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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
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Memoirs

HEART OF A STRANGER

Angela Buchdahl

The Story and Spirit of an Unlikely Rabbi

From the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi, a stirring account of one woman's journey from feeling like an outsider to becoming one of the most admired religious leaders in the world. Angela Buchdahl was born in Korea and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, the daughter of a Korean Buddhist mother and a Jewish American father.

Profoundly spiritual from a young age, she spoke to God at age five and felt the first stirrings to become a rabbi at age sixteen. Despite the naysayers and periods of self-doubtwould a mixed-race woman ever be seen as authentically Jewish and entitled to lead a congregationshe stayed the course, which took her first to Yale, then to rabbinical school, cantorial school, and finally to the pulpit of one of the most influential congregations in the world. Today, Buchdahl is beloved by Jews and non-Jews alike for her belief in the power of faith, gratitude, and responsibility for each other, regardless of religion. She does not shy away from challenging topics, from racism within the Jewish community to the sexism she confronted when she aspired to the top job. Buchdahl's constant message is that it is up to us to work towards a world of more humanity, especially in today's upsetting times. Buchdahl has gone from outsider to officiant, from feeling estranged to feeling understood and includedand has emerged with a deep feeling of being bound to a larger whole. Here, she has written a book that is both a memoir, and a spiritual guide for living that is exactly what so many of us hunger for right now.

Angela Buchdahl, or Rabbi Buchdahl, serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City. She was ordained as a rabbi in 2001 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where she was a Wexner Graduate fellow. She earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale University in 1994. Rabbi Buchdahl is the first Asian American to be ordained as cantor or rabbi in North America. In 2014, President Barack Obama invited her to share blessings and light the menorah for the White House Hanukah Party. Rabbi Buchdahl has been featured in dozens of news outlets including the Today Show, NPR, Wall Street Journal, PBS, and Newsweek.

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Book Published 2025-10-21 by Pamela Dorman Books

Comments

A beautifully told story about the call to spiritual leadership. In our fractured world, it's so important to think beyond easy categories of religious and cultural identity. Rabbi Buchdhal's book explores many threads of Jewish life and teaches us to celebrate complexity.

Love and light live in Angela Buchdahl's extraordinary memoir. It comes at a time when the world needs reminding that all our hearts must remain open to the oneness of humanityand, not least, to the outsiders among us. . . Crossing over is at the heart of the Jewish experience, and in exploring the arc between home and promised lands, memory and meaning, Buchdahl has given us a memoir of profound insight and hope.

Reading this book is a powerful and moving experience. Buchdahl's journey is fascinating, but what comes through is the real meaning of leadership: the humility, curiosity, vision and integrity it takes to carry a community through water and fire.

Buchdahl's eloquent memoir braids a narrative of growth and discovery with sermonic reflections on biblical texts. This is a book about finding a calling, but it is also a book about inclusion. . . . Amid the noise of current conflict, Buchdahl's voice invites us all to sing along. An inspiring life story of believing and belonging, told by one of the most influential figures in modern American Judaism.

Come for the story; stay for the sermon. Honest, intelligent, and tender, this memoir of a one remarkable woman's journey tells a story of everyone's need to be part of and in service to something larger than themselves.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl's Heart of a Stranger is the perfect book for our times. It brings a highly personal vision of tolerance, kindness, hope, and wisdom to a world in desperate need of them. Buchdahl's account of her life-journey richly illuminates contemporary Judaism and addresses with unfailing grace and courage highly sensitive, bitterly contested issues of race, gender, and ethnic identity.