Judith Hauptman

Judith Hauptman is the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Known in particular for her reinterpretation of talmudic sources along feminist lines, Dr. Hauptman has spent her professional life engaged not only in the study of women’s roles in Judaic thought, but also in an evaluation of the social and ethical norms of the rabbinic period that served to shape the outlines of a traditional faith passed down through the ages. Dr. Hauptman has also become acclaimed for her synoptic studies – a specialized area of talmudic research in which related texts are examined for their implications about the history of Jewish law. Her books include Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship Between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources and Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice. Her most recent articles, published in Judaism, are “Does the Tosefta Precede the Mishnah?” and “How Old is the Haggadah?” She is currently writing a book on the Mishnah and the Tosefta, two early rabbinic works. Dr. Hauptman is a board member of the Association for Jewish Studies and has served as rabbinics section co-ordinator for the last three annual conferences. Dr. Hauptman received a degree in Talmud from the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at JTS (now Albert A. List College) and a degree in economics from Barnard College and earned a MA and a PhD in Talmud from JTS. In addition, she has studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In May 2003, she was ordained as a rabbi by the Academy for Jewish Religion. She serves as volunteer chaplain to the Jewish residents at the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a Catholic facility in Lower Manhattan.