As a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS), Rabbi Susan Grossman has helped shape the Conservative Movement’s policies on women’s rights and their roles in Jewish life. In 1989, Grossman both earned a doctorate on ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary and became one of the Conservative Movement’s first female rabbis. Since 1997 she has served as rabbi of Beth Shalom Congregation in Columbia, Maryland, while bringing her deep knowledge of Jewish law to her work on the CJLS, which settles halakhic questions for Conservative Jews. There, Grossman crafted teshuvot (legal policies) permitting partial-birth abortion, allowing women to serve as witnesses and judges for religious matters, and clarifying the role of mikveh (the ritual bath) in modern Judaism. She also co-edited both Etz Hayim (2001), the Conservative movement’s translation of and commentary on the Bible, and Daughters of the King (2005), which recovered the history of women’s involvement in synagogue life over the centuries.