Risa Levitt, at The Blogs

Risa Levitt

May 27, 2026, 11:33 PM

Kaki: A Brief Philological Inquiry Prompted by Two Men on My Street

The Hebrew Bible has words for excrement. Tzo’ah appears in Deuteronomy — waste must be buried outside the camp, because God walks among you. The Talmud tractate Berakhot rules on where one may and may not recite the Shema...

May 12, 2026, 9:31 AM

The Ephod in My Glove Compartment

There is a fluorescent yellow vest in my car. Israeli law requires it. Every vehicle in the country must carry one, and every driver who steps out onto an intercity road must put it on. The law went into...

Apr 20, 2026, 10:34 PM

Featured Post

The Bible scholar I never met

Eitan's scroll st the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem.

Seeing the work of Eitan Rosenzweig, killed in Gaza at age 21, I thought: I would have sought this person out. Not as a student -- as a colleague

Apr 14, 2026, 1:26 PM

Sirens

ID 31949186 @ Rafael Ben Ari | Dreamstime.com

There are sirens and there are sirens. The Yom HaShoah siren sounds at ten in the morning. Two minutes. The country stops — cars pull over, people stand on sidewalks, a cashier freezes mid-transaction. I learned this as an adult...

Apr 12, 2026, 11:52 PM

The calf and the missile

Everyone here is talking about שגרה right now. Routine. When are we going back to it, what will it look like, is this — this strange suspended few days after the ceasefire — already it, or is it the...

Apr 10, 2026, 6:17 PM

Is It Six after the War?

There is a specific kind of 3 a.m. that belongs only to Israel. Wednesday's 3 a.m. was one of them. It began with two missiles over Jerusalem. Then, somewhere between night and morning, a ceasefire. We opened an exhibition in...

Apr 7, 2026, 6:40 PM

Featured Post

The plowshare in the bomb shelter

(Replica photograph courtesy of the Israel Government Press Office)

The ancient hope that conflict can be transformed -- not just survived has, for now, been put on hold

Mar 29, 2026, 5:46 PM

In the Shelter with Sennacherib

I’ve been in Israel long enough to know the drill but not long enough to be numb to it. When you come to this country as an adult, the sirens never become background noise. They stay foreign in your...

About Me

Dr. Risa Levitt is Executive Director and acting Chief Curator of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. She holds a PhD in History from UC San Diego and has over 27 years of experience in research, teaching, and exhibition development focused on the Hebrew Bible, ancient Near Eastern cultures, and archaeological artifacts. Professor Emerita at San Diego State University, she has curated Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority and museums worldwide. Her work is driven by a commitment to intercultural dialogue through the study and presentation of the ancient world.