Steven Weitzman

Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and LiteraturesElla Darivoff Director of the Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies, Religious Studies Undergraduate Chair

215 746-1290

222 Cohen Hall

Prof. Steven Weitzman specializes in the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Jewish culture. Recent publications include Surviving Sacrilege: Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity (Harvard University Press, 2005); Religion and the Self in Antiquity (Indiana University Press, 2005); The Jews: A History (Prentice Hall, 2009); and a biography of King Solomon, part of the new “Jewish Lives” series, published by Yale University Press in 2011. 

Prof. Weitzman received his Ph.D. from Harvard University after completing his B.A. at UC Berkeley, and spent several years teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University where he served as director of its Jewish Studies program for six years. He comes to Penn from Stanford University, where he was Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and the director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

Office Hours
By appointment
Research Areas
Hebrew Bible
Ancient Judaism