Rachel Adelman

Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Hebrew College in Boston, where she also received rabbinic ordination. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Her research centers on Hebrew Bible, women in biblical narratives, midrash, and Jewish interpretation. Adelman explores how biblical women navigate power structures and how ancient interpretive traditions continue to shape contemporary understandings of scripture. Her work reveals significant trends in feminist biblical interpretation and midrashic expansion, particularly examining how women's stories in the Bible have been interpreted and expanded in Jewish tradition.

Among her notable publications are 'The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha' (Brill 2009) and 'The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible' (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015), written under the auspices of Harvard's Women's Studies in Religion Program. She is currently working on 'Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash' (forthcoming).

• Major scholarly contributions to understanding barren women in biblical tradition
• Extensive work on midrashic interpretations of biblical narratives
• Research bridging academic biblical studies with religious practice

Adelman has received support from prestigious academic institutions including Harvard University for her research. When not engaged in academic writing, she also writes poetry, demonstrating her multifaceted engagement with textual traditions.