Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

Buchdahl debuts with an affecting account of becoming the first ordained Asian American rabbi. Born in 1972 to a Jewish American father and Korean mother, Buchdahl grew up in her father’s hometown of Tacoma, Wash., finding in its small Jewish community a visceral sense of meaning (prayer was “a vocalization of longing, release, pain, and praise that bypassed the intellect and channeled to every nerve ending in my body”). She traces a rocky path to becoming a rabbi that included encountering unwelcoming Jewish groups in college and beyond (some questioned the validity of her patrilineal Jewish heritage; others “took one look at my face and questioned how I could possibly be a real Jew”). She became a mother before being ordained as a cantor in 1999 and as a rabbi in 2001. The author movingly draws on her experience to debunk race-based notions of Judaism (as far back as the Torah’s description of those fleeing Egypt as a “mixed multitude,” Jews have “never been just one color”), framing the faith as a family bound “by something stronger than blood... by our covenant with God, an ancient call to repair the world.” In a moment of rising social division, racism, and antisemitism, this stirring call for unity resonates. (Oct.)