Lecturer in Bible at the Shalem Academic College and Research Fellow at the Hartman Institute.  Her area of interest is literary analysis of the Bible and she lectures widely on this topic in different forums, both popular and academic.  Her book The Threefold Cord: Interrelations between the Books of Samuel, Ruth and Esther reads the megillot as a dialogue between the Jews of Israel and Persia on the formation and preservation of identity.  The book invites readers to an interpretive journey in the Biblical text which at the same time ventures into current reality and raises critical questions about our identity.  Orit is married and the mother of five children.