Rabbi Angela Buchdahl - Heart of a Stranger

Episode 85 of What Gives?—the Jewish Philanthropy Podcast from Jewish Funders Network, hosted by JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny. In this episode, Andrés speaks with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York and author of the New York Times Best Seller Heart of a Stranger. Rabbi Buchdahl leads one of the most influential pulpits in the country. In this episode, she talks about what it takes to lead a community through a moment this divided. She and Andrés talk about what courageous leadership costs when you cannot afford everyone's approval, and how she addressed a charged election season without telling any young Jew there was no longer room for them in the tent.

Angela’s career grew out of a life spent feeling like an outsider in every community she belonged to, and looking for home in all of them. But rather than treat it as something to overcome, she argues it may be the most Jewish thing about her, and she makes a case for why that has everything to do with how we lead and who we let in.

Take a listen.