah (2009); Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24-27 (2013), Concerning the Nations: Essays on the Oracles against the Nations in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (2015), and Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible (2019).
Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman is Professor of Classical Judaica at Brandeis University and former rabbi of Beth Abraham Sephardic Congregation of New England, Brookline, MA. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University in religious studies. He is the author of The Mystical Meaning of ‘Lekhah Dodi’ and Kabbalat Shabbat’ and the forthcoming The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Prayer Book. His audio course books are The Hidden Poetry of the Jewish Prayer Book and The Moral Meaning of the Bible.
Rabbi Daniel Kirzane serves as the associate rabbi of Oak Park Temple in Oak Park, IL. He earned an M.A. in Hebrew Letters and an M.A. in Religious Education from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 2014. He is currently continuing his studies as an M.A. student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the chair of the Alumni Leadership Council of HUC-JIR, where he serves as a member of the Board of Governors. Additional information and publications can be found at danielkirzane.com.
Prof. Itamar Kislev is professor of Hebrew Bible and Medieval Jewish Exegesis at the University of Haifa. His Ph.D. is from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kislev’s book, On the Threshold of the Promised Land [Hebrew] was published last year.
Tzipporah Machlah Klapper is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She holds an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, an MA in Jewish Studies from the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a BA in English Literature from The City College of New York (CCNY).
Prof. Jonathan Klawans is Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Boston University. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an M.A. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. He is the author of Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning, Denying, and Asserting Innovation in Ancient Judaism (Oxford 2019); Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism (Oxford 2012); Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple (Oxford 2005); Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (Oxford 2000). He is co-editor (with Lawrence M. Wills) of the Jewish Annotated Apocrypha. (Oxford 2020), and co-editor (with Angela Kim Harkins) of the Journal of Ancient Judaism.
Dr. Assaf Kleiman is a senior lecturer at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a senior staff member of the Megiddo Expedition. His main research interests and scope of publications are the settlement history, material culture, and inter-regional contacts of complex communities across the Iron Age Levant.
Dr. Sabine Kleiman is a Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures. She holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures, and an M.A. in Archaeology and History of the Land of the Bible, both from Tel Aviv University, and a Dipl. Theology from the University of Heidelberg. Kleiman is currently working on her Habilitation at the University of Tübingen's Department of Old Testament Studies, dealing with the topic of David's Rise, and she is a Field Director at “The Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition.”
Prof. Jacob Klein is Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and the Department of Bible Studies at Bar Ilan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Bible from Bar Ilan University. He is the author of The Royal Hymns of Shulgi King of Ur: Man’s Quest for Immortal Fame and In Those Distant Days: Anthology of Ancient Near Eastern Poetry in Hebrew, and was the chief editor and writer for the Olam HaTanakh commentary on Job.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is an author and freelance editor/subject-matter expert, specializing in Jewish thought, language, and history. He holds an M.A. in Jewish Education from Middlesex University in conjunction with the London School of Jewish Studies and received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Yoreh Yoreh). He is the author of Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew (Mosaica Press) and God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry. Klein's monthly column “Names & Numen” in the Jewish Press explores the etymology and significance of Jewish names, and his weekly column "What's in a Word?" about Hebrew synonyms appears in a range of publications including The 5 Towns Jewish Times (NYC), Jewish Tribune (UK), OhrNet (Online) and Times of Israel (Israel). He is currently a researcher for Oz V’Hadar’s Mishnayos Shearim project.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a member of the Institute’s iEngage Project and a contributing editor to The New Republic. He holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies from Brooklyn College and an M.A. in Journalism from Northwestern University. He is the author of Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden, and Like Dreamers.
Dr. Raz Kletter is Docent for Near Eastern Archaeology and Member of CSTT/ANEE in Helsinki University. Before that he was senior excavating archaeologist, and head of the SPR Unit in the Israel Antiquities Authority, and a lecturer at Haifa University. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Tel Aviv University and has led a number of archaeological excavations, including that of Yavneh. Among his publications The Judean Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Asherah (1996), Economic Keystones. The Weight System of the Kingdom of Judah (1998), Yavneh I-II. The Excavation of the “Temple Hill” Repository Pit and the Cult Stands (with Irit Ziffer and Wolfgang Zwickel, 2010, 2015), and most recently, Archaeology, Heritage and Ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem (2019).
Judy Klitsner is a senior lecturer at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where she teaches Bible and biblical exegesis. She is the author of Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other.
Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner has taught Bible and Talmud for many years at Jerusalem’s Midreshet Lindenbaum. He is the chairman of Midreshet Lindenbaum’s groundbreaking Women’s Institute of Halakhic Leadership. Klitsner was involved in the award winning Hanukah animation Lights, and served as Rav of the School for Torah and Arts. Klitsner is the author of Wrestling Jacob: Deception, Identity, and Freudian Slips in Genesis and co-author of the educational novel, The Lost Children of Tarshish.
Prof. Israel Knohl is the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Hebrew University. Knohl’s numerous publications include: The Sanctuary of Silence, which won the Z. Shkopp Prize for Biblical Studies and The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Dr. Ido Koch is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, and co-director of the Tel Hadid Expedition. He studies the archaeology of Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. His recently published monograph (The Shadow of Egypt, Jerusalem, 2018) deals with the Egyptian–Levantine colonial encounters during the Late Bronze Age.
Zvi Koenigsberg worked alongside the late Prof. Adam Zertal throughout the Ebal excavations (1982-88). His long-term mentors include the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar and Prof. Yair Zakovitch. Koenigsberg wrote The Lost Temple of Israel, Academic Studies Press, Boston, 2015. Questions welcome at zvi@thelosttemple.com.
Prof. Simcha Kogut is Emeritus Professor of Bible and Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Language. Kogut was formerly the head of the Bible department as well as the Rothberg School’s Hebrew Language program. Kogut is the co-editor of Studies on Hebrew and Other Semitic Languages Presented to Professor Chaim Rabin on the Occasion of his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Academon, 5751) and An Academic Anthology on Jewish Studies and Education in Memory of Dr. Avraham Zalkin (Lifschitz College, 2020). He is the author of Content Clauses - Their Nature and Construction (Academon 1984); Correlations Between Biblical Accentuation and Traditional Jewish Exegesis (Magnes 1994), Syntax and Exegesis Studies in Biblical Syntax as Reflected in Traditional Jewish Exegesis (Magnes, 2002). The latter two each won the Abraham Zechariah Shkop Prize.
Prof. Aaron Koller is Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. Previously, he was professor of Near Eastern studies at Yeshiva University, where he chaired the Beren Department of Jewish Studies. His last book was Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press), and his next is Unbinding Isaac: The Akedah in Jewish Thought (forthcoming from JPS/University of Nebraska Press in 2020); he is also the author of numerous studies in Semitic philology. Aaron has served as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and held research fellowships at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research and the Hartman Institute. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife, Shira Hecht-Koller, and their children.
Dr. Naomi Koltun-Fromm is Associate Professor of Religion in Haverford College. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Stanford. She is the author of Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community.
Dr. Ariel Kopilovitz is a Fulbright fellow in the University of Chicago Divinity School, and next year, will be a Kreitman fellow in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has published articles in in Tarbiz and Shnaton. His book on Ezekiel’s restoration program is forthcoming (Gorgias Press).
Dr. Rabbi Eugene Korn is Academic Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University and ordination from the Israeli Rabbinate. His recent publications include Plowshares into Swords? Essays on Religion and Violence, Returning to Zion: Christian and Jewish Reflections, and Jewish Theology and World Religions.
Hartley Koschitzky studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva University. He received his M.B.A. and B.S. in engineering from Columbia University and works in his family business.
Prof. Reinhard G. Kratz is Professor in the Faculty of Theology at Georg-August-University Göttingen (Germany). He holds a Th.D. and Habilitation (venia legendi) for Old Testament/Hebrew Bible 1990 from Zürich University. He is the author of The Composition of the Narrative Books of the Old Testament (2005), The Prophets of Israel (2015), and Historical & Biblical Israel: The History, Tradition, and Archives of Israel and Judah (2015). He has been a member of the Academy for Sciences and Humanities Göttingen since 1999, and he was Principal Investigator in the German-Israeli cooperation project Scripta Qumranica Electronica (published on the IAA web-site), and is the director of the two long-term projects Editio critica maior of the Greek Psalter and Qumran Digital: Text and Lexicon at the Göttingen Academy. For further information see his faculty page, and see here for a full bibliography of his publications.
Prof. Haim (Howard) Kreisel is professor emeritus in the Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Among his books are Maimonides’ Political Thought and Prophecy: The History of an Idea in Medieval Jewish Philosophy.
Dr. Rachel P. Kreiter earned a doctorate in art history from Emory University in December 2015 and has written about arts and culture for various publications, including Burnaway and the Awl. Their research interests include ancient Egypt in its myriad contexts, including the African continent, ancient Near East, contemporary art, and museums.
Prof. James Kugel was the Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University for 21 years before moving to Israel in 2003, where he is now Professor (Emeritus) of Bible at Bar Ilan University. He is the author of some 17 books and nearly 90 scholarly articles on various topics in Hebrew Bible.
Prof. Gili Kugler is a Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa and a supervising editor for TheTorah.co.il. From 2023 to 2026, she is also a Humboldt Foundation Fellow for Experienced Researchers at the University of Göttingen. She earned her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and specializes in biblical theology and the literary-historical analysis of biblical literature. Kugler She is the author of When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move (De Gruyter, 2019). Her research explores ideas and myths with significant political and psychological implications.
Dr. Rabbi Amit Kula is the rabbi of Kibbutz Alumim as well as of Beit Midrash “Daroma” at Ben Gurion University. He did his Ph.D. in Jewish thought at Ben Gurion University, focusing on the writings of Rav Kook. Kula was formerly the Rosh haYeshiva of Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati in Ein Tzurim. He is a member of the rabbinic organizations Tzohar and Beit Hillel, has written a number of online responsa, and is the author of Existential or Non-Essential: History and Literature, Religious Language and the Nature of the Deity.
Dr. Rabbi Joshua Kulp is the co-author of The Schechter Haggadah, Reconstructing the Talmud Volume 1 and Volume 2, and the forthcoming Reimagining the Rabbis. He teaches for Hadar, Drisha, the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, and the Schechter Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University and his semicha from the Hadar Institute.
Prof. Joseph Lam is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept (Oxford University Press, 2016) as well as a number of scholarly articles in the fields of Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic studies. His research interests include ritual and cult in the ancient Near East, metaphor in religious language, and the philological study of Hebrew and other Semitic languages.
Dr. David Lambert is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) where he teaches Hebrew Bible. He received his Ph.D., M.A., and A.B. from Harvard University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture.
Rabbi Daniel Landes is founder and director of YASHRUT, building civil discourse through a theology of integrity, justice, and tolerance. YASHRUT includes a semikhah initiative as well as programs for rabbinic leaders. Landes was formerly director of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Education and is the author of the Jewish Law commentary in the multi-volume series, My People's Prayer Book.
Dr. Yael Landman is Assistant Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She holds a PhD from Yeshiva University, and is the author of Legal Writing, Legal Practice: The Biblical Bailment Law and Divine Justice (Brown Judaic Studies, 2022). .
Prof. Francis Landy is Professor (Emeritus) of Religious Studies at the University of Alberta. He holds a D.Phil in Comparative Literature from the University of Sussex and is the author of Beauty and the Enigma and Other Essays in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield), Paradoxes of Paradise: Identity and Difference in the Song of Songs (Sheffield Phoenix), and Hosea: a Commentary (Sheffield Phoenix).
Prof. Rabbi Ruth Langer is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department at Boston College, its Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She received her Ph.D. in Jewish Liturgy in 1994 and her rabbinic ordination in 1986 from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Her Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim (Oxford, 2012), combines her interests in Jewish liturgy and Christian-Jewish relations. She is also author of To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism, (HUC, 1998) and Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), and is co-editor of Enabling Dialogue About the Land: A Resource Book for Jews and Christians (Paulist Press, 2020) and Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue (Eisenbrauns, 2005).
Prof. Dafna Langgut is the Head of the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Haifa University. Langgut specializes in the study of past vegetation and climate based on the identification of botanical remains, which allows her to consider the past relationship between humans and the environment, e.g. human dispersal out of Africa and the beginning of cultivation. Her research also involves the identification of micro-botanical remains (mainly pollen) and macro-botanical remains (wood-charcaol remains) from archaeological contexts, which allows her to address questions related to agricultural practices, diet, plant usage, social stratification, plant migration, ancient gardens and wooden implements. Langgut is also the curator of pollen and archaeobotanical collections at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Daniel J. Lasker is the Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He holds a Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. from Brandeis University, and also studied at Hebrew University. Among Lasker’s over two hundred publications are From Judah Hadassi to Elijah Bashyatchi: Studies in Late Medieval Karaite Philosophy and The Sage Simhah Isaac Lutski. An Eighteenth-Century Karaite Rabbi. Selected Writings (Hebrew).
Dr. Rabbi Binyamin (Benny) Lau is the director of the Center for Judaism and Society at Bet Morasha of Jerusalem and the founder of their Beit Midrash for women. He is also the rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Katamon. Lau is one of the driving forces behind 929 and is the author of, among other publications, the multi-volume series The Sages.
Dr. Moshe Lavee is a lecturer in Talmud and Midrash and chair of the Inter-disciplinary Centre for Genizah Research in The University of Haifa. His research expertise is in Aggadic Midrash, especially in the communities of the Genizah. Moshe runs programs for young leadership and educators (“Mashavah Techila” and “Ruach Carmel”), working to foster relationships between the academic world and the larger community.
Grace Leake studies Business and Plan II at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Rabbi Samuel Lebens is a post-doctoral research fellow in the philosophy department at the University of Haifa. He holds a Ph.D. in Metaphysics and Logic from the University of London and Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg. Lebens is co-founder and chairperson of the Association for Philosophy of Judaism (www.theapj.com) and is a contributing blogger for Haaretz Jewish World..
Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz is the Rabbi of Adat Shalom, in Los Angeles, California. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, received his rabbinical ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University, and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in Religion with a concentration in Critical Comparative Scriptures. Merging his two passions of Torah and filmmaking, Lebovitz has produced two documentary films: "Roadmap Genesis" (2015) and “Roadmap Jerusalem” (2018).
Dr. Richard Lederman taught courses in Bible, Religion, and Comparative Mythology at Georgetown University, Montgomery College, and Gratz College. He holds a Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literature from Dropsie College. Before returning to academia, Lederman worked as a Jewish communal professional. He blogs at thereligioushumanist.com and spiritunboundsandr.blogspot.com.
Dr. Marjorie Lehman recently co-edited Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues (28, 2015) in honor of Judith Hauptman, a volume focused on writing feminist commentary on the Babylonian Talmud. Dr. Lehman is writing a feminist commentary on Massekhet Yoma. She has also just completed co-editing two books, one with Jane Kanarek and the other with Simon Bronner and Jane Kanarek, Learning to Read Talmud: What it Looks Like and How It Happens (Academic Studies Press) and Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination (Littman Press). Developed along with Michelle Chesner, Adam Shear, and Josh Teplitsky, their cutting-edge digital humanities project, Footprints, tracks the movement of copies of Jewish books through time and space and promises to change the way research is done on the history of Jewish books. Her first book, The En Yaaqov: Jacob Ibn Habib’s Search for Faith in the Talmudic Corpus was published by Wayne State University Press (2012).
Shamai Leibowitz is an adjunct professor of Hebrew at a language school for the government, military and private sector. He earned a law degree (LL.B.) from Bar Ilan University and an LL.M. from American University Washington College of Law.
Prof. Mary-Joan Leith is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and has participated in numerous archaeological excavations around the Mediterranean and the Levant. She is the author of Greek and Persian Images in Pre-Alexandrine Samaria: The Wadi Ed-Daliyeh Seal Impressions (1990); Wadi Daliyah I: The Wadi Daliyeh Seal Impressions: Discoveries in the Judean Desert 24 (Clarendon Press, 1998); Seals and Coins in Persian Period Samaria (2000); and The Virgin Mary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2021).
Dr. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Religious Studies Department at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA). She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies (2014), and is the author of The House of David: Between Political Formation and Literary Revision (Fortress Press, 2016), and co-author of The Book of Ruth (Wisdom Commentary Series, Liturgical Press, 2017). She is currently working on a project on entanglements of identity in the Iron Age Shephelah.
Prof. Omri Lernau, M.D. is a general surgeon, specializing in pediatric surgery; before his retirement, he was head of the surgery department in Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. In addition, Lernau is a zooarchaeologist working with Haifa University’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology, with an expertise in the study of fish remains. As such, he has worked with most of the excavations that occur in Israel, wherever fishbones have been found, studying and publishing the findings.
Prof. Mark Leuchter is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism in the Department of Religion at Temple University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2003. His research focuses on the history of the priesthood in ancient Israel and early Jewish scribal tradition.
Dr. Adriane Leveen received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of California and her M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University. She served as Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at Hebrew Union College until June, 2024. She is the author of Biblical Narratives of Israelites and their Neighbors: Strangers at the Gate (2017) and Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers (2008) and has contributed essays to the Oxford Handbook to Biblical Narrative and The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. She is currently at work on a modern reception history of the book of Job. She is a volunteer and founding member of Jewish Climate Action Network–NYC, on the steering committee of Third Act Faith, serves on Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Council, and a former facilitator of JTREE USA, now part of Adamah.
Prof. Alan T. Levenson holds the Schusterman/Josey Chair in Judaic History at the University of Oklahoma and is the director of the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Ohio State University. Levenson is the author of The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel and America Transformed an Ancient Text, and Joseph: Portraits Through the Ages (2016), and a biography of the Manchester-raised author-translator Maurice Samuel (forthcoming).
Prof. Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, where he earned a master’s and doctoral degrees in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press) and Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Triumph of the God of Life (Yale University Press).
Prof. Christoph Levin is Professor (Emeritus) of Old Testament at the University of Munich. He received his Ph.D. and Dr.habil. from Goettingen university, as well as a honorary degree from Helsinki university. Two of his books have been translated into English: Re-reading the Scriptures: Essays on the Literary History of the Old Testament (2015) and The Old Testament: A Brief Introduction (2005). In addition, he is the author of Das Alte Testament auf dem Weg zu seiner Theologie (HAT-series, Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming); Entwurf einer Geschichte Israels (2017), Verheißung und Rechtfertiung (2013); Der Jahwist (1993); Verheißung des neuen Bundes (1985); Der Sturz der Königin Atalja (1982). Levin is corresponding member of the Goettingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities as well as of the Academy of Finland. From 2010 to 2013, he was president of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT).
Prof. Yigal Levin is associate professor at the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University. He received his Ph.D. in Land of Israel Studies from Bar Ilan University. Specializing in historical geography and in biblical genealogies, Levin is the author of The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah: 2 Chronicles 10-36 and co-editor of War and Peace in Jewish Tradition from Biblical Times to the Present.
Rabbi David Levin-Kruss teaches and directs special programs at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. He holds a B.A. and Teachers’ Certification in English Literature and Jewish Thought from Hebrew University and has rabbinic ordination from the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshivat Torat Yosef Hamivtar.
Prof. Amy-Jill Levine is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace; University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies/Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies (Emerita), Vanderbilt. Her over 30 books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians, six children’s books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III, the first biblical commentary by a Jew and an Evangelical); The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Brettler), The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (with Marc Brettler), The Pharisees (co-edited with Joseph Sievers), and nine Beginner’s Guide Bible studies.
Prof. Rabbi Baruch A. Levine z"l was Emeritus Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University and his M.H.L. and ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Levine is the author of the two volume Anchor Bible commentary on Numbers and the JPS commentary on Leviticus.
Daniel Levine is a rabbi, Jewish educator, and blogger. He currently serves as Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel Foundation of Orange County. You can find his articles at whoknowsoneblog.wordpress.com.
Dr. Ely Levine holds a PhD in biblical studies and archaeology from Harvard University. He has taught at Villanova University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Luther College. He has participated in archaeological excavations in Italy and Israel, and is a member of the staff of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavation Project. Currently, Dr. Levine is Scholar-in-Residence and Ritual Coordinator at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Zachary I. Levine is a scholar of ancient Jewish history, literature, and culture, with a special focus on the history of biblical interpretation and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University (2018) and an M.A. in Teaching Adolescent Social Studies from Hunter College (2025). He has taught Jewish Studies in independent schools and served as an adjunct professor of Jewish texts at Hunter College and New York University. He currently teaches Social Studies in Bronx public schools.
Prof. Bernard M. Levinson holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at the University of Minnesota, with an affiliated appointment to the Law School. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. His research focuses on biblical and cuneiform law, intertextuality, and the Bible’s relation to Western intellectual history. Levinson is the author of Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (1997); “The Right Chorale”: Studies in Biblical Law and Interpretation (2008); Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel (2009); and A More Perfect Torah: At the Intersection of Philology and Hermeneutics in Deuteronomy and the Temple Scroll (2013). He has published a number of well-received edited volumes, including, most recently, The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich (2022). The interdisciplinary significance of his work has been recognized with appointments to the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the National Humanities Center, and the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, where he co-led a research group on the formation of the Pentateuch. He is an elected member of the American Academy for Jewish Research. For more, see http://levinson.umn.edu/.
Prof. B. Barry Levy is Emeritus Professor of Jewish and Biblical Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He regularly teaches Bible, the History of Jewish Interpretation of the Bible, and a course on Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures and their interpretations.
Prof. Theodore J. Lewis is the Blum-Iwry Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his research focuses on the religions of ancient Israel and Syria. He is the author of The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity (Oxford University Press, 2020, 2023) which received awards from the American Society of Overseas Research, the American Academy of Religion, and the Biblical Archaeology Society, Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit, and the co-author of Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Lewis is General Editor of the multi-volume series Writings from the Ancient World (published by SBL Press) and past editor of Near Eastern Archaeology (for the American Society of Overseas Research), Hebrew Annual Review and Text, Artifact, and Image: Revealing Ancient Israelite Religion (Brown Judaic Studies). His research has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his teaching has won him the Excellence in Faculty Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award from Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Shawn Joe Lichaa is the founder of A Blue Thread, A Jewish Blog with a Thread of Karaite Throughout (ABlueThread.com), and a co-author of As it is Written: A Brief Case for Karaism. He has spoken about Karaite Judaism at many venues, including synagogues, Jewish day schools, the Library of Congress, and the Association of Jewish Libraries.
Prof. Rabbi Laura Lieber is the Chair of Transregional Religious History, in the University of Regensburg, Germany. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Judaism from the University of Chicago and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. Her research focuses on Jewish liturgical poetry.
Prof. Rabbi Phil Lieberman is Director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies and the L.D., Marie and Edwin Gale Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He has also served as Professor at the United States Naval Academy and Vanderbilt University. He holds an M.A. in Talmud and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, a L.L.M. in American Law from the George Mason Anton Scalia School of Law, a D.Min from Lipscomb University, and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He served as editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism, volume 5 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and is the author most recently of The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His translation with Lenn Goodman of Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed was published by Stanford University Press in May 2024. Lieberman also serves the United States Navy Reserve as a chaplain, currently holding the rank of captain. From 2021-2022, he served as command chaplain at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
Kristen H. Lindbeck
Prof. Kristen Lindbeck is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature. She holds an M.A. in Talmud and Rabbinics and a Ph.D. in Ancient Judaism from JTS, and is the author of Elijah and the Rabbis: Story and Theology (Columbia, 2010).
Dr. Hilary Lipka is an instructor in the Religious Studies Program at the University of New Mexico, main campus. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. She is the author of Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix Press) and co-editor (with F. Rachel Magdalene and Bruce Wells) of the forthcoming Sexuality and Law in the Torah (Bloomsbury T & T Clark).
Prof. Hanna Liss is Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Bible and Jewish Exegesis at the Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies and the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Her main research areas are medieval Jewish exegesis and commentary literature, research on the Masorah in Western European biblical and commentary literature and in modern Jewish Bible exegesis. She is Principal Investigator of the long-term projects “Corpus Masoreticum: The Inculturation of the Masorah in Western European Jewish Learning Culture from the 11th to the 14th Centuries” and “Bible Glossaries as Hidden Cultural Carriers: Judeo-French Cultural Exchange in the High Middle Ages.” She has written numerous articles on the northern French exegetical school and on Western European Masorah. Her most recent book publications are Jüdische Bibelauslegung (Mohr Siebeck, 2020) and Philology and Aesthetics: Figurative Masorah in Western European Manuscripts (editor in cooperation with Jonas Leipziger; Peter Lang, 2021).
Dr. Atar Livneh is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She is the author of Studies on Jewish and Christian Historical Summaries from the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods (2019) and has published many articles on Second Temple Jewish literature. Her current project, From Head to Toe: Dressed Bodies in Second Temple Jewish Literature (ISF 343/23), explores the historical, literary, and social dimensions of body and dress representations in this corpus.
Prof. Rabbi Marty Lockshin is Professor Emeritus at York University and lives in Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and his rabbinic ordination in Israel while studying in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook. Among Lockshin’s publications is his four-volume translation and annotation of Rashbam’s commentary on the Torah.
Søren Lorenzen
Dr. Søren Lorenzen is Research Associate in Hebrew Bible Studies at Bonn University in Germany. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Aarhus University and is the author of Spoken into Being: Self and Name(s) in the Hebrew Bible (Mohr Siebeck, 2022).
Prof. Nathan MacDonald is Professor in the Interpretation of the Old Testament at the University of Cambridge and a fellow at St John’s College. He previously taught and researched at St Andrews University and Göttingen University. He is the author of four books, the most recent of which is Priestly Rule: Polemic and Biblical Interpretation in Ezekiel 44 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015).
Prof. Aren Maeir is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. He did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and did a post-doc at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT. Maeir has written more than a hundred scholarly and popular articles on archaeology and the Bible.
Prof. Rabbi Shaul Magid is the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, and the former Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Professor of Jewish Studies at Indiana University/Bloomington. He is also the rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogue in Seaview, NY. His M.A. is from Hebrew University, his Ph.D. from Brandeis, and his ordination from rabbis in Israel. He is the author of American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society (Indiana University Press, 2013), Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism (Stanford University Press, 2014), Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism (Academic Studies press, 2019) and The Bible, the Talmud, and the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Commentary to the New Testament (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).
Prof. Rabbi Jonathan Magonet is the former Principal of Leo Baeck College and Emeritus Professor of Bible. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg and his ordination from Leo Baeck College. Magonet is the author of A Rabbi Reads the Torah, and is the editor of ‘Seder Ha-Tefillot‘ Forms of Prayer: Daily, Sabbath and Occasional Prayers as well as the journal, European Judaism. His latest book is, How Did Moses Know He Was a Hebrew?: Reading Bible Stories from Within (Hakodesh Press, 2021).
Prof. Sarah Malena is Associate Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, San Diego. Malena specializes in the history and archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean world, with a special focus on intercultural exchange. She is the author of Fertile Crossroads: Elites and Exchange in the Southern Levant’s Early Iron Age (Equinox, 2024).
Dr. Hillel Mali is a Senior Lecturer in the Bible Department of Bar Ilan University where he did his Ph.D. on Descriptions of the Temple in the Mishnah: History, Redaction and Meaning (2018). His work analyzes the basic categories of worship in the Bible and their development in post-Biblical literature. Previously a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow, Mali is a member of the joint Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Heidelberg University research group “Thinking Rite: Towards Talmudo Mīmāṃsā,” the founder and director of the Omek Hashetach Project for pre-military leadership academies; the founding editor of Beit Hayotzer, a periodical for Jerusalem tour guides; and the founder and director of a Jerusalem ethnic-music ensemble “Nigun Yerushalmi,” for which he is the lead flutist.
Prof. Rabbi Jonathan W. Malino is Professor of Philosophy and John A. Weissenfluh Professor (Emeritus) of Ethics and Religion at Guilford College and a Research Affiliate at the Zelikovitz Center for Jewish Studies at Carleton University. He holds a Ph.D in Philosophy from Columbia University and rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR. He has edited Judaism and Modernity: The Religious Philosophy of David Hartman and contributed “Interpretation, Modernity and the Philosophy of Judaism“ to the Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: the Modern Era.
Dr. Alice Mandell is Assistant Professor and William Foxwell Albright Chair in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitics from UCLA’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Her first book, Canaanite Scribal Creativity and the Making of Cuneiform Culture in the Amarna Age, is forthcoming from Routledge.
Prof. Charles H. Manekin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland and currently a Fellow at the Israel Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. He received his BA in Philosophy from Yale, and his MA, M Phil, and PhD in Philosophy from Columbia. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Logic of Gersonides (Kluwer) and On Maimonides (Wadsworth). He recently co-edited with Daniel Davies Interpreting Maimonides (Cambridge).
Tomer Rami Mangoubi is a graduate of MIT. He was raised in an Egyptian Karaite family in Boston, MA, and has helped provide comments for a (forthcoming) translation of the traditional Karaite legal text, Sefer Levush Malchut (ספר לבוש מלכות, “Royal Attire”). Mangoubi is currently producing an expansive summary and analysis of Karaite Halacha that allows English speakers access to classical Karaite sources, titled Mikdash Me’at (מקדש מעט, “A Small Temple”), and available here.
Johanna Markind is a practicing attorney. She graduated Bryn Mawr College with a degree in religious studies, and subsequently did graduate coursework at Jewish Theological Seminary. She has published a number of articles on various subjects in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Forward, The Algemeiner, Tower Magazine, Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Exponent, and elsewhere.
Dr. Rabbi Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Hebrew University and a B.A. from Oxford. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of Wonder, and his most recent publication is American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement and Belief, co-edited with David Ellenson (Brandeis 2020).
Dr. Attila Marossy holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament Theology from the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Vienna, and an M.A. in Hebrew Studies from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, where he is Recurring Visiting Instructor at the Department of Assyriology and Hebrew, and the project coordinator of the Faculty’s Wikipedia project called HebraWiki, whose mission is to publish quality articles in Hungarian related to Biblical and Jewish Studies. Marrosy is also a pastor in the Lutheran Church of Hungary. His dissertation is titled, The Anatomy of Separation: Priestly Dichotomies and their Development in the Hebrew Bible (2017).
Dr. Erica Lee Martin is Interim Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Seattle University’s College of Humanities Education and Social Sciences. She received her PhD from the Graduate Theological Union and MA degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Seattle University. Her publications include "Preaching Against the Text: When the ‘Good Book’ Isn’t," CCCAR Journal – The Reform Jewish Quarterly (2016); "The Christian Bible and the Jews," in Anselm Companion to the Bible (2014); "Noah in the Qur’ān," in After the Deluge: Post-Biblical Traditions of Noah (2010); and "The Rabbinic Knife: How and Why the Rabbis Castrated Noah," in Interpretation, Religion and Culture in Midrash and Beyond, Vol IV (2010).
Prof. Rabbi Dalia Marx is Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at Hebrew Union College-JIR (Jerusalem). She earned her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University and her rabbinic ordination at HUC-JIR (Jerusalem and Cincinnati). Among her publications are When I Sleep and When I Wake: On Prayers between Dusk and Dawn and A Feminist Commentary of the Babylonian Talmud. Her website is: www.dalia-marx.com.
Prof. Safwat Marzouk is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. Marzouk is the author of Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel (Mohr Siebeck, 2015) and a number of articles including “Migration in the Joseph Narrative: Integration, Separation, and Transnationalism,” and “Interrogating Identity: A Christian Egyptian Reading of the Hagar-Ishmael Traditions.”
Prof. Steve Mason is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and Cultures in the Department of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Origins in the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. His M.A. is from Canada’s McMaster University, his Ph.D. from the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto. Before moving to Europe, Mason spent most of his career at Toronto’s York University, lately as Canada Research Chair in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Mason edits Brill’s international series, Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, the first full commentary to Josephus’ works, to which he has also contributed three volumes (War 2 and 4 and Life of Josephus). His other books include Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees (1991), Josephus and the New Testament (2003), Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity: Methods and Categories (2009), Orientation to the History of Roman Judaea (2016), A History of the Jewish War, AD 66–74 (2016), and Jews and Christians in the Roman World: From Historical Method to Cases (in press).
Dr. Kevin Mattison is is Lecturer of Jewish Studies at the University of Bristol. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an M.A. from Brandeis University and is the author of Rewriting and Revision as Amendment in the Laws of Deuteronomy (Mohr Siebeck, 2018). His current book project, Transforming the Torah: Reimagining Israel’s Origins in Ancient Judaism, examines the variety of retellings of the Torah that proliferated in the Second Temple period.
Dr. Daniel O. McClellan is an independent scholar of the Bible. He received his Ph.D. in theology and religion from the University of Exeter and has published articles in journals such as Biblical Interpretation and the Journal of Biblical Literature. His book, YHWH's Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach (2022), was published in SBL Press’s open-access Ancient Near East Monograph Series.
Dr. James F. McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, at Butler University in Indianapolis. His PhD is from Durham University in England, and his dissertation became his first book, John's Apologetic Christology. He is also the author of The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context; What Jesus Learned from Women; The A to Z of the New Testament; Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist; and John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer. The latter volume was judged the Best Book Relating to the New Testament in the Biblical Archaeology Society’s 2025 Publication Awards.
Dr. Rabbi Harvey Meirovich (retired) was Visiting Professor at the Zecharias Frankel (Rabbinical) College, University of Potsdam school of theology (2014-2021). Before that he taught at the Schechter Graduate School, and served a stint as the dean of the Rabbinical School (2000-2005). Before entering academia, he served as a pulpit rabbi in several cities (Toronto, London, Melbourne). Meirovich holds an M.A., D.H.L., and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He is the author of The Battle for Tolerance and Pluralism (1997), A Vindication of Judaism: The Polemics of the Hertz Pentateuch (1998), and From Catastrophe to Home: Five Voices of the Bible (2019). A scholar of modern biblical interpretation, his current project is on Barukh Halevi Epstein’s Torah Temimah.
Prof. Yitzhak Y. Melamed is the Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and Member of the Steering Committee of the Stulman Jewish studies Program. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University and an MA in philosophy and the history of science and logic from Tel Aviv University. Melamed is the author of Spinoza’s Metaphysics: Substance and Thought.
Prof. Melissa Ramos is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Portland Seminary of George Fox University. Her Ph.D. is from UCLA and M.Phil. from Cambridge University. She is the author of Ritual in Deuteronomy: The Performance of Doom and co-editor of New Perspectives in Ritual in the Biblical World. She is also the co-founder of Religion for Her, a site for women’s interpretive readings of the Bible (www.religionforher.com).
Dr. Ari Mermelstein is Assistant Professor of Bible at Yeshiva University. He holds a Ph.D. from NYU’s Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and a J.D. from NYU Law School. Dr. Mermelstein is the author ofCreation, Covenant, and the Beginnings of Judaism: Reconceiving Historical Time in the Second Temple Period, wand is currently working on a new monograph, titled Feeling Like a Sectarian: Emotions and Identity at Qumran.
Dr. Naphtali Meshel is a senior lecturer in the Departments of Comparative Religion and Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, from where he received his Ph.D. He did post-doctoral studies in India, studying Sanskrit literature on ritual, and is the author of The “Grammar” of Sacrifice: A Generativist Study of the Israelite Sacrificial System (Oxford).
Prof. Carol Meyers is the Mary Grace Wilson Professor (Emerita) in the Religious Studies Department at Duke University. She received her A.B. in Bible from Wellesley College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Her reference work, Women in Scripture, is a comprehensive look at all biblical women; and her book Rediscovering Eve is a detailed study of women in ancient Israel. She has co-authored (with Eric Meyers) two Anchor Bible commentaries (on Haggai and Zechariah) and also several major archaeological reports. She has been a staff member or co-director of numerous archaeological field projects, served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature and is currently a trustee of the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation.
Prof. Eric M. Meyers holds the Bernice and Morton Lerner Chair in Jewish Studies at Duke University. His Ph.D. is from Harvard University and his M.A. from Brandeis. He has directed or co-directed digs in Israel and Italy. Some recent publications include Alexander to Constantine: Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, vol. 3 with Mark Chancey and his co-edited volume with Carol Meyers, The Pottery from Ancient Sepphoris. He is also a Chazan.
Prof. J. Richard Middleton is Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, NY. Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, he holds an M.A (philosophy) from the University of Guelph (Canada) and a Ph.D. from the Free University of Amsterdam. Middleton is the author of The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (2005); A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (2014); and Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God (2021). He co-authored (with Brian J. Walsh) The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View (1984) and Truth Is Stranger than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age (1995). He co-edited (with Garnett Roper) A Kairos Moment for Caribbean Theology: Ecumenical Voices in Dialogue (2013). He has won writing awards for two of his books (A New Heaven and a New Earth and Truth Is Stranger than It Used to Be) and two of his articles (“Why the ‘Greater Good’ Isn’t a Defense” and “Let’s Put Herod Back into Christmas”). Middleton is past president of the Canadian-American Theological Association (2011–2014) and the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (2019–2021).
Stuart Miller
Prof. Stuart S. Miller is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew, History, and Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he also served as chair of the Hebrew and Judaic Studies Section (“HEJS”) in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and as Academic Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. Miller holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies and History from New York University, and is the author of Studies in the History and Traditions of Sepphoris (Brill, 1984); Sages and Commoners in Late Antique ’Erez Israel: A Philological Inquiry into Local Traditions in Talmud Yerushalmi (Mohr-Siebeck, 2006), and At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds: Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity among the Jews of Roman Galilee (V&R 2015). He is presently preparing a sequel to his first book on Sepphoris (Tsippori).
Yonatan Miller
Dr. Yonatan S. Miller is Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut. He earned his PhD in Jewish Studies from Harvard University, where he also served as a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica. He has published articles in Jewish Studies Quarterly and in the Journal of Ancient Judaism and is currently at work on a monograph entitled Sacred Slaughter: Violence and the Israelite-Jewish Priesthood.
Prof. Sara Milstein is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Near Eastern Studies in the Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew and Judaic Studies Department at New York University. Milstein is the author of Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law; Tracking the Master Scribe: Revision through Introduction in Biblical and Mesopotamian Literature; and co-author (with Daniel Fleming) of The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic: The Akkadian Huwawa Narrative.
Dr. Rabbi Adam Mintz is the Director of 929 English, a digital library by over 700 contemporary writers on every chapter of the Tanach. He is also the founder and rabbi of Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim on the Upper West Side and a member of the Talmud faculty at Maharat. Rabbi Mintz received his Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin ordination at the RIETS in 1985/1986. He received a Ph.D. from New York University in 2011. Rabbi Mintz is the author of several books, including Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law (2005), The Relationship of Orthodox Jews with Believing Jews of Other Religious Ideologies and Non-Believing Jews (2010), and a book on the history of community eruvin in North America (forthcoming in 2022).
Dr. Natia Mirotadze is a post-doctoral researcher at the department of Biblical Studies and Church History of Salzburg university and a researcher at the department of Codicology and Textual studies of the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts. She holds an M.A. in Old Georgian Philology and a Ph.D. in Old Georgian Biblical Studies, both from the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Her dissertation was on The Pericopes of I Kingdoms in the Georgian Lectionaries: Their Relation to the Georgian and Greek Sources, and she is the co-editor of Old Georgian versions of the Book of Esther (2014); Proclus Diadochus – Platonic Philosopher, Elements of Theology (Georgian Version) (2016); Georgian Palimpsests at the National Centre of Manuscripts: Catalogue, Texts, Album (2017); Georgian Manuscripts Copied Abroad in Libraries and Museums of Georgia (2018); and From Scribal Error to Rewriting: How (Sacred) Texts May and May Not Be Changed (2020). Her research interests cover textual criticism, biblical studies, manuscript studies, codicology, Georgian paleography, and Old Georgian language and literature.
Dr. Aslan Cohen Mizrahi is Perilman Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University. Born and raised in Mexico City, he received his PhD in Hebrew Bible from the University of Chicago. His interests range from the conceptualization of authority in biblical literature to Jewish engagements with biblical texts after the Shoah. He is currently preparing a monograph on sovereignty in the Priestly narrative of the Torah.
Dr. Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison has served as a congregational rabbi and was the founding director of the Riverway Project. He was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, N.Y., and received his PhD on the use of craftsmanship metaphors in the Bible at Brandeis University.
Prof. William Morrow is Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Scriptures, Queen’s Theological College and Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario, where he taught from 1987–2019. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto. His books include Protest Against God: The Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition (Sheffield Phoenix, 2006) and An Introduction to Biblical Law (Eerdmans, 2017). In general, his scholarship has focused on legal traditions in the Hebrew Bible in comparison with those found elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
Parry Moshe is a graduate student in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism at Bar-Ilan University. She also serves as an instructor at the Israeli National Police Academy. She is in the final stages of writing her dissertation on Law Enforcement in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the Biblical Period.
David Z. Moster
Dr. Rabbi David Moster is the Director of the Biblical Hebrew Certificate Program at Jewish the Theological Seminary and the Director of the Institute of Biblical Culture. His Tanakh YouTube channel is @BiblicalCulture. He is the author of the Biblical Hebrew Grammar Card, the Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary Card, and Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol.
Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu is a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she specialized in the cultic architecture of the Ancient Near East. She holds a doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), and has participated in the excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Lachish, and Khirbet al-Rai. Mumcuoglu is the co-author (with Yosef Garfinkel) of Solomon’s Temple and Palace: New Archaeological Discoveries and Crossing the Threshold: Architecture, Iconography and the Sacred Entrance.
Ophir Münz-Manor
Prof. Ophir Münz-Manor, an associate professor of Rabbinic Culture at the Open University of Israel, is a specialist in Jewish liturgy and liturgical poetry from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. His studies focus on the intersections with contemporary Christian texts as well as questions of ritual, performance and gender in late antique Near Eastern cultures. His recent publications include Early Piyyut – An Annotated Anthology (Tel Aviv University Press, 2015) and Gender and Sexuality in Rabbinic Culture (The Open University of Israel Press, 2016).
Prof. Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy and Evjue-Bascom Professor in Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (Yale, “Jewish Lives” series, 2018); A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton, 2011); The Philosopher, the Priest and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes (Princeton, 2013); Spinoza: A Life (Cambridge, 1999; 2nd ed. 2018), winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award), and Rembrandt's Jews (Chicago, 2003). He is also the author, with his son Ben Nadler, of the graphic book Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy (Princeton, 2017). His latest book is Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die (Princeton, 2020).
Prof. Hindy Najman is the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. She is the author of Seconding Sinai, Past Renewals and Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future, and is currently completing a book titled, Ethical Reading: Rethinking Philology in Biblical Studies.
Dr. Rabbi Haviva Ner-David is a rabbi and writer. She is the founder of Shmaya: A Mikveh for Mind, Body and Soul, where she officiates and creates immersion ceremonies, both traditional and innovative, and runs mikveh workshops for people of all ages and faiths. Haviva was the first woman to publicly receive Orthodox rabbinic ordination in 2006, but she left Orthodoxy, was ordained as an interfaith minister at the One Spirit Interfaith-Interspiritual Seminary, and is a certified spiritual companion and dreamworker. She holds a Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Haviva is the author of three spiritual journey memoirs: Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Towards Traditional Rabbinic Ordination (2000); Chanah's Voice: A Rabbi Struggles with Gender, Commandment and the Women's Rituals of Baking, Bathing and Brightening (2014), and Dreaming Against the Current: A Rabbi's Soul Journey (2021). Haviva's debut novel, Hope Valley (2021), is about the friendship between a Palestinian-Israeli and a Jewish-Israeli woman in Galilee during the leadup to the Second Intifada. She lives on Kibbutz Hannaton in northern Israel with Jacob, her life partner of the past 32 years, is the mother of seven, and lives with FSHD, a genetic degenerative muscular disorder that has been one of her greatest teachers.
Prof. Judith H. Newman is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at Emmanuel College and the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. She holds an MAR from Yale Divinity School and a PhD from Harvard University. Her publications include Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism (Oxford University Press, 2018), Early Jewish Prayers in Greek (De Gruyter, 2008) with Pieter van der Horst, and Praying by the Book: The Scripturalization of Prayer in Second Temple Judaism (Scholars Press, 1999). She was awarded a multi-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for work on her current monograph project, The Participatory Past: Rethinking Time, Text, and Ancestors in Early Judaism.
Prof. Carol A. Newsom is Professor (emerita) of Old Testament at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. She holds an M.T.S. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Among her many books are Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature (Mohr Siebeck, 2019); Daniel: A Commentary (OTL, 2014); The Self as Symbolic Space: Constructing Identity and Community at Qumran (Brill; 2004); The Book of Job: A Conflict of Moral Imaginations (Oxford, 2003); Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition (Scholars Press, 1985). Newsom is a past president of the Society of Biblical Literature (2011) and served as the director of Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion (2012–2015).
Prof. Susan Niditch is Samuel Green Professor of Religion at Amherst College. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University’s department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and her research deals with ancient Israel and early Judaism. Her particular interests include early/oral literatures, gender and sexuality, material religion, and comparative religious ethics. Her books include Underdogs and Tricksters: A Prelude to Biblical Folklore (Harper and Row 1987), War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence(Oxford 1993), Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature (Westminster 1996), “My Brother Esau Is a Hairy Man”: Hair and Identity in Ancient Israel (Oxford 2008), and The Responsive Self: Personal Religion in Biblical Literature of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods (Yale 2015). Her most recent works are a commentary on Jonah in the Hermeneia Series (2023) and Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Prof. Martti Nissinen is Professor of Old Testament studies at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology. He holds a Th.D. from the University of Helsinki. He is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and an is honorary member of the Society for Old Testament Study. He previously served as president of the Foundation for the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (2010–2021). Nissinen’s research focuses on the prophetic phenomenon and on gender issues (love poetry, homoeroticism, masculinity) in the Bible and the ancient Eastern Mediterranean. His books include Prophetic Divination: Essays in Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy (2019), Ancient Prophecy: Near Eastern, Biblical and Greek Perspectives (2017), Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East (2nd ed. 2019), and Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective (1998). He has edited several volumes and published a significant number of articles on topics related to prophecy, gender, and history of ancient Near Eastern religion.
Prof. Vered Noam is Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. She holds a Ph.D. in Talmud from the Hebrew University, and in 2020, she became the first woman to ever win the Israel Prize for Talmudic Studies. Noam is the author of Megillat Ta’anit (YBZ 2003, Hebrew), From Qumran to the Rabbinic Revolution (YBZ 2010, Hebrew), Shifting Images of the Hasmoneans (Oxford, 2018), and (with Tal Ilan) of Josephus and the Rabbis (YBZ 2017, Hebrew).
Prof. Scott B. Noegel is Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University andan Honorary Ph.D. in Letters from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Among his many books are Nocturnal Ciphers: The Allusive Language of Dreams in the Ancient Near East; and (with Gary A. Rendsburg) Solomon’s Vineyard: Literary and Linguistic Studies in the Song of Songs.
Prof. Tania Notarius is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hebrew at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein) and a B2 Rated Researcher at the National Research Foundation of South Africa. She is also affiliated with Polis – the Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities as Head of the Near Eastern Languages Program. She is extensively published on topics in the philology and linguistics of Ancient Northwest Semitic Languages.
Dr. Tzvi Novick is the Abrams Jewish Thought and Culture Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He has an M.A. from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. from Yale. His research focuses on law and ethics in rabbinic Judaism. He has also written on topics in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, and on Jewish liturgical poetry (piyyut) from late antiquity.
Prof. Sara Offenberg is an associate professor at the Department of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from the Department of Jewish Thought and the Department of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She is the author of Illuminated Piety: Pietistic Texts and Images in the North French Hebrew Miscellany (2013) and Up in Arms: Images of Knights and the Divine Chariot in Esoteric Ashkenazi Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (2019). Between 2014-2017, Offenberg was co-editor of the journal Ars Judaica: The Bar-Ilan Journal of Jewish Art, and she is presently (since 2021) managing editor of Mabatim: Journal of Visual Culture. Her research focuses on chivalry and warriors in Hebrew manuscripts, German Pietists, Hebrew illuminated prayer books, and Jewish-Christian relations in medieval art and literature.
Prof. Adi Ophir is Visiting Professor of Humanities and Middle East Studies at Brown University's Center for Middle East Studies and Cogut Institute for the Humanities, where he directs the Political Concepts Initiative. He is also Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University. He holds an M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from Boston University. Among Ophir's many books are Plato's Invisible Cities: Discourse and Power in the "Republic" (Routledge, 1990); The Order of Evils: Toward an Ontology of Morals (MIT 2005); The One-State Condition (with Ariella Azoulay; Stanford 2012), and Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile (with Ishai Rosen-Zvi, Oxford, 2018). His next book, In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible is forthcoming from Fordham.
Dr. Rabbi Natan Ophir (Offenbacher) is currently the Head of the English Department at Emunah Academic College of Fine Arts in Jerusalem. An alumnus of Yeshiva University, he received ordination from Yeshivat Mercaz Harav and a Ph.D in Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition to his many articles, Ophir is the author of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission, and Legacy (Urim 2014). In the past, he directed JMIJ, the Jewish Meditation Institute Jerusalem, to teach Jewish Meditation in the light of neuropsychology.
Prof. Eric Orlin is Professor of Classics at the University of Puget Sound. He earned his Ph.D. from the Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Temples, Religion and Politics in the Roman Republic(1997) and Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire (2010), and served as general editor for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (2014). He is also the co-founder of the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions.
Prof. Takayoshi M. Oshima is a visiting professor at the Institute of History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, China. He completed his doctorate in Assyriology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Doctor Philosophiae Habilitatus in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Leipzig. He specializes in Sumerian and Akkadian religious texts, the wisdom literature of the ancient Near East, including the biblical wisdom literature, and ancient Mesopotamian iconography. Among his publications are Cuneiform in Canaan (with Wayne Horowitz), Babylonian Poems of Pious Sufferers, Affronter le mal en Babylonie (with Stéphanie Antonioz), and Teaching Morality, the results of a conference he organized. Currently, he is preparing Gods’ Punishing Hands: The Interdependence of the Divine Will and Human Ethics in Cuneiform Literature, a revised version of his Habilitationsschrift.
Prof. Eckart Otto is Ordinarius (emeritus) of the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität München and Honorary Professor at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). He holds a Ph.D. and Habilitation in Theology from the University of Hamburg. Otto is the author of a 4-volume German commentary on Deuteronomy (2012-2017) for Herder's theological commentary on the Old Testament series (HThKAT), and among his many monographs are Theologische Ethik des Alten Testaments (Kohlhammer, 1994); Das Deuteronomium: Politische Theologie und Rechtsreform in Juda und Assyrien (de Gruyter 1999); Gottes Recht als Menschenrecht. Rechts- und literaturhistorische Studien zum Deuteronomium (Wiesbaden 2002); and Mose: Geschichte und Legende (2006).
Dr. Juha Pakkala is Docent and Senior University Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at the University of Helsinki. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki and completed his Habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. His research focuses on editorial techniques in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra–Nehemiah, the historical books, and the history of ancient Israelite religion. He is the author of God's Word Omitted (2013); Ezra the Scribe (2004); and Intolerant Monolatry in the Deuteronomistic History (1999). He is co-author of Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible (2022), Evidence of Editing (2014), and Kinneret II. Results of the Excavations at Tell el-ʽOrēme, 1994–2008: Vol. 1 (2024).
Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen received her Ph.D. in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she is a researcher and lecturer. She is also the editor of the Qedem Monograph series of the Institute of Archaeology and the Israel Exploration Journal of the Israel Exploration Society. She has excavated with Prof. Amihai Mazar at Tel Batash, Tel Beth Shean, and Tel Rehov, and has participated in the publication of the final reports of those excavations. Currently, she co-directs the excavations at Tel Abel Beth-Maacah in northern Israel. Her research interests include Bronze and Iron Age ceramics and ceramic technology.
Dr. Rabbi Aaron Panken, z”l, was President of HUC-JIR, and taught Rabbinic and Second Temple Literature in the New York campus. An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, he earned his doctorate in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU, and his ordination from HUC-JIR. Panken was a certified commercial pilot and sailor with a degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and the author of The Rhetoric of Innovation.
Na’ama Pat-El
Prof. Na’ama Pat-El is a professor of Semitic languages at the University of Texas, Austin. She completed her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She is a historical linguist whose research interests cover syntax, morphology, and subgrouping. She is the author of Studies in the Historical Syntax of Aramaic and has co-edited several volumes on comparative Semitics and historical linguistics.
Dr. Laurie Pearce is a Lecturer in Akkadian in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, UC, Berkeley. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale’s department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Among Pearce’s articles are “Looking for Judeans in Babylonia’s Core and Periphery”and“Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview” and she is the author (with Cornelia Wunsch) of Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the Collection of David Sofer.
Dr. Ilan Peled is an Assyriologist working at Leiden University, Netherlands. Following the completion of his Ph.D. in Hebrew and Semitic Languages, from Bar-Ilan University, he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Peled’s research focuses on cultural life in the ancient Near East, especially in the spheres of gender, law, religion and cult, and biblical interpretation in the ANE context. He is the author of Masculinities and Third Gender: The Origins and Nature of an Institutionalized Gender Otherness in the Ancient Near East (AOAT 435), and the editor of Structures of Power: Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond.
Prof. Yitzhak (Itzik) Peleg is Professor (Emeritus) of Bible Studies at the Gordon Academic College, Haifa, Israel. He was the Chair of the Department of Bible and Jewish Culture at Beit Berl Academic College and the editor of MOED, Annual for Jewish Studies. Peleg holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Bar-Ilan University, and is the author of לך לך: מסעי האבות בסיפורי המקרא [‘Go Forth’: The Forefathers’ Journeys in Bible Stories] (Resling, 2013); Going Up and Going Down: A Key to Interpreting Jacob’s Dream (Bloomsbury, 2015); "And You Shall Tell Your Son" – Identity and Belonging as Shaping by the Jewish Holidays (Academic Studies Press, Boston, 2022).
Prof. Raymond F. Person, Jr. is Professor of Religion and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at Ohio Northern University. He earned his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Studies from Duke University. Person is the editor of many books, including Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, Hexateuch, and the Deuteronomistic History (with Konrad Schmid, 2012) and Empirical Models Challenging Biblical Criticism (with Robert Rezetko, 2016). Among his many monographs are In conversation with Jonah (Sheffield 1996) The Deuteronomic School (Brill 2002), The Deuteronomic History and the Book of Chronicles (Brill 2010), Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia (2014), and Scribal Memory and Word Selection (forthcoming).
Prof. Meira Polliack is Professor of Bible at Tel Aviv University. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil from Cambridge University and a B.A. from the Hebrew University. From 2012-2018, she was one of the Principal Investigators of the Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims international research project. She is the author of The Karaite Tradition of Arabic Bible Translation: A Linguistic and Exegetical Study of the Karaite Translations of the Pentateuch from the Tenth to the Eleventh (Brill, 1997); Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (Cambridge University Press, 2001 [with Colin F. Baker]); Yefet Ben Eli's Commentary on Hosea, Judaeo-Arabic edition and modern Hebrew translation (Bar Ilan University Press, 2009 [with Eliezer Schlossberg]); and Yefet Ben Eli's Commentary on the Book of Zephaniah, Annotated Edition, Hebrew Translation and Introduction (Bar-Ilan University Press, 2020 [with Eliezer Schlossberg]). Among her edited books are Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its History and Literary Sources (Brill, 2003), and Jewish Biblical Exegesis from Islamic Lands, The Medieval Period (SBL Press, 2019 [with Athalya Brenner-Idan]).
Dr. Anathea Portier-Young is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Duke University’s Divinity School. She holds an M.A.B.L from Graduate Theological Union/Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Portier-Young is the author of Apocalypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism (Eerdmans, 2011), and co-editor (with Gregory E. Sterling) of Scripture and Social Justice: Catholic and Ecumenical Essays (Fortress, 2018).
Prof. Stephen Portnoy is Professor (Emeritus) of Statistics in the University of Illinois' Department of Statistics and Adjunct Professor in its Department of Mathematics. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University. He is the author of numerous articles in the field of statistics, has served as editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and was elected to Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Lenny Prado is a visiting lecturer in Hebrew Bible at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He received a Ph.D. in Bible and the Ancient Near East from Brandeis University in 2023. His first book, Counternarratives in the Exodus Plague Cycle: Priestly Revision of the Yahwistic Plague Tradition (forthcoming from Mohr Siebeck), is a revision of his doctoral dissertation.
Prof. John H. Walton is Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Wheaton College and Graduate School. He holds a Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College. He was the Old Testament general editor for the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (NIV, NKJV, NRSV) and is the author of the “Lost World” books (including The Lost World of Genesis One, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, Lost World of the Flood, and his recent New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis). His research interests include the importance of the ancient Near East for interpreting the Bible as well as the dialogue between science and faith. He has most recently co-authored a two-volume commentary on the book of Daniel. He was the general editor for the five-volume reference set, The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary on the Old Testament and is currently serving as the general editor for the forthcoming sixteen-volume series, Ancient Literature for Old Testament Studies, a comprehensive introduction to the vast literature that informs us of the cultural context of ancient Israel.
Prof. Laura Quick is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Oxford, from which she received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible. She is the author of Deuteronomy 28 and the Aramaic Curse Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2017), and Dress, Adornment and the Body in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Prof. Jonathan Rabinowitz, is professor emeritus at Bar Ilan University where he directs the Wellness Research Lab. His lab seeks simple, sustainable changes to everyday life that slow biological aging and reduce the risk of chronic age-related illness.
Dr. Moshe Rachmuth is Assistant Professor of Modern Hebrew at Portland State University. He holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from University of Oregon, with a dissertation titled The Speculative Ethics of Modern Comedic Work: Mark Twain, Italo Svevo, Charlie Chaplin and Lenny Bruce.
Prof. Jason Radine is Professor of Biblical and Jewish Studies and Chair of the Department of Global Religions, Moravian University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007 and was awarded a Post-Doctoral Humboldt Fellowship for study at the Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany in 2011-2012. He is author of The Book of Amos in Emergent Judah (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010) and various articles on the Minor Prophets.
Prof. Ilona N. Rashkow is Professor (Emerita) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and teaches regularly at New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Maryland and she is the author of Taboo or Not Taboo: The Hebrew Bible and Human Sexuality (Fortress, 2000); The Phallacy of Genesis: A Feminist-Psychoanalytic Approach (Westminster John Knox, 1993); Upon the Dark Places: Sexism and Anti-Semitism in English Renaissance Biblical Translation (Almond, 1990).
Dr. Yosefa Raz is a senior lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa. She holds a PhD in Jewish Studies from UC Berkeley. She is the author of The Poetics of Prophecy: Modern Afterlives of a Biblical Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which examines the way poets and scholars since the mid-1700s have been deeply entangled in the project of reinventing prophecy.
Prof. Eyal Regev is a professor in the Department for the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology in Bar-Ilan University, where he also received his Ph.D. He is the author of, The Sadducees and their Halakhah: Religion and Society in the Second Temple Period [Hebrew], Sectarianism in Qumran: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, and The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity.
Dr. Andrew Rehfeld is the 10th President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), a position he has held since 2019. Before becoming president, he was a tenured faculty member in Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis and President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. Rehfeld holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where he also received his Ph.D. in Political Science. His academic research focuses on the intersection of democracy, human rights, justice, and institutional design, as well as the political uses of the Hebrew Bible. He is the author of The Concept of Constituency (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to the United States Constitution (2018). His work has appeared in leading journals in his field, including the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, and the Journal of Political Philosophy.
Prof. Adele Reinhartz is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Ottawa, where she teaches in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies. She has an M.A. and Ph.D. from McMaster University. Among Reinhartz’s nine books are Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John and Bible and Cinema: An Introduction (2nd edition 2022). She served as the General Editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature from 2012-18 and as President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2020.
Rabbi Moshe Reiss, z”l, was a retired businessman and an Independent scholar. He was an ordained rabbi (private ordination) and served as assistant campus rabbi at Yale. He was a graduate of Brooklyn College and held an advanced degree in economics from Oxford University. At various points in his life, he taught at Fairleigh Dickinson and the Katholic University of Leuven. He co-authored The Matriarchs of Genesis: Seven Women, Five Views with David Zucker. Many of his Torah contributions can be found on his website, http://www.moshereiss.org/.
Gary A. Rendsburg
Prof. Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His Ph.D. and M.A. are from N.Y.U. Rendsburg is the author of seven books and about 190 articles; his most recent book is How the Bible Is Written.
Dr. Rabbi David Resnick retired as Senior Lecturer in the School of Education of Bar Ilan University, where he specialized in Jewish and moral education. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. His recent book was Representing Education in Film (Palgrave Macmillan 2018).
Prof. Julia Rhyder is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Lausanne in 2018 and is the author of Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26, published in the Forschungen zum Alten Testament series (Mohr Siebeck 2019). She received the 2021 David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship for her work on the pig prohibition in ancient Judaism.
Sandra L. Richter
Prof. Sandra Richter is the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. Richter earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department and her M.A. in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Richter is best known for her work on the Book of Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History, and has a forthcoming commentary on Deuteronomy with Eerdmans Publishers Commentaries for Christian Formation series. She is the author of The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (IVP 2008), The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: lešakkēn šemô šām in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. BZAW 318 (de Gruyter, 2002), and most recently Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Has to Say about Environmentalism and Why it Matters (IVP 2020). Richter has taught at Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, KY), Wesley Biblical Seminary (Jackson, MS) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL), and spent many of those years directing Israel Studies programs focused on historical geography and field archaeology.
Prof. Howard B. Rock is Professor (Emeritus) of American History at Florida International University, where he taught for 40 years. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, and a B.A. from Brandeis University. Rock is the author of Artisans of the New Republic: The Tradesmen of New York City in the Age of Jefferson (NYU 1979); The New York City Artisan, 1789-1825: A Documentary History (SUNY 1989); Keepers of the Revolution: New Yorkers at Work in the Early Republic (Cornell, 1992); The American Artisan: Crafting Social Identity (Johns Hopkins, 1995); and co-author (with Deborah Dash Moore) of Cityscapes: A History of New York in Images (NYU 2001). His most recent book, Haven of Liberty: New York Jews in the New World, 1654–1865 (NYU 2012)—the first volume in a trilogy called City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York—was awarded the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award (2013) by the National Jewish Book Council.
Rabbi Peretz Rodman earned a B.A. and M.A. in Jewish studies at Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature at Hebrew College. He was among the inaugural cohort of the Jerusalem Fellows, and later earned rabbinic ordination at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.
Prof. Alexander Rofé is Professor (Emeritus) of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he held the Yitzhak Becker Chair in Jewish Studies and whence he received his Ph.D. in 1970. Among his many books are Angels in the Bible: Israelite Belief in Angels as Evidenced by Biblical Traditions (1979, reissued 2012), Prophetical Stories (1988), Introduction to the Composition of the Pentateuch(1999), and Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretation (2002).
Dr. Biti Roi teaches Kabbalah and Hasidism at the Hebrew University and in the graduate program at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She is a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Her book Love of the Shekhina: Mysticism and Poetics in Tiqqunei ha-Zohar (Bar-Ilan University, 2017) was awarded the World Union of Jewish Studies Prize for the best book in Jewish Studies and is forthcoming in English in the “Olamot” series of Indiana University Press.
Prof. Christopher A. Rollston is Professor of Biblical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University's Department of Near Eastern Studies and is the editor of Maarav and co-editor of BASOR (Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research). Rollston is the editor of Enemies and Friends of the State: Ancient Prophecy in Context and the author of Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age as well as many academic articles such as “Scribal Curriculum during the First Temple Period: Epigraphic Hebrew and Biblical Evidence.” He is an expert in ancient epigraphy and blogs about new finds and current debates on www.rollstonepigraphy.com.
Thomas Römer
Prof. Thomas Römer is a professor of Hebrew Bible at the Collège de France and occupies its chair in Milieux Bibliques. He holds a Th.D. in biblical studies from the University of Geneva and an L.Th from the University of Heidelberg. Römer was awarded a cursus honora doctorate from the University of Tel Aviv, and among his many publications are Israel’s Väter (German), The So-Called Deuteronomistic History, and Dark God: Cruelty, Sex, and Violence in the Old Testament.
Dr. Rabbi Zvi Ron is an educator living in Neve Daniel, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Theology from Spertus University and semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from the Israeli chief rabbinate. He is editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly and has published over sixty scholarly articles on the Bible, Pseudepigrapha, Midrash, and Jewish customs in Tradition, Hakirah, Zutot, Sinai, ha-Ma'ayan, the Review of Rabbinic Judaism, the Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy, the Jewish Bible Quarterly and others. He is the author of ספר קטן וגדול about all the big and small letters in the Bible and ספר עיקר חסר about variant spellings of biblical words.
Prof. Rosanne Liebermann is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Aarhus University in Denmark. She holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Johns Hopkins University and is the author of Exile, Incorporated: The Body in the Book of Ezekiel.
Dr. Rabbi Jeremy Rosen was the Chairman of the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Wilrijk Belgium. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and yeshivot in Israel including Be’er Yaakov and Mir from whence he has his Smichot. He has worked in the rabbinate, education and academia.
Dr. Mordecai David Rosen has a B.Sc. in physics/math from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Plasma Physics from Princeton University, and is employed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he studies fusion reactions created there, at the National Ignition Facility, the world's largest laser. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), winner of the Teller Medal of the American Nuclear Society for his role in creating a new field: High Energy Density Physics, and winner of the APS Excellence in Plasma Physics Award for designing the world's first laboratory x-ray laser. He and his wife, Rena (whom he met in kindergarten at the Yeshivah of Flatbush) attend Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, CA. Their children and their families span the globe from Ra'anana, Israel, to N.Y. City, to Berkeley, CA.
Prof. Ishay Rosen-Zvi is Professor of Rabbinic Literature in the department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel-Aviv University, and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Kogod Center. He holds a Ph.D. in rabbinic literature from Tel-Aviv University and was elected to the Israel Young Academy of Sciences in 2013. Among his many publications are Demonic Desires: Yetzer Hara and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity (2011); Body and Soul in Ancient Judaism (2012); and Goy: Israel’s Others and the Birth of the Gentile (2018, with Adi Ophir).
Dr. Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he is also Director of the Religious Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Brown University, and is the author of Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism andThe Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World, and co-editor of Religious Competition in the Third Century CE: Jews, Christians, and the Greco-Roman World.
Dr. Oded Rosenblum is a member of The Center for Inter-disciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah at Haifa University. He holds a Ph.D. in Talmud from Haifa University’s Jewish History department. Rosenblum is a member of several research groups dealing with Talmudic literature.
Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig is the rabbi of the Netzach Menashe community in Beit Shemesh, a Ram in Midreshet Lindenbaum, and founder of Maaglei Nefesh, an institute addressing mental health in Jewish law. He received his rabbinic ordination in Yeshivat Birkat Moshe (Maale Adumim) through the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, and also from his Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Nachum Eliezer Rabinovitch, zt”l. He has degrees in education, history and philosophy. Books he has written include Yishrei Lev (2015), a 3-volume set of responsa, Conversations in Essence, imaginary conversations with great Jewish thinkers of the past, and the soon-to-be-published Nafshi Beshe'elati, on Halacha and mental health.
Prof. Tamar Ross is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Jewish philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She continues to teach at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She did her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard. She is the author of Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism. Her areas of expertise include: concepts of God, revelation, religious epistemology, philosophy of halacha, the Musar movement, and the thought of Rabbi A.I. Kook.
Dr. David Rothstein is a Senior Lecturer in Ariel University’s Israel Heritage Department. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from UCLA’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. He is the author of the commentary to 1 and 2 Chronicles in The Jewish Study Bible as well as a number of articles, such as, “Deuteronomy in the Ancient Versions: Textual and Legal Considerations.”
Prof. Rabbi Jeffrey L. Rubenstein is Skirball Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Literature at New York University. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and ordination from JTS. His books include, The History of Sukkot in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods; Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition and Culture; Rabbinic Stories; The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud; and Stories of the Babylonian Talmud.
Rabbi Shawn Ruby lives in Zikhron Yaakov with his wife Tammy. They have 3 grown children, Eliana, Kay and Noam. Ruby has passed the יורה יורה exams of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and is in the process of completing ordination by Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati in Maale Gilboa, where he was a member of the Kollel from 2012 to 2018. In his day job, he is co-CEO of Ruby Cherry EDA, an electronic design automation consulting firm.
Dr. Joel Yehudah Rutman, M.D., is a graduate of Brandeis University and Harvard Medical School with certification in Pediatrics and in Neurology and Psychiatry with Special Competence in Child Neurology. He was Clinical Professor of Paediatrics (Neurology) at the University of Texas Health Science Center (San Antonio). Rutman also served as hazzan at Rodfei Shalom Congregation i(San Antonio). He is the author of, Why Evolution Matters: A Jewish View.
Yoel S.
Yoel is a Satmar Hasid who has studied in yeshiva and kollel for many years and has taken an interest in academic Bible studies. See his TABS Essay, My Name is Yoel: I am a Satmar Hasid and a Bible Critic.
Tova Sacher received her LL.B. from Bar Ilan University and a Masters in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University. She is currently writing a doctoral thesis at the University of Haifa on the topic of Midrash Tanhuma in the Genizah and serves as the coordinator for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah.
Jan Safford is a post-doctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in the Bible and its Ancient Near Eastern context. His research focuses on Israelites and Judeans in Assyrian and Babylonian sources.
Dr. Rabbi Steven Sager, z"l, was the director of Sicha (sichaconversation.org), a Jewish education project that specializes in rabbinic enrichment and mentoring. He was the rabbi emeritus of Beth El Synagogue in Durham, North Carolina, a senior rabbinic fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and an adjunct professor at Duke Divinity School.
Prof. Dov Samet is Professor Emeritus of Game Theory at Tel Aviv University. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has held visiting professorships at Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, and other leading universities. He has published extensively in professional journals and served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Game Theory.
Dr. Nili Samet teaches Bible and Assyriology at the department of Bible in Bar-Ilan University. She holds a Ph.D. in Bible from Bar-Ilan University and an M.A. in Assyriology from the Hebrew University. She is the author of The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur: A Revised Edition and is currently working on her commentary on Ecclesiastes for the Mikra LeYisrael series.
Dr. Seth Sanders is Associate Professor of Religion at Trinity College. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from Harvard University. Seth is the author of The Invention of Hebrew and co-editor of Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions.
Ben Sandler is a professional software developer and amateur Bible scholar. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva University. Ben lives in Teaneck and chronicles his Torah study with his daughters at http://teachyourdaughter.wordpress.com.
Prof. Jack M. Sasson was the Mary Jane Werthan Professor (Emeritus) of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Vanderbilt University as well as Kenan Professor (Emeritus) of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. in Mediterranean Studies from Brandeis University. Sasson’s publications include commentaries on the biblical books of Ruth (1979), Jonah (1991), Judges 1–12 (2014), and Judges 13–21 (2025). Among his assyriological contributions is From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters (Eisenbrauns, 2015).
Dr. Hacham Isaac S. D. Sassoon is a rabbi and educator and a founding member of the ITJ. He studied under his father, Rabbi Solomon Sassoon, Hacham Yosef Doury, Gateshead Yeshivah and received his semicha from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Lisbon. He is the author of The Status of Women in Jewish Tradition (Cambridge University Press 2011), a commentary on chumash An Adventure in Torah: A Fresh Look Through a Traditional Lens (KTAV 2023), and most recently the co-editor with Rabbi Steven H. Golden of the Siddur 'Alats Libbi (Ktav 2023).
Prof. Michael L. Satlow is Professor of Judaic Studies and Religious Studies at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. from JTS, is the author of Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice and How the Bible Became Holy and the editor of Judaism and the Economy: A Sourcebook. He maintains a blog at mlsatlow.com.
Prof. George Savran (retired) taught at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies since 1996, and was director of biblical studies. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and is the author of Telling and Retelling: Quotation in Biblical Narrative (Indiana University Press, 1989) and Encountering the Divine: Theophany in Biblical Narrative (Sheffield University Press, 2005).
Prof. Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg is Associate Professor in the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago and is the author of The Closed Book: How the Rabbis Taught the Jews (Not) to Read the Bible (Princeton, 2023) and The Abrahamic Vernacular (Cambridge, 2024).
Dr. Orr Scharf is a lecturer at the Cultural Studies M.A. Program, The University of Haifa. He holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of Melbourne, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Haifa. He is the author of Thinking in Translation: Scripture and Redemption in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig (De Gruyter, 2019), and editor of volume 5, Lectures on Judaism and Christianity, in the critical edition of Martin Buber’s complete works, Martin Bubers Werkausgabe (2017), co-published by the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Humanities and Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf. Orr was awarded in 2019 the Hans Ehrenberg Award for Young Scholars for the advancement of research on Jewish-Christian dialogue for his article “Whose Bible is it Anyway: The Buber-Rosenzweig Translation as a Bible for Christians,” published in Magdalena Waligorska and Tara Kohn, eds, Jewish Translation – Translating Jewishness (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018).
Prof. Raymond P. Scheindlin is professor emeritus of medieval Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He has published extensively on the poetry of the Hebrew Golden Age and has made a specialty of literary translation of premodern Hebrew texts, including The Book of Job (Norton, 1998) and Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Archipelago, 2016). For more information, see raymondscheindlin.com.
Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman is a professor at New York University. He is an expert in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in late antiquity, and the history of Jewish law. Among his books are The Courtyards of the House of the Lord: Studies on the Temple Scroll (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2008), and Understanding Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 2003).
Prof. Solomon Schimmel is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education and Psychology at Hebrew College. He received his Ph.D in Psychology from Wayne State University. Schimmel is the author of The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth; Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness; and The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology.
Prof. Bernd U. Schipper is Professor Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He received his Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Hamburg and his Th.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of Bonn. His recent books include: The Hermeneutics of Torah: Proverbs 2, Deuteronomy, and the Composition of Proverbs 1–9 (SBL, 2021); Proverbs 1–15 for the commentary series Hermeneia (Fortress, 2019); and A Concise History of Ancient Israel: From the Beginnings through the Hellenistic Era (Eisenbrauns, 2019). He served as president of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT), 2022–2025, and has been an honorary member of the British Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) since 2021.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger is director of international relations for Roots/Shorashim/Judur, a joint Palestinian-Israeli grassroots peacemaking initiative, which he cofounded along with Ali Abu Awwad and Shaul Judelman. Before that, he served as Executive Director and Community Rabbinic Scholar for the Jewish Studies Initiative of North Texas, and as coordinator for Faiths in Conversation, a framework for Muslim-Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue which he found in 2012. Schlesinger lives with his family in Alon Shvut. He studied Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was certified as a rabbi by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
Prof. Konrad Schmid is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. and his Habilitation from the University of Zurich. He is the author of Genesis and the Moses Story (2010); The Old Testament: A Literary History (Fortress Press, 2012); and A Historical Theology of the Hebrew Bible (2019), and the co-editor of The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research [with Thomas B. Dozeman and Baruch J. Schwartz] (2011) and The Formation of the Pentateuch [with Jan C. Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson , and Dalit Rom-Shiloni] (2016). Since 2017, he has served as president of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Theologie (Academic Society for Theology) and he is currently also the President of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT). In 2018, Schmid was awarded the Humboldt-Forschungspreis, and in 2019 an ERC Advanced Grant for the project How God Became a Lawgiver (www.divlaw.uzh.ch). In the fall of 2022, he served as Lady Davis Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Prof. Tammi J. Schneider is Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. She holds a Ph.D. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania and her work draws together archaeology, Assyriology, biblical studies, and gender studies, in an effort to understand the interactions among various peoples in the ancient Near East. She is the author of Judges (Berit Olam, 2000), Sarah: Mother of Nations (Continuum, 2004), Mothers of Promise: Women in the Book of Genesis (Baker, 2008), and An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Religion (Eerdmans, 2011).
Prof. Thomas Schneider is Professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia and currently serves as Chief Executive of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). He studied Egyptology, Hebrew Bible and Ancient History at the University of Zurich, the University of Basel and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, earning a Lizentiat (1990), a doctorate (1996), and a Habilitation (1999) in Egyptology at the University of Basel. Schneider is the founding editor of the “Journal of Egyptian History” (2008-2014) and was the editor of “Culture and History of the Ancient Near East” (Brill, 2006-2013) and “Near Eastern Archaeology” (American Schools of Oriental Research, 2012-2017). He is the author of Language Contact in Ancient Egypt (2023); and co-editor of Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Egypt (2025); The Gift of the Nile? Ancient Egypt and the Environment (2020); Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective - Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscience (2015); Egyptology from the First World War to the Third Reich: Ideology, Scholarship, and Individual Biographies (2013).
Dr. Rabbi Devorah Schoenfeld is Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, where she teaches Judaism, Bible, and Jewish-Christian Relations. Her PhD is from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley (2007), and she has previously taught at University of California, Davis, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. She received her rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Maharat (2019). Her book, Isaac on Jewish and Christian Altars, compares Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria on the akedah. She has also published on midrash, parshanut and interreligious relations.
Prof. Susanne Scholz is Professor of Old Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. She holds a Ph.D. and S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the equivalent M.Div. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She also studied at the University of Mainz, Germany, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Scholz is the editor of many books, and is the author of The Bible as Political Artifact: On the Feminist Study of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017), Introducing the Women’s Hebrew Bible: Feminism, Gender Justice, and the Study of the Old Testament (2nd rev. & exp. edn; T&T Clark Bloomsbury, 2017), Sacred Witness: Rape in the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010).
Prof. Stefan Schorch is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Martin Luther University Halle–Wittenberg, Faculty of Theology, since 2009, and Director of the Research Institute for Hebrew Studies at Leucorea Foundation, Wittenberg. After studies at the universities in Leipzig, Jerusalem, and Berlin, he obtained his doctorate (Dr. theol.) from Leipzig University (1998) and his “Habilitation” from Protestant University Bethel, Bielefeld (2003). He is the author of Euphemismen in der Hebräischen Bibel (Otto Harrassowitz, 2000) and Die Vokale des Gesetzes: Die samaritanische Lesetradition als Textzeugin der Tora, vol. 1 Genesis (de Gruyter, 2004). He is currently working on a critical edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch, called תורה תמימה, and has thus far published the volumes for Genesis and Leviticus (de Gruyter).
Dr. Sarah Schulz is Senior Lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She received her PhD and her Habilitation in Old Testament Studies/Hebrew Bible from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She is the author of Die Anhänge zum Richterbuch. Eine kompositionsgeschichtliche Analyse von Ri 17–21 (DeGruyter 2016) and the co-editor of Debating Authority. Concepts of Leadership in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets (DeGruyter 2018); Transforming Authority. Concepts of Leadership in Prophehtic and Chronistic Literature (DeGruyter 2021) [both with Katharina Pyschny]; and Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible (T&T Clark 2019) [with Christoph Berner, Manuel Schäfer, Martin Schott, and Martina Weingärtner]. In 2016 she was awarded the Hanns-Lilje-Preis of the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.
Prof. Baruch J. Schwartz holds the J. L Magnes Chair in Biblical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned his Ph.D. He writes and lectures on the J, E, P and D documents, the uniqueness of each, and how they were compiled to create the five-book Torah. Schwartz is especially interested in how academic biblical scholarship and traditional Jewish belief and observance may co-exist.
Prof. Daniel R. Schwartz is the Herbst Family Professor emeritus of Judaic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he did his Ph.D. He specializes in the history, and especially the historiography, of the Second Temple period. His books include Agrippa I: The Last King of Judaea and Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, 1990 and 1992); 2 Maccabees (De Gruyter 2008); Judeans and Jews: Four Faces of Dichotomy in Ancient Jewish History (Univ. of Toronto Press 2014), and 1 Maccabees (Anchor Yale Bible, vol. 41B; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022).
Dr. Ethan Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. He received his B.A. in philosophy and Jewish studies from the University of Chicago and his M.A. in Hebrew Bible from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Prof. Joshua Schwartz is Professor (Emeritus) of Historical Geography of Ancient Israel, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, and Chair, Board of Directors, Israel Antiquities Authority. He received his Ph.D. (1981) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His most recent books are: Jews and Christians in Roman-Byzantine Palestine: History, Daily Life and Material Culture, Volumes 1–2 (Peter Lang 2018); Jerusalem: From its Beginning to the Ottoman Conquest (Ingenborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies 2017), co-edited with Avraham Faust and Eyal Baruch; Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: The Interbellum 70–132 CE (Brill 2018), co-edited with Peter J. Tomson; and The History of Jerusalem: The Second Temple Period 332 BCE – 70 CE, Volume One, History, Society and Cult, and Volume Two, The Material Culture (Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi 2020), co-edited with Ronny Reich and Isaiah Gafni.
Dr. Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz is director of the Beit Midrash at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he also serves as assistant professor of Talmud and Rabbinics. He holds a Ph.D. from JTS and is a past recipient of the Professor Saul Lieberman and Dr. Judith Berlin Lieberman Graduate Fellowships in Talmudic Studies. He has taught at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. His publications include articles for the Hebrew Union College Annual, Zeramim, the Encyclopedia Judaica Online, and the Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. He is the author of the book Rewriting the Talmud (Mohr Siebeck, 2019), on the effect of tradition from the Land of Israel on the composition of the Babylonian Talmud.
Dr. Sarah Schwartz is a lecturer on Bible in Bar Ilan University's Bible department, and in Machon Schechter. She holds a Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University, where she wrote a literary analysis of the Isaac stories in Genesis. Among her published articles are “From Rhetoric to Demagoguery: A New Reading of the Spies’ Report (Num 13:26-33),” ETL 96 (2020);
Prof. JoAnn Scurlock is Professor (Emerita) of History at Elmhurst College. She holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago. She is the author of Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine (University of Illinois, 2005), Magico-Medical Means of Treating Ghost Induced Illnesses in Ancient Mesopotamia (Brill, 2006), and Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine (SBL, 2014), and co-editor of In the Wake of Tikva Frymer Kensky (Gorgias 2009) and Creation and Chaos: Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel's Chaos Kampf Hypothesis (Eisenbrauns, 2013).
Prof. Shai Secunda is Jacob Neusner Professor of Judaism at Bard College. He is a founder and co-editor of the Talmud Blog, fellow at the Academic Torah Institute, and editor of TheGemara.com. He is the author of The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in its Sasanian Context and Like a Hedge of Lilies: Menstruation and Difference in the Talmud and its Sasanian Context.
Prof. Kenneth Seeskin is Professor of Philosophy and Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. He received his Ph.D in Philosophy from Yale University in 1972 and has been at Northwestern ever since. He specializes in the rationalist tradition in Jewish philosophy with an emphasis on Maimonides. Publications include Maimonides on the Origin of the World (CUP, 2005), Jewish Messianic Thoughts in an Age of Despair (CUP, 2012), and Thinking about the Torah: A Philosopher Reads the Bible (JPS, 2016).
Prof. Michael Segal is the Father Takeji Otsuki Professor of Biblical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jeruslaem, and Head of the Hebrew University Bible Project. He is the author of The Book of Jubilees: Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology and Theology (2007); Dreams, Riddles, and Visions: Textual, Contextual, and Intertextual Approaches to the Book of Daniel (2016); The Hebrew University Bible Edition: Twelve Prophets (2024); and recently completed a commentary on the Book of Daniel and the Additions to Daniel to be published in the International Critical Commentary (ICC) series.
Jennifer Seligman is an independent scholar in Jewish history and a history teacher at the Upper School of the Dwight-Englewood School (Englewood, NJ). She received her MA in Medieval Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, where she was also a PhD candidate. She is a graduate of the Drisha Scholar Circle at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. She has been published in AJS Perspectives and has presented papers at domestic and international conferences, including the Association for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Law Association. Seligman also teaches Suzuki method violin in her home studio.
Prof. Hava Shalom-Guy is academic vice-president at the David Yellin Academic College of Education in Jerusalem and teaches in its Department of Bible. She has a Ph.D. in Bible from the Hebrew University and is the author of The Gideon Cycle through the Mirror of Its Literary Parallels [Hebrew] and “Three-Way Intertextuality: Some Reflections of Abimelech’s Death at Thebez in Biblical Narrative”(JSOT).
Rabbi Noam Shapiro studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and at Yeshiva University, where he received his rabbinic ordination from RIETS and an MA in Judaic Studies (Jewish History) from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. After teaching in Jewish day schools in America and gap-year programs in Israel for nearly a decade, he now serves as the COO of a nano-optics startup company in Jerusalem. He lives in Efrat with his wife and four children.
Dr. Nadav Sharon is the Judaica librarian at the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and he is the author of Judea under Roman Domination: The First Generation of Statelessness and Its Legacy.
Dr. Sarah Shectman is a freelance academic editor. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis University, is the author of Women in the Pentateuch: A Feminist and Source-Critical Analysis, and co-editor (with Joel S. Baden) of The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions.
Dr. Shayna Sheinfeld is Assistant Professor of Religion at Augsburg University (Minneapolis, MN, USA). She received her Ph.D. in Ancient Judaism from McGill University. Her research emphasizes the vast diversity of Judaism in the ancient world. In addition to publishing articles covering biblical and non-canonical texts in their ancient contexts, Sheinfeld works on their reception in popular culture and has coedited Theology and Westworld (2020) and Good Omens and the Bible (2024). Sheinfeld also publishes extensively on gender and ancient Judaism, including coediting Constructions of Gender in Religious Traditions of Late Antiquity (2024) and Gender and Second-Temple Judaism (2020). Sheinfeld also co-wrote Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (2022), which won the 2023 Frank W. Beare award from the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies and Honorable Mention for the 2024 British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies book prize.
Prof. Yael Shemesh is an Associate Professor in Hebrew Bible at Bar-Ilan University. She holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Bar-Ilan University and is the author of Mourning in the Bible: Coping with Loss in Biblical Literature (Hebrew), “The Stories of Women in a Man’s World: The Books of Ruth, Esther, and Judith” (in Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect), “‘And Many Beasts’ (Jonah 4:11): The Function and Status of Animals in the Book of Jonah”(JHS 10), and Elisha: The Holy Man of God (Leiden: Brill).
Prof. Phillip Michael Sherman is a Professor of Religion at Maryville College (Tennessee, USA). He holds a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Classical Jewish Hermeneutics from Emory University. He is the author of Babel’s Tower Translated: Genesis 11 and Ancient Jewish Interpretation (Brill, 2013). He has also published on animals in the Bible, including “Animals,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (Oxford University Press, 2015), and “The Hebrew Bible and the ‘Animal Turn’” in Currents in Biblical Research 19 (2020).
Dr. Tina M. Sherman is an editor for TheTorah.com. She holds a Ph.D in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and she lectures in Bible at the University of Minnesota. Her first book, Plant Metaphors in Prophetic Condemnations of Israel and Judah (SBL 2023), examines how the prophetic authors used plant metaphors to portray the condemnation and punishment of Israel and Judah in terms of the everyday work of crop farming and plant husbandry. She is also the author of the “Biblical Metaphor Annotated Bibliography” (2014) and co-author, with Bernard M. Levinson, of “Law and Legal Literature” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel (2016).
Prof. David Shyovitz is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University, with a joint appointment at the Crown Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. He received his Ph.D. in medieval Jewish history from the University of Pennsylvania and studied at Yeshivat Har Ezion. He is the author of A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz.
Malka Z. Simkovich
Dr. Malka Zeiger Simkovich is a the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and the director of their Catholic-Jewish Studies program. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Temple Judaism from Brandeis University, an M.A. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Bible Studies and Music Theory from Yeshiva University’s Stern College. In addition to her many articles, Malka is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016) and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories that Shaped Early Judaism (2018).
Dr. Alex Sinclair is Chief Content Officer for Educating for Impact, an organization that provides strategic and educational consulting to European Jewish communities, and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has taught, written and spoken widely on Jewish education, Israel-Diaspora relations, and Israeli politics in both academic and popular contexts. He was a professor of education at the Jewish Theological Seminary for almost two decades, and has also worked or consulted for a wide variety of other educational and communal institutions. His first book, "Loving the Real Israel: An Educational Agenda for Liberal Zionism," was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 2013. He lives with his wife and three children in Modi'in, Israel.
Prof. Hagith Sivan is Professor Emerita of History in the University of Kansas’ Center for Global and International Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, and among her many books are, Jewish Childhood in the Roman World (2018), Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress (2011), Between Woman, Man and God: A New Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (2004), and Dinah‘s Daughters: Gender and Judaism from the Hebrew Bible To Late Antiquity (Philadephia 2002).
Prof. Jean-Louis Ska is Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where he has taught since 1983. He has been emeritus since January 2016. He received his doctorate in Sacred Scriptures from the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He has published books in French, English, and Italian, including Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch (Eisenbrauns 2006). Some of his works have also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. His main interests are biblical narratives, biblical law, and the influence of biblical literature on western civilization.
Dr. Isaac (Tsachi) Slater is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Theology, the University of Göttingen, as part of the DFG funded Emmy Noether research group Emancipatio Rabbinica. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and served as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hamburg and the University of Notre Dame. He edited critical editions of Aharon Shmuel Tamares’ (2020, 2022, 2025) and Shmuel Alexandrov’s (2024) writings, as well as the Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion (2023). His book In a Guilty Generation: Shmuel Alexandrov and the Redemption of Judaism is forthcoming by Magnes Press.
Dr. Jeremy D. Smoak is a scholar of Hebrew Bible and ancient Israelite religion in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA, where he completed his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitics. His research focuses on the relationship between texts, ritual practices, and material culture in the ancient Near East. Smoak has participated in archaeological excavations in Egypt and Israel, including Wadi el-Natrun, Tel Dor, and Tel Dan. He is the author of The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and was honored with UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016.
Dr. Fran Snyder serves as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Eugene Lang College, The New School University, in New York City. She holds a doctorate in Midrash and Scriptural Interpretation from the Jewish Theological Seminary and is on the faculty of the New York School of T’ai Chi Chuan, where she teaches T’ai Chi and Qigong.
Dan Sofer is an author of fiction. His most recent novel is called A Love and Beyond, and his stories have appeared in different venues, such as Midstream Magazine and on his website, http://dansofer.com. Sofer studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion (’95-’99) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Computer Science from the University of South Africa. He represented South Africa at the 1993 International Bible Contest (Chidon HaTanakh HaOlami) in Jerusalem.
Dr. Rabbi Norman Solomon was a Fellow (retired) in Modern Jewish Thought at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He remains a member of Wolfson College and the Oxford University Teaching and Research Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was ordained at Jews’ College and did his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester. Solomon has served as rabbi to a number of Orthodox Congregations in England and is a Past President of the British Association for Jewish Studies. He is the author of Torah from Heaven.
Benjamin D. Sommer
Prof. Benjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Senior Fellow at the Kogod Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought of the Shalom Hartman Institute. He holds an M.A. in Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in Religion/Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago. Sommer is the author of Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (Yale, 2015), The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2009), and A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40–66 (Stanford, 1998). The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “a traditionalist and yet an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today.”
Prof. Jean-Pierre Sonnet is professor of Hebrew Bible at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, where he teaches biblical narrative poetics and biblical poetry. Ordained as a Jesuit catholic priest, he holds an M.A. in comparative literature from the Catholic University of Louvain, an M.A. in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (with a special formation in Jewish biblical interpretation at the Ratisbonne Center, Jerusalem), and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. He is the author of The Book within the Book (Brill 1997), focused on the relationship between embedding and embedded book in Deuteronomy, and a commentary on the book of Ruth, À l’ombre de ses ailes. Le livre de Ruth. Une lecture narrative (2021). He is co-editor (with Peter Dubovskẏ and Dominik Markl) of The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah (Mohr Siebeck 2015). Sonnet also writes poetry and has authored a series of works in which he gives voice to the voice of Scripture. The last one is entirely centered on Jerusalem, La ville où tout homme est né (Le Taillis Pré 2021).
Prof. Rabbi Daniel Sperber is the incumbant of the Milan Roven Chair of Talmudic Research at Bar-Ilan University and President of Bar-Ilan’s Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies. He is also the rabbi of the Menachem Zion Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. from University College London in Classics, Ancient History and Hebrew Studies, and rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Kol Torah. Sperber is the winner of the Israel Prize for his research in Talmud and the history of Jewish Customs, and is the author of the 8 volume series, Minhagei Yisrael [Hebrew] as well as many other books such as, The City in Roman Palestine and On Changes in Jewish Liturgy: Options and Limitations.
Dr. Jason A. Staples is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. He holds a PhD in Ancient Mediterranean Religions from the University of North Caronina – Chapel Hill. Staples is a specialist in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, focusing primarily on Early Judaism and Christian Origins. He is the author of Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Former Jews, Gentiles, Israelites (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism: A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
Rabbi David D. Steinberg is the co-founder and director of the Academic Torah Institute and TheTorah.com. He learned in Manchester Yeshiva, Gateshead Yeshiva, and Mir Yeshiva. Steinberg took the Ner Le’Elef Rabbinical Outreach training course and moved to Huntington, NY in 2002 to work as an outreach rabbi for the Mesorah Center. In 2007 he joined Aish Hatorah NY as a Programs Director, managing their Yeshiva in Passaic and serving as a rabbi in their Executive Learning program. In 2012, he left his rabbinic post to create TheTorah.com.
Dr. Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculties of Hebrew College Rabbinical School and the Mandel Leadership Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She has taught at Drisha, Yeshivat Hadar, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Havruta: a Beit Midrash at Hebrew University, and was the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of: From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis; Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law; and Why Rain Comes From Above: Explorations in Religious Imagination.
Dr. Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos is Assistant Professor of Religion at Amherst College (MA). She holds an MA in Early Christian Studies from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Religious Studies from Brown University. She is author of Constantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial Capital (University of California Press, 2020). She was a Fellow of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC) in 2023–2024.
Prof. David Stern is Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Hebrew and Jewish Literature at Harvard University. Stern received his Ph.D. from Harvard and taught for many years at the University of Pennsylvania before leaving for Harvard. Stern has written or edited fourteen books including Parables in Midrash: Narrative and Exegesis in Rabbinic Literature; Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature; The Monk’s Haggadah: A Fifteenth Century Illuminated Codex from the Monastery of Tegernsee; and The Jewish Bible: A Material History (University of Washington Press, 2017), for which he received the 2018 Jordan Schnitzer Award for the Best Book in Jews and the Arts from the Association for Jewish Studies. His most recent book is Jewish Literary Cultures II: The Medieval and Early Modern Periods (2019), the second in a series of three volumes of Stern’s selected essays. He is currently completing the third volume in the series. Stern works and teaches in two fields, classical Jewish literature and the history of the book with a special interest in the Jewish book.
Dr. Elsie R. Stern is Associate Professor of Bible at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She received her B.A. from Yale University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Stern is the author of From Rebuke to Consolation: Exegesis and Theology in the Liturgical Anthology of the Ninth of Av Season. Her current research focuses on the performance and transmission of torah texts in the early rabbinic period.
Dr. Gregg Stern is a Harvard-trained historian of medieval Jewish thought and culture. He is the author of Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture and the forthcoming Flashpoints: The Communal Struggle with the Legacy of Maimonides (1188-1340). Stern has taught and conducted research at colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
Rabbi Ron Stern is a rabbi at Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, where he has been serving since 1998. Originally from Morristown, New Jersey, he graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester and was ordained in 1990 at Hebrew Union College in New York. Rabbi Stern is the founding rabbi of the Wise Center for Tikkun Olam, which supports social welfare organizations in the US and Israel, and has helped to build Wise Readers to Leaders, the only synagogue-sponsored literacy enrichment program in the nation, serving over 400 children. Rabbi Stern is a founding member of Reform CA, a political action project of rabbis and congregants throughout California, and has been a member of the Religious Action Center’s Commission on Social Justice.
Prof. Sacha Stern is Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London, where he heads the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and is the Principal Investigator for the Fritz Thyssen Foundation research project “Qaraite and Rabbanite calendars.” He holds an M.A. in Social Anthropology from UCL (1988), and a D.Phil. in Jewish Studies from Oxford. Stern is the editor of the Journal of Jewish Studies and among his many publications, he is the author of Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar, 2nd Century BCE to 10th Century CE (2001), Time and Process in Ancient Judaism (2003), and Calendars in Antiquity: Empires, States, and Societies (2012).
Prof. Jillian Stinchcomb is an associate professor at Towson University, where she teaches in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, the History Department, and in the Jewish Studies courses of the Baltimore Hebrew Institute. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the "Interactive Histories, Co-Produced Communities: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" project from 2022–2024 and the Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Hebrew Bible and Mediterranean Cross Cultural Textual Antiquities at Brandeis University from 2020–2022. Her essay “What Do we Know about the Queen of Sheba? Epistemological Limits and New Paths Forward” was published in Queens in Antiquity and the Present: Speculative Visions and Critical Histories (Bloomsbury Press, 2024), and she is currently preparing the manuscript for her first book, The Queen of Sheba between the Bible and the Kebra Nagast.
Jonathan Stökl
Dr. Jonathan Stökl is assistant professor at the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University. He completed his D.Phil. in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford. He is the author of Prophecy in the Ancient Near East: A Philological and Sociological Comparison and editor with Corrine L. Carvalho of Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East.
Dr. Shana Strauch Schick is a lecturer in Rabbinic Literature in the Department of Talmud and the Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University. She is the author of Intention in Talmudic Law: Between Thought and Deed (Brill, 2021) and the editor of Land and Spirituality in Rabbinic Literature: A Memorial Volume for Yaakov Elman (Brill, 2022). Her forthcoming monograph, Women in Rabbinic Law and Narrative: Vying Currents in Babylonian and Palestinian Texts, will be published by Brandeis University Press.
Prof. Brent A. Strawn is D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke University and a McDonald Distinguished Fellow in Law and Religion at Emory University where he previously served as W. R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Old Testament. He holds an M.Div and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and is an ordained elder in the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church. Strawn is the author of seven books: What Is Stronger than a Lion? Leonine Image and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (2005), The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment (2017), The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction (2020), and Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament (2021). He served as served as a translator and editor for the Common English Bible (2011) and the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (2022) and has edited over thirty volumes to date, including The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness: What the Old and New Testaments Teach Us about the Good Life (2012), The World around the Old Testament (2014), and the award-winning The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (2015).
Prof. Matthew J. Suriano is an Associate Professor in the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland where he teaches Hebrew Bible, ancient religions, and archaeology. His Ph.D. is from UCLA and he has an M.A. from Jerusalem University College. He was also a visiting graduate student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A former fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Suriano has participated in several archaeological excavations and surveys in Israel, most recently at Tel Burna where he was a member of the research staff. He has written extensively on death and burial in the ancient world, starting with his first book Politics of Dead Kings (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), which is a revised version of his dissertation. His second book, A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2018), won the American Society for Overseas Research’s Frank Moore Cross Award.
Dr. Matthew Susnow is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of Archaeology. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Haifa (2019) and additionally has an M.A. from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago (2011). He is the author of The Practice of Canaanite Cult: The Middle and Late Bronze Ages (Zaphon, 2021). His research focuses on various aspects of archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Age southern Levant, especially religion and ritual. Matt is also a staff member of the Tel Abel Beth Maacah expedition.
Prof. Marvin A. Sweeney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. His Ph.D. is from Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of sixteen volumes, such as Tanak: A Literary and Theological Introduction to the Jewish Bible; Reading the Hebrew Bible after the Shoah: Engaging Holocaust Theology; and Jewish Mysticism: From Ancient Times through Today.
Prof. Ada Taggar-Cohen is a professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern studies, and the Head of the Program of Jewish Studies, at the School of Theology of Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. She earned her BA and MA degrees from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem at the Bible and History of Israel departments, and her PhD from Ben Gurion University in the Negev, under the supervision of Prof. Victor A. Hurowitz (ז״ל) and Prof. Theo van den Hout of the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on Hittite priesthood and comparative studies of issues related to Hittite and ancient Israelite cultures. Her book Hittite Priesthood (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2006) is a comprehensive work on this topic. She has recently co-edited with Roy E. Gane a volume in memory of Jacob Milgrom, Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond (Resources for Biblical Study 82; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015).
Prof. Abraham Tal is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Linguistics of Tel Aviv University, formerly the vice-president of the Academy of Hebrew Language and editor-in-chief of the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language. He holds a PhD from Hebrew University. Among his major publications are A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Brill, 2000), The Pentateuch – The Samaritan Version (with Moshe Florentin, TAU University Press, 2010), Tibat Marqe – Edition, Translation, Commentary (Studia Samaritana, de Gruyter, 2019), and Samaritan Aramaic (Ugarit Verlag, 2013).
Dr. Caryn Tamber-Rosenau is instructional assistant professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Houston. She studies women, gender, and sexuality in the Bible and Second Temple literature. She is the author of Women in Drag: Gender and Performance in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Literature (Gorgias, 2018). For more on Tamber-Rosenau’s work, visit www.caryntamber-rosenau.com.
Dr. Rabba Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz is a Teaching Fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies, and has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, King’s College London, and SOAS. After studying archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge, she earned her M.A. in prehistory from the Hebrew University, and her Ph.D. in Jewish studies and anthropology from University College London. She received her rabbinic ordination in the Kollel program of Yeshivat Maharat and is the author of Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2021).
Prof. Juan Manuel Tebes is Professor at the Catholic University of Argentina, current Director of its Center of Studies of Ancient Near Eastern History, and Researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET). He is Co-Editor of the Ancient Near East Monographs (Society of Biblical Literature) and former Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Antiguo Oriente. Tebes has participated in archaeological expeditions in Jordan, Israel, and Turkey, and has also been research fellow at many institutions. He has recently published, with Christian Frevel, the collection of papers The Desert Origins of God: Yahweh’s Emergence and Early History in the Southern Levant and Northern Arabia (special volume of Entangled Religions 12/2; Bochum: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2021).
Prof. Hanna Tervanotko is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. She received her combined PhD/ThD from the University of Vienna and University of Helsinki in 2013. Tervanotko’s first book was, Denying Her Voice: The Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature (2016). She has written extensively about female figures and divinatory techniques in the Jewish texts of the Second Temple era. She is the co-editor of Crossing Imaginary Boundaries: The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Second Temple Judaism. Currently, Tervanotko holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant to analyze women’s rituals to address sickness in ancient Jewish texts.
Sara Susswein Tesler has taught Tanakh and Jewish Identity at the high school and post high school level for over fourteen years. She completed her M.A. in Bible at Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, and studied at the Drisha Institute’s Scholar’s Program.
Prof. Rabbi Jeffrey Tigay is Emeritus Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. He has his Ph.D. from Yale, and his M.H.L and ordination from JTS. He is the author of the Jewish Study Bible commentary on Exodus and the JPS commentary on Deuteronomy, a revised Hebrew edition of which will be published in the Mikra LeYisrael series. He is currently writing a commentary on Exodus for the same series.
Dr. Nicole L. Tilford is an independent scholar living in Atlanta, GA. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Emory University. She is the author of Sensing World, Sensing Wisdom: The Cognitive Foundation of Biblical Metaphors (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017) and has published articles on sensory criticism of biblical metaphors and the reception history of the Bible.
Dr. Andrew Tobolowsky is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Arts and Sciences Department of William & Mary University. He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University and is the author of The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles (Mohr Siebeck, 2017).
Prof. Emanuel Tov is J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible (emeritus) in the Dept. of Bible at the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. He was the editor of 33 volumes of Discoveries in the Judean Desert. Among his many publications are, Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, Textual Criticism of the Bible: An Introduction, The Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 31 and The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research.
Colby Townsend is a dual PhD candidate in English and religious studies at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the co-editor, with Abby Clayton, of Printing New Religion: Transatlantic Movements in the Nineteenth Century (advanced contract with the University of Illinois Press) and has published several essays in Journal of the Bible and its Reception, Dialogue, and Journal of Mormon History.
Dr. Chaim Trachtman is an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He is on the board of Yeshivat Maharat and is editor of Women and Men in Communal Prayer: Halakhic Perspectives (KTAV, 2010).
Dr. Jason Tron holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Claremont School of Theology. He received his M.A. in Biblical Studies from the University of Haifa and his B.A. from Oranim College. His dissertation deals with visions in the book of Genesis.
Benyamim Tsedaka is the founder and head of the A.B-Institute of Samaritan Studies. He is the editor of A.B. – The Samaritan News Magazine, A Founder of the Society of Samaritan Studies in Paris 1985, the conductor of the Choir of Ancient Israelite Music, and the chairperson of the Samaritan Medal Foundation. Tsedaka has published over 100 articles, essays, and posts on Samaritan Studies. He recently published the firstEnglish translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch.
Dr. Sheila Tuller Keiter received her Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is the author of Perils of Wisdom: The Scriptural Solomon in Jewish Thought (Gorgias Press, 2021) as well as a number of articles. Keiter currently teaches Talmud, Tanakh, and history at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles.
Prof. Rabbi Yossi Turner is Professor of Jewish Thought at The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was ordained at Jerusalem's Seminary for Judaic Studies (now the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary). In addition to his many articles he is the author of several books, among them Faith and Humanism: An Inquiry in Franz Rosenzweig’s Religious Philosophy (Hebrew); The Relation to Zion and the Diaspora in 20th Century Jewish Thought: A Study in The Philosophy of Jewish Existence (Hebrew), and Quest for Life: a Study in Aharon David Gordon's Philosophy of Man in Nature (English). He is presently involved in the development of an original philosophy of Jewish existence.
Dr. Michael Tuval is an independent scholar and a tour guide. He holds a Ph.D in ancient Jewish history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Tuval was a postdoctoral scholar at the Hebrew U in 2011-12, a visiting scholar at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 2012-13, and a visiting research fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich (Germany) in 2013-15. He is the author of From Jerusalem Priest to Roman Jew: On Josephus and the Paradigms of Ancient Judaism (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2013), a co-editor of a new Russian translation and commentary The Four Books of Maccabees (Jerusalem–Moscow: Gesharim, 2014), the editor, coauthor and translator of Herod: Ancient Authors on the King of Judea (Jerusalem: MG Library, 2022) (in Russian), and the author of Synagogue of Giants: How Magicians, Pharisees, and Proselytes Changed the World (Jerusalem: Wheels University, 2022) (in Russian). He is currently completing the first volume of a book on Jesus and his movement in the context of first–century Judaism (in Russian).
Dr. Shani Tzoref served as Professor of Hebrew Bible and its Exegesis at the Abraham Geiger College and the University of Potsdam School of Jewish Theology from 2015 to 2019. She holds an M.A. in Jewish History from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. in Ancient Jewish Literature from New York University, and is the author of The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169. Her research focuses on the reception of the Hebrew Bible, especially in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and on feminist interpretation and digital humanities.
Dr. Deborah Uchill Miller most recently served as Associate Director of the Melton Research Center for Jewish Education at the Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She earned her EdD and MA at Davidson. She was the founding editor and project director of MaToK, the Bible curriculum for Solomon Schechter Day Schools (now available at Rowman and Littlefield), and previously served as Director of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley (1984–1998). Miller is the author of Only Nine Chairs: A Tall Tale for Passover (Kar-Ben Copies, 1982, 1995 and as a PJ Library selection). She co-authored, with Karen Ostrove: Poppy Seeds, Too: A Twisted Tale for Shabbat (Kar-Ben 1982); Modi’in Motel: An Idol Tale for Chanukah (Kar-Ben 1986); and Fins and Scales: A Kosher Tale (Kar-Ben 1991). She also authored My Siddur: A Prayer Readiness Book (Behrman House, 1984).
Prof. Rivka Ulmer is Professor of Jewish Studies at Bucknell University. She holds M.A.s in linguistics, Jewish Studies, and American Studies and a Dr. phil. In Jewish Studies from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, and was a postdoctoral fellow at HUC-JIR Cincinnati. Ulmer is the author of Sing and Rejoice, O daughter of Zion (Zechariah 2:14)- Studies in Pesiqta Rabbati (Brill 2026); A Bilingual Edition of Pesiqta Rabbati: 2 Vol. (De Gruyter, 2017, 2022); Righteous Giving to the Poor (with Moshe Ulmer; Gorgias, 2014); Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash (de Gruyter, 2009); A Synoptic Edition Of Pesiqta Rabbati (University Press of America, 2008 [repr]); Turmoil, Trauma, and Triumph: The Fettmilch Uprising in Frankfurt am Main According to Megillas Vintz (Yale 2023 [repr]); The Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature (Ktav, 1994); Poetry of Rebecca (Lehrhaus, 1986). She is also the (co-)editor of multiple volumes of Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature, as well as Discussing Cultural Influences: Text, Context, and Non-Text in Rabbinic Judaism (University Press of America, 2007). Ulmer serves as the Chair of the Editorial Board, Judaism in Context Series (Gorgias Press) and was co-chair of the Midrash Section for the Society of Biblical Literature (2002-2023).
Dr. Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein received both her Ph.D. in Midrash and her M.A. in Ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Her dissertation investigated the workings of Midrash, focusing on texts that mention individual women. She has taught university courses both in person and online and was a contributor to The Torah: A Women's Commentary. She currently teaches at TanenbaumCHAT, where her students know her as Dr. U-F and she is Head of the Department of Jewish Thought. In addition to classes on Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Philosophy, one of the courses she teaches and developed is “Gender and Judaism.” Dr. Urowitz-Freudenstein also teaches adult education classes in the community and lives in her hometown, Toronto, with her husband and family.
Dr. Daniel Vainstub is Lecturer in the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he did his Ph.D. His dissertation is titled Governmental Institutions in Phoenician Cities from the Bronze Age through the Beginning of the Roman Period. Vainstub is the editor of The Persian and Hellenistic Periods in Israel. A Southern Perspective (Beer Sheva 2018) and Worship and Burial in the Shfela and Negev Regions throughout the Ages (Beer Sheva 2019). His research on the Lachish comb was featured on the BBC and his work on the Ophel inscription was selected as among the top-ten in 2023 by ASOR
Prof. Karel van der Toorn is Professor of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam. He studied Theology and Semitic Languages in Paris (Institut Catholique, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) and holds a Ph.D. (1985) from Free University Amsterdam, and his dissertation was published under the title Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia: A Comparative Study (Van Gorcum, 1985). Prof. van der Toorn has published widely on the Hebrew Bible in its Near Eastern context. His books include Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel (Brill, 1996); Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible (Harvard University Press, 2007); God in Context: Selected Essays on Society and Religion in the Early Middle East (Mohr Siebeck, 2018); Papyrus Amherst 63 (Ugarit-Verlag, 2018); Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine (Yale University Press, 2019).
Prof. Jacqueline Vayntrub is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University. She holds a Ph.D. in Northwest Semitic Philology from the University of Chicago and she is the author of Beyond Orality (2019), part of Routledge’s Ancient World series.
Dr. Danilo Verde is a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher of the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) affiliated to the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. He holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from the same University. His research focuses on metaphor, gender, trauma, and pain in the Hebrew Bible. Verde is the author of Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs (SBL 2020), and co-editor (with Antje Labahn) of Networks of Metaphors in the Hebrew Bible (Peeters, 2020), and a thematic issue of the journal Open Theology (with Dominik Markl) titled Cultural Trauma and the Hebrew Bible (2022).
Dr. Jeroen Verrijssen is a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, investigating the reception of biblical genealogies in Jewish and Christian sources. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from KU Leuven, and is the author of The Liturgical Targum (Brill 2026), which examines Aramaic biblical translation in medieval European Jewish liturgy.
Dr. Eran Viezel is a Senior Lecturer in Ben Gurion University’s Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his main field of research is Jewish exegesis. Among his publications are The Commentary on Chronicles Attributed to Rashi (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2010), ‘To Settle the Plain Meaning of the Verse’: Studies in Biblical Exegesis (Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 2011) (with Sara Japhet), tens of academic articles, in addition to two books of poems and two novels.
Tamás Visi
Prof. Tamás Visi is an Associate Professor at the Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish Studies at Palacky University (Olomouc, Czech Republic). He earned his doctorate with a dissertation on the early Ibn Ezra supercommentaries at the Central European University in Budapest in 2006. In 2012 he was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recent publications: “The Chronology of John the Baptist and the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth: A New Approach,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 18 (2020): 3-34; “Berechiah ben Naṭronai ha-Naqdan’s Dodi ve-Neḵdi and the Transfer of Scientific Knowledge from Latin to Hebrew in the Twelfth Century,” Aleph 14.2 (2014): 9-73; “Ibn Ezra, a Maimonidean Authority: The Evidence of the Early Ibn Ezra Supercommentaries,” in James T. Robinson (ed.), The Cultures of Maimonideanism (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 89-131.
Prof. Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky serves as Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he directs the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. He also serves as Louis Stein director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies there. His most recent book is Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud.
Prof. Meylekh (PV) Viswanath teaches finance at Pace University, New York, NY. He has a Ph.D. in Finance and Economics from the University of Chicago and is interested in how ancient economies intersected with religion. One recent publications is, “Could What You Don’t Know Hurt You? Information Asymmetry in Land Markets in Late Antiquity,” in The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Economics.
Dr. Barry Dov Walfish was the Judaica Bibliographer and Curator at the University of Toronto Libraries until his retirement in 2017. He holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Jewish Intellectual History from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Esther in Medieval Garb, Bibliographia Karaitica, and The Way of Lovers (with Sara Japhet) and is the main Judaism editor for De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception.
Dr. Paula Wapnish Hesse holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1984) in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, but has spent most of her academic career as a zooarchaeologist. She has worked on, and published widely on, animal bone collections from Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Israel. She was the zooarchaeologist at the Leon Levy Excavations to Ashkelon from 1985 to 2016, and currently serves that position at the Tel Shimron Excavations. Hesse is the editor [with Justin Lev-Tov and Alan Gilbert] of The Wide Lens in Archaeology: Honoring Brian Hesse’s Contributions to Anthropological Archaeology (Lockwood Press, 2017). Her latest publications include a catalog of Worked Ivory and Bone (pp. 651-662) and Faunal Remains (with Deirdre Fulton, pp. 705-726) in Ashkelon 7: The Iron Age I (Lawrence E. Stager, Daniel M. Master, and Adam Aja, editors. Eisenbrauns, University Park, PA, 2020). She is currently working on a comprehensive catalogue of the bone and ivory tools from Ashkelon, Israel and a book-length treatment with Deirdre N. Fulton on the Persian and Early Hellenistic period dog burials.
Dr. Megan Warner is Principal of Wollaston Theological College in Perth, Western Australia and Co-Chair of the Genesis Section of the Society of Biblical Literature. She holds a Ph.D. from Melbourne’s University of Divinity, and her books about Genesis include Genesis: A Past for a People in Need of a Future (T&T Clark, 2024), Effective Stories: Genesis Through the Lens of Resilience (Sheffield Phoenix, 2024) and Re-Imagining Abraham: A Re-Assessment of the Influence of Deuteronomism in Genesis (Brill, 2018)
Prof. James W. Watts is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Traditions in Syracuse University’s Department of Religion. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies and an M.Div. in New Testament Studies from the Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Among his many books are, Understanding the Pentateuch as A Scripture (2017), Leviticus 1-10 (Historical Commentary on the Old Testament, 2013), Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus: From Sacrifice to Scripture (2007).
Prof. Chaim I. Waxman is Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Rutgers University and a Senior Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research, and an MHL from Yeshiva University. He specializes in the sociology of religion and the sociology of ethnicity with special focus on American Jews, Jews in Israel, and global Jewish identity and identification.
Dr. Rabbi Deborah Waxman has been President and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism since 2014 and is the first woman to head a Jewish congregational union and seminary. Since 2002, she has lectured at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she is the Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Presidential Professor. Waxman holds degrees from Columbia College, Columbia University (cum laude), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, a Ph.D. in American Jewish History from Temple University, and serves on the American Jewish Historical Society’s Academic Council. She has written for the Forward, The Times of Israel, HuffPost, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and is the author of several book chapters, including “‘A Lady Sometimes Blows the Shofar’: Women’s Religious Equality in the Postwar Reconstructionist Movement,” in A Jewish Feminine Mystique?: Jewish Women in Postwar America (Rutgers University Press 2010) and “Multiple Conceptualizations of the Divine,” in Sh’ma (April 2014). Rabbi Waxman is also the creator and host of the podcast Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience.
Prof. Nili Wazana is a Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she heads the Bible Department and also teaches in the department of the History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Judaism. She is also the academic head of the Rothberg School’s graduate program, “The Bible and the Ancient Near East.” She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University, is the former editor of Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and the author of All the Boundaries of the Land: The Promised Land in Biblical Thought in Light of the Ancient Near East.
Dr. Susan Weingarten is an archaeologist and food historian. She is an Associate Fellow of the Albright Institute for Archaeological Reseach in Jerusalem, and holds an M.A. from Oxford and a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv. After writing her first book, The Saint’s Saints: Geography and Hagiography in Jerome, (Brill: Leiden 2003) she got tired of ascetic Christianity and moved on to Jewish food in her second book, Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History (Koren: Jerusalem 2019). She is currently finishing a third book, Ancient Jewish Food in its Geographical and Cultural Contexts: What’s Cooking in the Talmuds? (forthcoming from Routledge).
Rabbi Uzi Weingarten is the designer of the Communicating with Compassion course. He received Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University’s RIETS and an M.A. in Jewish Education also from Yeshiva University.
Dr. Joseph Weinstein is an interdisciplinary researcher with widespread interests in science, technology, ancient history, and archaeology. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Princeton University, a Master’s in Jewish Education from Boston Hebrew College, and a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, and spent most of his professional career in private industry at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (now Raytheon BBN Technologies) in Cambridge, MA. His activities in archaeology have focused on application of statistics and scientific data analysis techniques to pottery and other artifacts from the Ancient Near East. Participants in the annual SBL/AAR conference will recognize him as the person who usually organizes Shabbat meals and services.
Prof. Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss z”l is Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and Associate Professor of Bible in its New York campus. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (NELC), and Rabbinic Ordination from HUC-JIR, New York. Weiss served as Associate Editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary and Campaign Coordinator for “American Values Religious Voices: 100 Days. 100 Letters.” She is author of Figurative Language in Biblical Prose Narrative: Metaphor in the Book of Samuel.
Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Weiss is the founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – the Bayit, founder and co-founder, respectively, of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat rabbinical schools, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship. He has semichah (Orthodox rabbinical ordination) from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary (1968), and is the author of Haggadah for the Yom HaShoah Seder (Jonas, 2000); Women at Prayer: A Halakhic Analysis of Women's Prayer Groups (KTAV 1990); Spiritual Activism: A Jewish Guide to Leadership and Repairing the World (Jewish Lights, 2008); Holistic Prayer: A Guide to Jewish Spirituality (Maggid, 2014); Open Up the Iron Door: Memoirs of a Soviet Jewry Activist (Toby Press, 2015); and Journey to Open Orthodoxy (KTAV/URIM, 2019). In 2017, YCT presented him with a Festschrift (ed. Daniel R. Goodman): Black Fire on White Fire: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Avi Weiss. His thematic commentary on the Torah, Torat Ahavah – Loving Torah, is scheduled to be published (Summer 2023).
Dr. Daniel H. Weiss is Polonsky-Coexist Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He holds an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia’s Department of Religious Studies. Weiss is the author of Modern Jewish Philosophy and the Politics of Divine Violence (Cambridge, 2023) and Paradox and the Prophets: Hermann Cohen and the Indirect Communication of Religion (Oxford, 2012). He is also co-editor of Tsimtsum and Modernity: Lurianic Heritage in Modern Philosophy and Theology (with Agata Bielik-Robson; De Gruyter, 2021); Scripture and Violence (with Julia Snyder; Routledge, 2021); Interpreting Interreligious Relations with Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies (with Gorazd Andrejč; Brill, 2019); and Purity and Danger Now: New Perspectives (with Robbie Duschinsky and Simone Schnall; Routledge, 2016). Weiss is actively involved in the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, and is a recent recipient of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers.
Prof. Steven Weitzman serves as Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University after completing his B.A. at UC Berkeley, and spent several years teaching Religious Studies at Indiana University and Stanford, where he also served as director of their Jewish Studies programs. Weitzman specializes in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish culture and in his scholarship, he seeks insight by putting the study of ancient texts into conversation with recent research in fields like literary theory, anthropology, and genetics. His publications include The Jews: A History (co-authored with John Efrom and Matthias Lehman), a biography of King Solomon titled, Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom (Yale’s “Jewish Lives” series) and his The Origin of the Jews: the Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age (Princeton University Press, 2017).
Prof. Bruce Wells is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes (Harrassowitz, 2004), co-author (with Raymond Westbrook) of Everyday Law in Biblical Israel: An Introduction (Westminster, 2009), and co-author (with F. Rachel Magdalene and Cornelia Wunsch) of Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts (Eisenbrauns, 2019). He is the co-editor (with F. Rachel Magdalene) of From the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook (Eisenbrauns 2009), co-editor (with Hilary Lipka) of Sexuality and Law in the Torah (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020), and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
Dr. Felix Wiedemann is a Privatdozent (Lecturer) and researcher at the Department of History at Freie Universität Berlin. He holds a Ph.D. (2006) and Habilitation (2018) both from Freie Universität Berlin. Wiedermann is the author of Am Anfang war Migration [In the Beginning There Was Migration] (2020) and Rassenmutter und Rebellin [Race Mother and Rebel] (2007). His research interests include the history of science and historiography, theory of history, migration-history, European orientalism(s), history of modern anti-Semitism and racism, right-wing extremism, and new religious movements.
Prof. Lawrence M. Wills is the Ethelbert Talbot Professor of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. He received an M.T.S. and Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School, and is the author of The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World (Cornell University Press, 1995).
Prof. Karen Strand Winslow is professor emeritus of Biblical and Theological Studies at Azusa Pacific Seminary/Azusa Pacific University. She received her Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Washington in 2003. Her research interests include biblical interpretation, the formation of Scripture, early Judaism, women in religion, the science and religion, and ethnicity and identity formation, especially as reflected in texts and traditions of Judaism and Christianity. She is the author of Exogamist Marriage and Ethnic Identity: Early Jewish and Christian Memories of Moses’ Wives (2005) and Imagining Equity: The Gifts of Christian Feminist Theology (2021). She has also written commentaries on 1–2 Kings (2017), Esther, and Isaiah (2018–2020), and she co-edited the Wesley Study Bible (2009), Relational Theology: Issues and Implications (2013), and the Global Wesleyan Theological Dictionary (2013).
Kevin Wolf is a loving husband and father of four children.
Rabbi David Wolpe is the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. He is a scholar in residence at the Maimonides Fund and and the Inaugural Rabbinic fellow for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Wolpe received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Named the most influential Rabbi in America, he is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times, and Why Faith Matters.
Prof. Benjamin G. Wright III is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religion Studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He received his M.Div. from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in Christian Origins from the University of Pennsylvania. Wright’s most recent book is a commentary on the Letter of Aristeas (2015). A collection of his essays was published as, Praise Israel for Wisdom and Instruction: Essays on Ben Sira and Wisdom, The Letter of Aristeas and the Septuagint, and he did the translations of Sirach (Ben Sira) and the Epistle of Jeremiah for A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title, which he edited with Albert Pietersma. He is currently working on a commentary on the Wisdom of Ben Sira.
Prof. David P. Wright is Professor of Bible and Ancient Near East at Brandeis University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and he is author of Inventing God’s Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi (2009), Ritual in Narrative: The Dynamics of Feasting, Mourning, and Retaliation Rites in the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat (2001), and The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (1987).
Prof. Jacob L. Wright is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He holds a doctorate from Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen. Wright is the author of Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins, which won the 2023 PROSE Award and was on the “best-of” lists for 2023 from The New Yorker and Publishers Weekly. He is author of several other award-winning books and the editor of many others.
Prof. Jed Wyrick is Professor of Comparative Religion and Humanities at California State University, Chico. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and is the author of The Ascension of Authorship: Attribution, Textualization, and Canon Formation in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian Traditions (Cambridge, 2004).
Prof. Azzan Yadin-Israel is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies in the departments of Classics and Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Califronia, Berkeley and Graduate Theologial Union. He is the author of Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael and the Origins of Midrash and Scripture and Tradition:Rabbi Akiva and the Triumph of Midrash.
Dr. Naama Yahalom-Mack is a senior lecturer of Bronze and Iron Age archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is head of the Institute’s Laboratory for Archaeological Materials and Ancient Technologies. She holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University, and wrote on Bronze in the Beginning of the Iron Age in the Land of Israel. Yahalom-Mack is currently co-director of the Tel Abel Beth Maacah excavations in the Hula Valley. Her research focuses on archaeometallurgy and on the provenancing of archaeological materials as a proxy for reconstructing ancient trade and economic interaction.
Dr. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President and Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash, a pluralistic adult learning and leadership center, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox Social Justice organization, the Founder and President of Shamayim, a Jewish animal advocacy movement, and the Founder and President of YATOM, the Jewish foster and adoption network. He holds M.A. degrees from Harvard University and Yeshiva University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, along with two other Orthodox ordinations in Israel. Rabbi Yanklowitz is the author of numerous books on Jewish ethics, including Bringing Heaven Down To Earth: Jewish Ethics for an Evolving and Complex World (2014), Pirkei Avot: A Social Justice Commentary (2018), and The Book of Jonah: A Social Justice Commentary (2020).
Ophir Yarden is a senior lecturer at Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center. He earned M.A. degrees at the University of Chicago and the Schechter Institute – J.T.S. Ophir is author of Judaism: A First Encounter (forthcoming) and is the ADAShA Program Director at the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue.
Dr. Joachim Yeshaya is Doctor-Assistant in Hebrew Literature at Catholic University of Leuven (BE). He holds a Ph.D. in Arts from the University of Groningen (NL), and is the author of Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt (Brill, 2011) and Poetry and Memory in Karaite Prayer (Brill, 2014). Yeshaya is the co-editor (with Elisabeth Hollender) of Exegesis and Poetry in Medieval Karaite and Rabbanite Texts (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017), and (with Elisabeth Hollender and Naoya Katsumata) The Poet and the World: Festschrift for Wout van Bekkum on the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday (Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2019). Since January 2019 he has been serving as editor for De Gruyter’s multivolume Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR).
Dr. Yisca Zimran is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biblical Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel, where she completed her Ph.D. Her research fields are Biblical Narrative, with an emphasis on family narratives, and Biblical Prophecy, with a focus on the books attributed to the 8th century B.C.E. In both fields, she analyzes biblical texts from literary, rhetorical, and theological angles, with specific attention to the mutual reciprocity between the text and the readers and the potential dynamic interpretation of the texts.
Dr. Philip Yoo is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford, an S.T.M. from Yale, and an M.Div. from Knox College, Toronto. He is the author of Ezra and the Second Wilderness (Oxford 2017) and co-editor of To Gaul, to Greece and into Noah’s Ark (Oxford 2019).
Dr. Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh has a PhD in Bible from Hebrew University, as well as a PhD in Wisdom Literature of the Hellenistic period from the University of Toronto. He has written many books focusing on his reconstruction of the redaction history of Genesis through Kings. He is the author of The First Book of God, and the multi-volume Kernel to Canon series, with books like Jacob’s Journey and Moses’s Mission. Yoreh has taught at Ben Gurion University and American Jewish University. He is currently the leader of the City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in New York.
Prof. Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy (retired) taught world religions, Talmud, Jewish law codes, Jewish Liturgy, Jewish History, Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at several US research universities and seminaries. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University and his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. Among his books are The Traditions of Eleazar Ben Azariah, God’s Favorite Prayers, and Talmudic Advice. He also published translations of various tractates of Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud in the Brown University Judaic Studies series and the University of Chicago Yerushalmi series. Visit www.tzvee.com for more details.
Prof. Molly M. Zahn is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. She holds an M.Phil from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Her publications include two monographs, Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism: Scribal Composition and Transmission (Cambridge, 2020) and Rethinking Rewritten Scripture: Composition and Exegesis in the 4QReworked Pentateuch Manuscripts (Brill, 2011), as well as two co-edited volumes and numerous articles and book chapters. She currently serves as Executive Editor of the prominent Qumran journal Dead Sea Discoveries.
Prof. Ziony Zevit is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures at the American Jewish University. He earned his BA at USC, and his MA, Can. Phil., and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. He currently teaches at the Hebrew University. Among his books are The Religions of Ancient Israel (2001),Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew (2012) (with Cynthia Miller-Naudé), andWhat Really Happened in the Garden of Eden? (2013).
Prof. Rabbi Wendy Zierler is the Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies at HUC-JIR. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, her MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, her B.A. from Stern College (YU), and her rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat. She is the author of And Rachel Stole the Idols: The Emergence of Hebrew Women’s Writing, and co-editor of Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. Most recently she co-edited the book These Truths We Hold: Judaism in an Age of Truthiness.
Noam Zion is senior faculty and curriculum writer for the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem (1978-2019). He holds an M.A. in philosophy from Columbia University, and among his books are A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah (1997); Jewish Giving in Comparative Perspectives: Tzedakah, Charity and Greek Philanthropy (2013); Talmudic Marital Dramas (2018) and Foundations of Family Conflict and Reconciliation in Genesis (multidisciplinary study guides for educators).
Prof. Boaz Zissu is Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, where he also heads the Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center for Jewish History. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Calgary Institute for the Humanities. His research focuses on the archaeology of Judea and Jerusalem during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, with particular emphasis on the Bar Kokhba Revolt, underground hiding complexes, burial customs, numismatics, epigraphy, and the archaeology of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine East. He has directed and co-directed archaeological excavations and surveys and has published extensively on these subjects. His books include The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period and The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence. He is a member of the Israel Archaeological Council.
Prof. Zvi Zohar is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar Ilan University, where he teaches at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Jewish Studies. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of Advanced Judaic Studies in Jerusalem. Zohar holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. Among his many books are Transforming Identity (with Avi Sagi, Hebrew), The Luminous Face of the East – Studies in the Legal and Religious Thought of Sephardic Rabbis of the Middle East [Hebrew], and Rabbinic Creativity in the Modern Middle East.
Dr. Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg teaches Torah in Jerusalem at Matan, Yakar, Pardes, and the Jerusalem College for Adults and holds a Visiting Lectureship at the London School of Jewish Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Cambridge University and is the author of Genesis: The Beginning of Desire, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus, and The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious.
Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker, D.D. is the Rabbi of Temple Israel of the Poconos, in Stroudsburg, PA, and President and CEO of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East. He holds an M.A. in Hebrew Letters, a Doctor of Divinity (Honoris Causa) from JTS, and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR. A sampling of Zucker’s many articles on the Middle-East can be found on his blog, and he is the author of “He Said: ‘It’s an Event not Pure, for it’s not Pure!’ (I Sam. 20:26b) A Political Analysis,” published in JBQ (2016).
Dr. Rabbi David J. Zucker is an Independent Scholar. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK), and Ordination and an M.A.H.L. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He publishes regularly (see www.DavidJZucker.org) and his latest book is American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, Second Edition.