Rabbi Angela Buchdahl: The Unlikely Voice of Faith and Belonging

What does it mean to belong—especially when you’ve spent much of your life feeling like an outsider?

This week on Common Faith, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and journalist Jon Frankel welcome one of the most influential Jewish leaders in America, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue and author of the bestselling memoir Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging.

Born in Korea, raised in the United States, and long made to feel like an “unlikely” Jew, Rabbi Buchdahl reflects on a lifetime of navigating identity, faith, and difference—both inside and outside the Jewish community. In a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation, she shares how feeling like a stranger ultimately shaped her theology, her leadership, and her understanding of what Jewish tradition demands of us today.

Together, the hosts explore the Jewish imperative to care for the outsider, the tension between belonging and exclusion, and how American Jews are once again grappling with feeling “othered” in spaces that once felt like home. The conversation also examines pluralism, political division within Jewish life, and the responsibility of religious leaders to hold diverse—and often conflicting—communities together with humility and moral clarity.

At a moment when so many people feel unmoored, Rabbi Buchdahl offers a powerful reframing: that knowing the heart of the stranger is not a weakness, but a core Jewish strength—and a blueprint for empathy, resilience, and shared humanity.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl:

https://centralsynagogue.org/

https://www.instagram.com/rabbibuchdahl/?hl=en

Her Book:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/697350/heart-of-a-stranger-by-angela-buchdahl/

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:

https://www.instagram.com/elliot_cosgrove

https://x.com/RabbiCosgrove

Park Avenue Synagogue
https://www.pasyn.org

https://www.instagram.com/parkavenuesyn/#

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