If you haven’t yet heard about Angela Buchdahl, you must be living under a rock—as had I, until I picked up her recently published memoir titled, Heart of A Stranger. I learned therein about Rabbi Angela Buchdahl. Born to a Korean/Buddhist mom and American /Jewish dad, Buchdahl chronicles her ascent to become the first Asian woman and senior rabbi at Manhattan’s prestigious Central Synagogue. Buchdahl’s also an ordained cantor and now author of her spiritual journey. Enveloped in ‘khokhma’ and Yiddish ‘ta’am’, her autobiography offers d’varim Torah that relate to marriage, motherhood, and”G-d’s business.” But not everyone accepts that she is Jewish.

 

In her teens after she emigrated from Seoul, to Tacoma Washington, Buchdahl took to heart the Torah injunction, ”Do not oppress the stranger. You know the heart of a stranger. You were strangers in Egypt.” However, her initial experience as a ”boundary crosser” was anything but hospitable. Many youth groups told her she wasn’t Jewish, lacking in matrilineal lineage as proscribed by ‘halacha.’ A female Reform Rabbi, she was treated as an interloper among Jewish traditionalists. Buchdahl refused conversion claiming her deep faith confirms she is a full-fledged Jew. Further strengthening her point of view, she asserted her oneness (“Adonai Echad”) from the second line in the Shema. She agreed to undergo a ”reaffirmation ceremony” to solidify publicly her Emunah - her trust and faith in Judaism.

 

Buchdahl has checked every box demanded of her rabbinic role--- superb mastery of Jewish texts, requisite seminary rabbinical training with five years in Jerusalem at Hebrew Union College. As a teenager, she attended Jewish camp. She’s completed cantorial (Hazzanut) studies; she chants nigunim accompanied on her guitar at some services. She’s gained national prominence with thousands of congregants who flock to her synagogue in person or online to capture her ”ruach” spirituality -- yet she feels like an ”outsider” in Orthodox circles who continue to scrutinize her rabbinic status and even dismiss her Jewish identity.

 

Brief sermons follow each chapter in her book. These attest to her deep love of Torah. Topics such as Hachnasat Orchim --- the Abrahamic welcome and reception of strangers--- and thirty other commentaries intended for spiritual elevation express total dedication to her religion. I was moved by Buchdahl’s response to congregants who ”feel in doubt” of The Divine. She quotes the ancient Israelites upon receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai—Na’aseh v’nishmah (do and hear) -- advising her congregants to experience Judaism with acts and deeds (mitzvot), not only study and prayer.

 

Buchdahl’s memoir brought me back to 1967 when my Mom (of blessed memory) took another opportunity to convince me that Israel’s victory was G-d’s miracle repeating her Yiddish proverb, ”If G-d wills it, even a broom can shoot.” I’m still not too sure about the broom part but convinced Angela Buchdahl’s Jewish faith is genuine. And yet she continues ”to long to belong.”