A black woman's journey to the rabbinate in North Carolina

[IndianaGreen]

Here is a wonderful story. BTW, for those that may not know this, Hebrew Union College rabbinical students have to spend at least a year in Israel as part of their training. Stanton discusses her experiences in Israel in the article.

A black woman's journey to the rabbinate in North Carolina

By Joe Sterling
CNN

(CNN) -- When Alysa Stanton officially becomes a rabbi next month, she'll be walking into history.

She'll become the first African-American woman ever to be ordained as a rabbi and the first African-American rabbi to lead a majority white congregation, according to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Stanton, 45, will be ordained June 6 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she received her master's degree from the HUC-JIR, which is the rabbinical school of the Reform movement. Then in August, she will begin her new job at Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, North Carolina -- long a Conservative synagogue and now affiliated with both the Reform and Conservative movements.

She describes her new position with great enthusiasm, saying the congregation -- while small -- has a lot of children, a sign of a bright future. And she says the congregation is vibrant and the region, where East Carolina University and a major medical center are located, is dynamic as well.

"My goals as a rabbi are to break down barriers, build bridges and provide hope," Stanton told CNN. "I look forward to being the spiritual leader of an inclusive sacred community that welcomes and engages all."

The HUC says the milestone reflects the diversity that permeates Jewish life.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/21/north.carolina.black.rabbi/index.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. A kick for the night shift

:kick:

[kwassa]

2. Black Jews are an old tradition in this country.

http://www.ujc.org/page.aspx?id=26506

There is no firm estimate on how many American Jews are black, but several sociologists have placed the figure at about 50,000. As Rabbi Levy writes on his Web site, "We exist both within our own congregations and in predominately white congregations. Some of us have converted to Judaism, others are products of intermarriages, and yet others have been in this way of life for generations. The amount of diversity within our group is as varied as the colors in a rainbow."

...................

"My own kids have gone through some of it," Rabbi Capers Funnye told me. Rabbi Funnye, who is a member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and a frequent guest speaker on talk shows, recalled how teachers were surprised that his children would be out of school on a Jewish holiday -- the existence of black Jews even 15 years ago was still relatively unfamiliar. And in 1995, when a history of the Jews of Chicago was written by a noted historian, the sizable black Jewish community was not even mentioned. (I called the author and asked him about it -- he claimed he had never heard of any black Jews in Chicago...)

note: Funnye is Michelle's first cousin, once removed.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Three years ago we had an entire African-American family convert to Judaism

sons, daughters, and grandchildren; about a dozen in all. Ours is a Conservative/Reconstructionist congregation, and it was a thrill to see them join us.

[mmonk]

4. Nice find Indiana