Judith H. Newman

Judith H. Newman is Professor of Religion and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Emmanuel College with joint appointments in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She is also a faculty member of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. Joining the faculty in 2005 after teaching at the General Theological Seminary in New York City, she has established herself as a leading scholar in early Judaism and biblical interpretation.

Her research focuses on the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation, Jewish literature and cultures of the Second Temple period, the development of scripture, and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. She is particularly interested in marginal texts that have been ignored or misunderstood, emphasizing textual tradition, cultural memory, and embodiment. Her work bridges traditional philological analysis with insights from cognitive neuroscience and social sciences.

Her recent publications reveal a consistent focus on the ritualization of text, scripture formation, and the political implications of biblical interpretation. Her scholarship demonstrates a trajectory from textual analysis toward broader examinations of how scripture shapes cultural identity and political discourse, particularly regarding colonial land claims and American empire.

She has received significant research support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Luce Foundation/Association for Theological Schools, Harvard University, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.

As an educator, Professor Newman teaches a diverse range of courses including Introduction to the Torah, Wisdom Literature, Prophecy, and specialized seminars on Second Temple Judaism. She serves on editorial boards for the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Toronto Journal of Theology, and the JSJ Supplement series, and is editing the Deuterocanonical volumes for the Illuminations commentary series.