(Memoir, 352 pp., 2025)
Buchdahl, born in Korea to an American Jewish father and Korean Buddhist mother, is senior rabbi of one of the largest Reform congregations in America, New York City’s Central Synagogue. Her memoir weaves a narrative of growth and discovery with sermonic reflections on biblical texts. It is a book about finding a calling, but it is also a book about inclusion. Buchdahl’s moving insights into what it means to have a hyphenated identity today is lively, disarmingly forthright, charming, self-deprecating, and astute. Along the way to becoming the first Asian American rabbi and cantor, Buchdahl was challenged by Asians who viewed her as not truly Korean and by Americans who questioned her legitimacy as a “real” Jew. Her message of inclusion, tolerance, and embrace of the stranger is not just spiritual, it’s personal.
Central Synagogue website for Heart of A Stranger
Review by Gary Rosenblatt, Hadassah Magazine, October 2025
Review by Marc Katz, Jewish Book Council, October 13, 2025
Review by Kirkus Reviews
Review by Glenn C. Altschuler, The Jerusalem Post, October 11, 2025
Review by Robin Washington, The Forward, October 20, 2025
Review by Publishers Weekly, July 29, 2025
Review by USA Today, October 21, 2025
Review by Book Haven, October 15, 2025 (audio)
Interview by Dan Senor, Call Me Back podcast, October 20, 2025 (video)
