Tal Ilan (1956) is an Israeli historian and Hebrew scholar. It is considered an expert in Jewish history in late antiquity.
Tal Ilan grew up in Kibbutz Lahav, near Beersheba (Israel). Following her studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she completed her PhD with Prof. Menahem Stern with a thesis on "Jewish Women in Palestine during the Hellenistic-Roman Period (332 BCE-200 CE)."
She was visiting professor in England and in the USA. Since 2003 she has been teaching at the Institute of Jewish Studies (the Free University Berlin).
The focus of her work are in addition to the general history of Late Antiquity in the exploration of gender issues in the Rabbinic literature and the Hebrew Bible, and in the field of Jewish Onomastics.
Tal Ilan speaks fluent Hebrew, English and German. She is married and has two children.