The Catholic Biblical Association of America made history at its 88th annual meeting this year when it elected Amy-Jill Levine as its president for the 2026–2027 year. Professor Levine is the first Jewish president in the history of the society. A New Testament scholar, she is University Professor Emerita of Vanderbilt Divinity School and currently the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.
Professor Levine has had a distinguished career in the academy and in Jewish-Christian relations. She is the author or co-author of more than twenty books including The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (2006)—a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book, the co-author with Marc Brettler of The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (2020) which was widely acclaimed, and co-editor with Brettler of The Jewish Annotated New Testament (2011 and 2017). Among the many awards and honors she has received is her election as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and her six honorary doctoral degrees.
Within the Catholic Biblical Association, she is recognized and deeply appreciated for her work in Jewish-Christian relations. She is the first Jewish scholar to teach the New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 2019.
Source: Catholic Biblical Association