This book, with its very Reform take on Judaism, inspired me to be a better practitioner of Reform Judaism’s highest ideals. More importantly, Rabbi Buchdahl has energized me to be a better person.
Angela Buchdahl is the first female, Korean-American Rabbi. She is head Rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City, the largest congregation in the world. This book is her autobiography displayed in a series of short chapters beginning with her birth in Korea to a Jewish GI dad and a mom who was born in Japan to parents captured and kidnapped by Japanese invaders. Following each chapter, Buchdahl delivers a D’var Torah, literally, words of the Torah, her interpretation of a Torah passage relevant to that part of her life. And as she makes clear repeatedly through her thought provoking analyses, the Torah, thousands of years old, is relevant to our lives today. Above all else, Buchdahl suggests, quite convincingly, that it is our responsibility to welcome the stranger as we wish to be welcomed ourselves.
Angela Buchdahl is proud of her multiple identities: female, Korean, American, biracial, person of color, and Jewish. She faced obstacles in rising to her level of success and has the self-awareness to recognize that all of us carry multiple identities. Some are perceptible: tall, white, or young. But so much of what sets us apart from a group are invisible identities: shy, rural, depressed, poorly educated, and so on. Just as Abraham and Sarah did — the first Jews – we should go out of our way to welcome people who are strange to us just as we wish to be accepted for our differences.