Amy-Jill Levine Announced as New CBA President

What an amazing event!! One of the highlights of CBA's Annual General Meeting was the vote to affirm AJ Levine as President of CBA. It was officially announced at the end of last week:

The Catholic Biblical Association made history at its 88th annual meeting this year when it elected Amy-Jill Levine as its president for the 2026–2027 year. Professor Levine is the first Jewish president in the history of the society. A New Testament scholar, she is University Professor Emerita of Vanderbilt Divinity School and currently the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.

Professor Levine has had a distinguished career in the academy and in Jewish-Christian relations. She is the author or co-author of more than twenty books including The Misunderstood Jew: The Church
and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (2006)—a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book, the co-author with Marc Brettler of The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (2020) which was widely acclaimed, and co-editor with Brettler of The Jewish Annotated New Testament (2011 and 2017). Among the many awards and honors she has received is her election as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and her six honorary doctoral degrees.

Within the Catholic Biblical Association, she is recognized and deeply appreciated for her work in Jewish-Christian relations. She is the first Jewish scholar to teach the New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 2019. Her standing with Rome is best recognized by the fact that she had three audiences with Pope Francis. On this side of the Atlantic, she has been a featured speaker at the Catholic Biblical Association on the topic of anti-Jewish attitudes.

Known for her keen intellect, sharp wit, and ability to speak candidly about controversial issues with grace, she has delivered nearly 1,000 lectures around the world.

Appropriately, she was honored with the Presentation of a Festschrift on the evening she was elected president, Monday, July 20, 2026.

Gregory E. Sterling,
Chair of the Executive Board
The Catholic Biblical Association

Archie Wright
Executive Director
The Catholic Biblical Association of America