Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg was born in 1944 in London

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg was born in London in 1944 and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. Her father, Rabbi Wolf Gottlieb, was the rabbi of Queen's Park Synagogue and head of Glasgow's rabbinical court. Her family had fled Austria after the Nazi takeover, and she studied Torah with her father from childhood.

She earned a bachelor's degree and a PhD in English literature from Cambridge University.

She moved to Israel in 1969 and taught English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1969 to 1976. She married Eric Zornberg, a physicist, and the couple has 3 children. She lives in Jerusalem.

In 1980 she began teaching Torah at institutions such as Matan, the Pardes Institute and Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem. She lectures in English in the United States, Canada and Britain, and took part in a Bill Moyers series on Genesis on PBS. Her books cover Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus, as well as a biography of Moses.