[3] Najman began her higher education at Michlalah, a women's Torah study college in Jerusalem, Israel, from 1984 to 1985.
[4] Returning to the United States, she attended Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, where she majored in English literature and minored in music theory and Jewish studies: she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1990.
[6] Her doctoral advisor was James Kugel, and her thesis was titled "Authoritative Writing and Interpretation: A Study in the History of Scripture".
[4] In 2004, she became an associate professor in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations of the University of Toronto, which she held concurrently with her Notre Dame post for one year.
[4] In January 2015, it was announced that Najman would be the next Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford, in succession to John Barton.