
Heart of a Stranger - with Angela Buchdahl
Call Me Back - with Dan Senor
Why I Kept Returning to Israel
Angela explains her spiritual and familial ties to Israel and her mission to bear witness and bring others to see Israel's complexity.
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Today’s Episode:
For a bonus episode, Dan was joined by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl to discuss her new book Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging. Rabbi Buchdahl is the senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City. She was the first East-Asian to be ordained as a rabbi, and has received national recognition for her Jewish leadership, including being listed as one of Newsweek’s “50 most influential rabbis.”
She shares her journey from feeling like an outsider to Judaism to becoming a contemporary Jewish leader. They also discuss how Rabbi Buchdahl guided her congregation after Oct. 7 and how the past two years have changed the Jewish community around her.
00:00 Introduction
06:33 Grief After October 7
09:21 Engaging with the Jewish community post-October 7
11:14 Facing antisemitism in America
12:21 Rabbi Buchdahl's first sermon after October 7
15:55 Progressive dilemmas and the Israeli/Palestinian narratives
18:02 Visiting Israel and reflecting on Jewish peoplehood
21:14 Rabbi Buchdahl's Jewish journey
30:48 Diaspora versus Israeli Jewish perspectives
35:08 The mitzvah of loving oneself as a prerequisite for loving others
37:06 Remaining spiritual, not just political
40:58 Rebuilding after trauma
CREDITS:
ILAN BENATAR - Producer & Editor
ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive Producer
MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor
MARIANGELES BURGOS - Additional Editing
MAYA RACKOFF - Operations Director
GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research
YUVAL SEMO - Music Composer


