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Angela Buchdahl, ‘An Unlikely Rabbi’

Summarizing Gary Rosenblatt in Hadassah · Published Thursday, October 16, 2025
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JL;DR SUMMARY Angela Buchdahl, renowned for her remarkable journey from a diverse heritage to becoming a leading figure in Reform Judaism, is celebrated for her transformative impact at Central Synagogue in New York. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish Music  Jewish Community  Jewish Identity  Jewish Leadership  Reform Judaism  Spirituality  Central Synagogue  Angela Buchdahl  Asian American Jews 

Places mentioned

Manhattan, New York, United States
"What draws the crowd to this corner in midtown Manhattan on a hot Friday evening in July is not a major museum exhibit or Broadway show but a religious experiencea 90-minute weekly Shabbat service that combines music and prayer in a joyful, welcoming way that touches the soul, congregants say."
Seoul, South Korea
"Born in Seoul, she was raised from the age of 5 in her fathers hometown of Tacoma, Wash."
Tacoma, Washington, United States
"Born in Seoul, she was raised from the age of 5 in her fathers hometown of Tacoma, Wash., where few Jews lived."
Colleyville, Texas, United States
"In 2022, she made national headlines when an armed man seeking the release of a female terrorist in a Texas prison took four hostages at a small synagogue in nearby Colleyville and called Buchdahl as an influential rabbi hed heard of who had connections, she writes in the book, to negotiate their release."
Scarsdale, New York, United States
"Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the movements congregational arm, and a former senior rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y., where Buchdahl served as cantor and assistant rabbi for 12 years, observes that she is the face, literally and figuratively, of 21st-century Jewish life in a changing American Jewish world."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"On the Friday evening in July when I was at Central, I sat next to a middle-aged couple visiting from Los Angeles."
North Carolina, United States
"The young couple sitting in front of me said they had moved to Manhattan a few months earlier from North Carolina and were attending services in the city for the first time."
Israel
"She writes how her doubts began at 16, when she had a life-changing experience in Israel that both strengthened and challenged her Jewish identity."

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