She became an academic at Princeton University in New Jersey in 1978, and eventually acquired the named chair of William H. Danforth Professor of Religion.
She also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1970–1974 and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972–1973.
Her dissertation on Jewish origins of Christian apocalyptic literature such as the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul would be the foundation of her first scholarly book, Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature, a well-received and influential work published in 1983.
In 1995, Ronald O. Perelman made a major donation to Princeton to establish a school of Judaic Studies, and Himmelfarb was a key player in establishing the academic background of what would become the Princeton program in Jewish studies from its beginnings in 1982 to becoming a full certificate program in 1995.
[3] In Himmelfarb's personal life, she is married to Steven Weiss, a sculptor and draftsman who worked at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.