Tal Ilan is an Israeli-born historian and Hebrew scholar, notably of women's history in Judaism, and lexicographer. She 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 is the initiator and director of The Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (FCBT). She was a professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie University in Berlin. She spoke fluent Hebrew, English and German. She was married and had two children.