Dr. Orit Avneri is the director of the Tanach Initiative and a Research Fellow at the Kogod Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Dr. Avneri teaches Bible studies at Shalem College in Jerusalem. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees (under the supervision of Prof. Yair Zakovitz) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She wrote her doctorate dissertation in the Bible Department at Bar Ilan University under the supervision of Prof. Ed Grinstein. In her research she uses intertextual literary analysis and feminist theories to interpret the Bible.

Formerly, an educator at the Pelech High School for girls, and a teacher of Bible for many years at Midrashiat Lindenbaum and Matan .

Her book Standing on the Threshold: Belonging and Foreignness in the Scrolls of Ruth and Esther was published in 2015 by the Shalom Hartman Institute and Keter Books.