Celia Deutsch is a Sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion, also known as the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, a Roman Catholic religious order with a particular commitment to interfaith understanding. A longtime and energetic presence in Christian-Jewish dialogue, she is Research Scholar in the Religion Department at Barnard College/Columbia University, where she taught from 1987 to 2012. She has been a member of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations and of the U.S. Bishops Advisory Committee on Catholic-Jewish Relations. Between 2017 and 2023, Dr. Deutsch lectured for Holy Trinity College (Harare, Zimbabwe).

A New Testament scholar, she writes in the fields of early Judaism and early Christianity, as well as on Jewish-Christian relations. Among her many publications, she most recently co-edited Toward the Future: Essays on Catholic-Jewish Relations in Memory of Rabbi Leon Klenicki. Dr. Deutsch is now preparing a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew for the Wisdom Commentary Series. She currently serves on the Theology Committee of the International Council of Christians and Jews, as well as on the Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Deutsch is a member of Our Lady of Refuge Parish in Brooklyn, NY, where she is coordinator of interfaith relations, and is co-coordinator of the Interfaith Coalition of Brooklyn, a group of five communities – Jewish, Christian and Muslim.