Dr. Amy-Jill Levine Discusses Leading the Catholic Biblical Association on Connecticut Public

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, HIU’s Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, is serving as president of the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA) of America, an organization dedicated to promoting biblical scholarship and research. She is the first Jewish person to hold the position.

Dr. Levine was elected during the association’s 88th annual meeting in July and is serving for the 2026–2027 term. Her appointment was highlighted in an Oct. 6 interview on Connecticut Public’s Where We Live, hosted by Tess Terrible, where Dr. Levine discussed her involvement with the association and her vision.

Despite her extensive involvement with the CBA, Dr. Levine said she initially questioned whether the nomination was genuine and thought it was a joke. She had served as the New Testament book review editor for The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, participated in executive committees and strategic planning, and contributed to the association’s monograph series editorial board.

“I thought, ‘Well, this is about as cool as things can get,’” she said of learning she had been nominated.

Dr. Levine’s election also acknowledges her longstanding work in Jewish-Christian relations and her expertise in interpreting the New Testament within its first-century Jewish context. She has co-authored more than 20 books, including The Jewish Annotated New Testament and The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. She is also professor emerita at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Responding to curiosity about a Jewish person leading a Catholic organization, Dr. Levine said she might be the CBA’s first Jewish president, but noted that this was not without precedent: the CBA has had two Protestant presidents.

“The Association of Jewish Studies has had Christian presidents,” she said, offering a similar example.

“We are an academic society. We are not technically a wing of the church, although we do a lot of work with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and we do have initiatives, including this year's new initiatives, to have our members be present not only at Catholic colleges as part of a speakers bureau, but also to work on the diocesan level to work with individual churches, which I think is just great.”

During the interview, Dr. Levine described receiving hostile and threatening messages after her appointment became public. However, she said that she has also received strong support, which has helped her continue her work.

“I've also gotten support from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, from the executive director of the Catholic Biblical Association, from the Paulist Fathers, from the Sisters of Zion, from a number of church entities, from a number of denominational presses, like Abingdon Press, which is Methodist, or Westminster John Knox, which is Presbyterian, as well as personal letters,” she said.

As CBA president, her priorities include strengthening collaboration between biblical scholars and theologians, expanding Spanish-language translations, improving mentoring and grant support for junior scholars, and making association meetings more accessible through hybrid participation.

We are proud of you, AJ!