First Asian American rabbi draws on life between cultures to redefine belonging
Born in South Korea and raised in Washington state, Angela Buchdahl rose to lead a major New York synagogue while challenging bias and expanding ideas of Jewish identity.
Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City, became the first Asian American to be ordained as both a cantor (1999) and a rabbi (2001) in the U.S. Born in Seoul in 1972 to a Korean Buddhist mother and a Jewish American father, she moved to Tacoma, Washington, at age 5 and grew up in a predomin…
