Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on visiting Pittsburgh, NYC mayoral election and American Jewry

This event has been rescheduled for May 3.

For more than a decade, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl has been nationally recognized as a leading rabbinic figure. As senior rabbi of New York City’s Central Synagogue, she has been featured in numerous media outlets, including NPR, PBS and The New York Times. Her memoir, “Heart of a Stranger,” was released several months ago, and she will visit the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh on Jan. 25 to discuss the book. Ahead of her appearance, Buchdahl spoke with the Chronicle about her New York Times bestselling memoir, her groundbreaking career and the state of American Jewry.

This interview, which was conducted over email, has been edited for clarity and length.

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You’re often described as one of the most well-known American rabbis and religious leaders. What do you want Pittsburghers to know about you?

I think my path to the rabbinate is both really unlikely, as a biracial Korean immigrant with interfaith parents, and that the many incredible rabbis, Jewish educators, Jewish camp counselors, song leaders and friends played such an important role in helping raise me as a Jew. I know that the Pittsburgh Jewish community has a long and rich history, with its share of joys and hardships and I have met many wonderful people who credit the Pittsburgh Jewish community and its synagogues and camps for helping raise them as Jews also.

Your upcoming Pittsburgh talk aims to welcome a diverse audience. What do you plan on addressing, and what do you hope the takeaway is, during your time in Pittsburgh?

I hope the talk will address some of the themes of my book, which include how we talk about Jewish identity and who gets to belong, mining some of the spiritual wisdom of our rich Jewish tradition in a way that feels accessible and relevant, and talking about faith in a time when it sometimes feels challenged.

Within “Heart of a Stranger” you talk about discovering how a rabbi’s “real routine” doesn’t often align with what you initially imagined: studying ancient texts and talking about God or the meaning of life. Along these lines, what have you discovered about congregants and the Jewish people that’s different from what you initially imagined?

I love the Jewish community and it is both unique and different than other communities — and I have found that it also reflects some of the same societal issues that exist in the wider culture, including overcoming traditional gender roles, racial biases, issues of equality. When we can create the vibrant, inclusive and just communities in our Jewish community, we can better learn how to impact our wider society as well.

Later in your memoir you describe a beautiful story involving a 15th-century vase your mother had given you. After the vase broke, you had it repaired. You write that the process offered you a “small but cosmic tikkun.” Imagine you’re similar to a kintsugi artisan. What fractures do you see in the Jewish community? What process and materials will you employ to achieve a similar “golden repair?”

There is no simple fix for the fractures that exist in our community. But I do think the first thing we can do is to listen across lines of difference with the goal of understanding, not just changing minds. Our tradition teaches us to approach others by giving “the benefit of the doubt,” and with a good measure of humility. We don’t have to always agree, Jews rarely do, but we can remember that there is more that unites us than divides.

One source of division involved the recent NYC mayoral election. During your sabbatical you returned to the pulpit on parsha Lecha Lecha and addressed the election. Within your sermon you mentioned, “Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism.” Have you been in contact with the newly elected mayor since your sermon? If so, what did you discuss? If not, what would you like to convey to the mayor?

I am heartened by the NYC mayor’s many efforts to connect with the Jewish community and to listen to concerns. I would certainly welcome engagement with the mayor on issues of importance to our community in the future.

When asked about your statements as a lead-up to the election, you’ve cited the Johnson amendment, and Central Synagogue’s policy of non-endorsement, while noting their importance for “the health of our country, our faith and this congregation.” What is your sense of the health of our country, our faith and not only the health of Central Synagogue but American Reform Judaism? And similarly, while a political endorsement may be akin to a “rabbi’s thumb on the scale,” how does refraining from endorsements not also tip the scale?

Buchdahl declined to answer the question over email but said she is “willing to answer” during the Jan. 25 talk at the JCC.

Years ago you adapted a sermon for the Forward in which you describe fielding two cell phone calls from Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, in 2022, where a British gunman had taken a rabbi and three congregants hostage. After describing your sense of that experience, you end the piece with a prayer: “Blessed are you, God, who makes us captives — of hope.” Obviously much has changed in the 2500 years since the prophet Zechriah uttered the words — אֲסִירֵ֖י הַתִּקְוָ֑ה — and certainly in the four years since the Colleyville event. Are the Jewish people still “captives of hope” and what blessing is coming to mind now?

The past two years have been especially challenging for the Jewish community, the hardest in my lifetime. But in the scope of Jewish history, we have lived and thrived through even more difficult times. We have wisdom for addressing crises and for growing through them. I am confident we will do so again. And yes — we remain “captives of hope,” sometimes despite ourselves.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us. What else do you want readers to know?

I am very much looking forward to spending time with the Pittsburgh Jewish community!

Registration for Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s Jan. 25 conversation with WTAE’s Shannon Perrine is available at jccpgh.org. The $36 fee includes a copy of the book to be picked up at the event. The program is slated to run from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the JCC’s Katz Theater in Squirrel Hill. PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.