Rate My Professor Suzanne Rutland

Suzanne D. Rutland OAM is Professor Emerita in the Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. She completed her BA with honours and Diploma of Education at the University of Sydney in 1969 and 1970, respectively, followed by an MA (Hons) and PhD in History from the University of Sydney (1982–1990). Prior to her academic career, she taught at high schools from 1970 to 1974 and 1976 to 1978. Joining the University of Sydney in 1990 as a lecturer in Jewish education, she progressed to senior lecturer (1997–2002), associate professor (2003–2008), chair of the department for 11 years, full professor (2008–2015), and Professor Emerita since 2015.

A renowned Australian Jewish historian, Rutland's research specializations encompass Australian Jewish history, the Holocaust (Shoah), Soviet Jewry, antisemitism, Jewish education, and Special Religious Education in multicultural Australia. Her major publications include Edge of the Diaspora: Two Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia (1997), The Jews in Australia (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Let My People Go: The Untold Story of Australia and Soviet Jews, 1959–1989 (co-authored with Sam Lipski, Hybrid Publishers, 2015)—which jointly won the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History—Lone Voice: The Wars of Isi Leibler (Hybrid Publishing and Gefen Books, 2021), and Special Religious Education in Australia and its Value to Contemporary Society (co-authored with Zehavit Gross, Springer International Publishing, 2021). In 2008–2009, she received a government grant from the Australian Prime Ministers Centre for research on Australia and the campaign for Soviet Jewry. Rutland was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2008 for services to higher Jewish education and interfaith dialogue. She has held significant roles including past president and patron of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, president of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies, Sydney editor of the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal since 1991, member of Australia’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Education Working Group and Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial, and advisory board member of the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at the Australian National University. Her work has advanced Holocaust education programs for government schools with large Muslim populations, combated religious bullying, and promoted interfaith understanding through Special Religious Education.