Lance Jonathan Sussman (born July 17, 1954) is an historian of American Jewish History, college professor, Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA and until summer 2022 the senior rabbi, now emeritus, at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (KI) located in Elkins Park, PA. He is the author of numerous books and articles including: Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995) and Sharing Sacred Moments (1999), and a co-editor of Reform Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1993) and New Essays in American Jewish History (2009). Since 2010 he has also published articles on Judaism and art.
Early life, family and education
Lance Jonathan Sussman was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in suburban Pikesville, Maryland. His father, Charles Sussman (1925–2010), was awarded a bronze star and other decorations for valor during World War II while serving in the 95th Infantry Division. After the war he was a teacher and an administrator in the Baltimore County Public Schools. His mother, Freda Sacki Sussman, was born in Bamberg, Germany in 1925. She fled Nazi Germany and resettled in the United States in 1938 and her family escaped the following year. Sussman married Elizabeth "Liz" Sussman (née Zeller) on August 6, 1977 in Rye, New York. She has had a career as both a Jewish educator and a music educator. They have five children and two grandchildren. Sussman also has a sister Marcelle who is a journalist.
In 1972, Sussman graduated from Pikesville Senior High School where in addition to his academic work, he was President of the Poetry Club. He then attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1975, after only three years in college, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude with a BA in Religious Studies. While attending Franklin and Marshall, he also studied Hebrew language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1975 to 1987, Sussman attended Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati, Ohio. HUC-JIR is the rabbinical seminary for North American Reform Judaism. He received a Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 1979 and was ordained as a Rabbi by HUC-JIR in June, 1980. While studying for his rabbinical degree he was awarded the Mrs. Arthur Hays Sulzberger Prize in Homiletics for the Best Short Sermon.
Before his ordination, Sussman was a student rabbi at Beth Boruk Temple, in Richmond, Indiana, where he wrote and published The Emergence of A Jewish Community in Richmond, Indiana (1981). This was Sussman's first published work in American Jewish History and the beginning of his scholarship on the history of Jewish communities in America. After ordination, Sussman remained at HUC-JIR where he earned a Ph.D. in American Jewish History in 1987, studying under Jacob Rader Marcus, the most senior scholar of American Jewish History, and Jonathan D. Sarna, who is currently at Brandeis University. Sussman's dissertation, "The Life and Career of Isaac Leeser (1806-1896): A Study of American Judaism in its Formative Period," was later published as Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995). Ironically, Leeser was a leader of the Jewish community in Philadelphia, where Sussman would ultimately spend the bulk of his rabbinical career. In 2005, HUC-JIR awarded Sussman an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.