Tikva Frymer-Kensky

Tikva Simone Frymer-Kensky (1943 – August 31, 2006) was a Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She received her MA and PhD from Yale University. She had previously served on the faculties of Wayne State University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Yale University, Ben Gurion University, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she served as director of Biblical studies.

Her areas of specialization included Assyriology and Sumerology, Biblical studies, Jewish studies, and women and religion. Her most recent books are "Reading the Women of the Bible," which received a Koret Jewish Book Award in 2002 and a National Jewish Book Award in 2003; "In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth;" and "Motherprayer: The Pregnant Woman’s Spiritual Companion." She was also the English translator of "From Jerusalem to the Edge of Heaven" by Ari Elon (Alma Dee, original Hebrew). In progress at the time of her death were The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth, a book on biblical theology, and a book on Genesis.

In 1996, the Alumni Association of the Albert A. List College, along with the Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, presented her with a citation in honor of her accomplishments. The citation celebrates her "prodigious number of well-received books and articles," and her status as "a powerful advocate for Jewish feminism at the numerous conferences at which you lectured....you have shown a light on Biblical periods in which women occupied public office and enjoyed powerful prominent roles in the community."

In 2005 she was named one of the Jewish Chicagoans of the Year by The Chicago Jewish News.

In 2006, the Jewish Publication Society published a collection of her articles, "Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism", as part of their Scholar of Distinction series. She is the first woman to have her work included in this series, as well as having been the youngest person anthologized in this prestigious series.

In 2011 she posthumously won the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies for The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth. Her coauthor for that book, who also won, was Tamara Cohn Eskenazi.