Rabbi Susan Grossman is Rabbi Emerita of Beth Shalom Congregation in Columbia, Maryland, and Commissioner and Interfaith Programs Co-Leader of the Maryland State Governor’s Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs.  Identified by the New York Jewish Week and The Forward as a Jewish leader to watch in the 21st century, she served on the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for 30 years, penning groundbreaking religious decisions on women’s religious status and reproductive health, and co- editing Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary, among other works. She co-edited the anthology Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue, which is particularly relevant in this 40th anniversary year of the ordination of women as Conservative Rabbis.

 

A recognized interfaith leader, Rabbi Grossman represented the Conservative Movement in meetings with Jordanian King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Abbas and has organized and moderated decades of cutting-edge interfaith programs with Jewish/Muslim/Christian audiences to strengthen interreligious understanding and cooperation. 

 

Before entering Jewish Theological Seminary of America as a member of the first class of women admitted to its Rabbinical School, she worked as a journalist and editor until Dr. Yitz Greenberg tapped her to head Holocaust programming for the National Jewish Resource Center (now CLAL) during the planning of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. She holds a multidisciplinary doctorate in Ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.