Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar (Modern Jewish Lives)
I hear lectures on the weekly portion all over Israel, and think of Nehama. I see women studying Tanach as Talmud is studied, and I think of her. I go to Alon Shvut, a vibrant center for Tanach learning, and witness creative students of Tanach who want to go further than the classic Jewish commentaries to experience the biblical text in fresh ways, and again I see her influence. And in the Diaspora, I think of the Limmud conferences, thousands of people learning Torah for the love of it, and I feel Nehama's presence in this Torah li-shmah. --Dr. Gabriel H. Cohn<br/><br />She was the Grande Dame of Bible teaching. --Professor Michael RosenakAfter 10 years of labored love, the biography Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar finally came to print and proves to be well worth the wait. By the author's own admission, the biography of the first prominent woman Bible scholar was problematic from the outset: How can one write about someone who adamantly shunned the limelight?Prof. Leibowitz (known to all, at her own behest, as Nehama) was exceedingly modest and covetous over her privacy to the point of hanging up the phone when asked for an interview. To people who wanted to meet her because she was famous, she declared: "I am not a museum!" She wished to be known as an educator, not a scholar and commentator, and requested that only one word be written on her gravestone: mora (teacher).Yet Yael Unterman valiantly rescues Nehama from what might have been self-willed oblivion. It's not surprising that this biography required a decade of gestation. It serves as an invaluable record of Nehama's legacy to the world, peppered with anecdotes, photographs and extensive quotes from her own writings, as well as from the teachers and scholars most influenced by her method and personality, all systematically organized under the rubric of such topics as "pedagogical methods," "Zionism," & "religious identity" and "Bible scholarship". --Rachel Adelman, Jerusalem Post