Daily Podcasts Video Research

The nation’s first Asian-American rabbi speaks out on Judaism and race

JL;DR SUMMARY Rabbi Angela Buchdahl addresses the racial assumptions within Judaism through her personal experiences as the first Asian-American rabbi, exploring how the concept of Jewish identity is often tied to appearance and ancestry rather than religious faith. 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'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish IdentityNazi GermanyDiversityRacismJews Of ColorRaceAngela BuchdahlAmerican Race Laws

Places mentioned

New York City, New York, United States
"Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl is senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City."
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
"In the early 1990s, Yale was about 25% Jewish."
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
"Pharaohs message to his subjects echoes through the centuries its what the white supremacists chanted in Charlottesville: Jews will not replace us."
Israel
"The majority of Israeli Jews today are Jews of Color from Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries."
Germany
"At the time in Germany, intermarriage rates between Jews and Aryans were more than 60%, so it was difficult to define who was Jewish and who was not."
Jerusalem, Israel
"And when we were exiled from Jerusalem, more than 2,000 years ago, we spread out to every imaginable corner of the world."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 64220
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-10-21 05:31:31 UTC
Curated 2025-10-21 08:31:35 UTC