Tamar Ross

Tamar Ross was born in 1938 in Detroit

Tamar Ross was born in Detroit in 1938. Her father, Rabbi Elimelech Yerachmiel Itamar, served as a rabbi in Detroit and Hamilton. In 1956 the family moved to Israel and settled in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, where her father became chief secretary of the Chief Rabbinate.

She studied at the religious seminary for counselors of Youth Aliyah. All her academic degrees came from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: a bachelor's in 1960, a master's in Hebrew literature in 1978, and a doctorate in 1987. Her doctoral thesis examined moral philosophy in the writings of the Musar movement. In 1960 she married Jacob Joshua Ross, later a philosophy professor at Tel Aviv University, and the couple had 7 children.

Ross taught for many years at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She joined Bar-Ilan University in 1990 and became a full professor in 2005. Her research covers the thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the Musar movement, Mitnaggedism, the philosophy of halakha, and Judaism and gender.

She argues that divine revelation continues throughout history, an idea she calls evolving revelation. In her view, feminism is part of the Torah rather than outside it, and tradition should be expanded rather than undermined. She serves on the advisory council of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

In 2013 she lit a torch at the Independence Day ceremony for her work on women's learning. In 2015 she was named Yakirat Yerushalayim. She is now professor emerita.