Dr. Orit Avnery is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is a lecturer in Bible Studies and the Dean of the Students at Shalem College and holds both a BA and an MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her Ph.D. in Bible Studies from Bar-Ilan University, where her dissertation was entitled "The Threefold Cord: Interrelations between the Books of Samuel, Ruth and Esther." Orit taught Bible Studies at Pelech High School for girls and Midreshet Lindenbaum and has studied and taught at the Matan Women's Institute for Jewish Studies. Orit's book Liminal Women: Belonging and Otherness in the Books of Ruth and Esther was published by The Shalom Hartman Institute and Keter Press in 2015. Orit lives with her husband and 5 children in Alon-Shvut.