Rabbi Calls for Boundless Compassion Amid Divides
We talk to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the first Asian American to be ordained a rabbi, about how she connects people with disparate views.
October 21, 2025
54 min
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3,050 of 3,393
October 21, 2025
Rabbi Calls for Boundless Compassion Amid Divides
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Rabbi Calls for Boundless Compassion Amid Divides
Summary
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl leads the largest synagogue in New York City. But she says she’s never been so afraid to talk about Israel. That’s because she thinks that compassion for people suffering on either side of the war in Gaza has come to be seen as disloyal and even threatening – a zero sum empathy calculus that also applies to ideological battles fought in our country every day. Buchdahl is the first Asian American to be ordained a rabbi, a journey she describes in her new memoir “Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging.” We talk to her about why knowing what it feels like to be an outsider has helped her enable connection among people with disparate views and what happens when we become incapable of empathy.
Guests:
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi, Central Synagogue in New York City - author, "Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging"
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