A rabbi’s unlikely path

How does a Korean-born American citizen raised in a minuscule Jewish community in a state where Jews are 1 percent of the population become the rabbi of one of the largest Jewish congregations in the world? Heart of a Stranger tells the story of Angela Buchdahl’s spiritual formation as a Reform Jewish rabbi and cantor whose face reflects the Korean features of her Buddhist mother.

Buchdahl is best known for her 2023 baccalaureate address at Stanford University, in which she recounted her role in the hostage negotiations after an armed man entered a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, in January 2022. But these well-known parts of her story emerged from skills and training gained steadily over the course of her career, which Heart of a Stranger recounts. At the end of each of the book’s 31 chapters, Buchdahl teaches readers about a Jewish concept: simcha (joy), mashber (crisis), hevruta (sparring partner), chesed (kindness), kadosh (holiness), and so on. In this way, she provides not only a memoir but a primer on Jewish vocabulary and values.

Buchdahl is unafraid to speak honestly about controversial topics. When she was invited to speak at the Reform movement’s 2017 convention in Dallas during the first Trump administration’s Muslim ban, she says, “I was personally grappling with how to use my pulpit to reject America’s barring of a people based on religion.” She spoke about the meaning of sanctuary, which many of her congregants interpret as a place that should remain free from political stances. She explained that the Talmud (Berachot 34b) teaches that a space with windows is the only place where a Jew should pray. Her understanding of this text is that “windows also summon us to see the world beyond our walls and allow others to see what we are doing.” Thus, she concluded, a sanctuary should be a place where one is willing to be challenged and to be attentive to the outside world.