Elaine Goodfriend received her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies in 1990 from U.C. Berkeley. She has been teaching at California State University, Northridge, in the Dept. of Religious Studies and the Program for Jewish Studies since 1998. Ms. Goodfriend has also taught at the University of Southern California, Hebrew Union College, and Claremont Graduate School. Her interests are the Hebrew Bible and Jewish Law and she has published articles on TheTorah.com, Jewish Bible Quarterly, and Anchor Bible Dictionary.