Public lifeיאירה אמית

Yairah Amit

Yairah Amit is an Israeli biblical scholar and professor emerita of biblical studies at Tel Aviv University.

born 1941Research on the Book of JudgesBiblical historiographyState school Bible curriculum

Born: 19 October 1941, Tel Aviv
Occupation: educator, university teacher, biblical scholar
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University

Yairah Amit was born in 1941 in Tel Aviv

Yairah Amit was born in Tel Aviv on 19 October 1941. She received a socialist education, though her parents did not belong to a workers' movement. She attended a school for workers' children and was in a youth movement.

After finishing Ironi Hey high school, she served in the IDF. She then studied Bible and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a teaching certificate in 1964. She completed a master's degree in Bible in 1973 under Menahem Haran, and wrote her doctorate on the Book of Judges at Tel Aviv University from 1978 to 1984 under Meir Sternberg.

In 1967 she married Ram Amit, and by 1974 they had 4 children. She taught in high schools and from 1971 at the Bible department of Tel Aviv University. Her research deals with how biblical stories were shaped and edited, and with biblical historiography.

She served on Ministry of Education committees for Bible teaching. From 1998 to 2003 she chaired the committee that produced a new Bible curriculum for state schools. In 2012 a volume of essays was published in her honor.