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Historic Ordination
First African-American female rabbi
is taking North Carolina pulpit.
Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Cincinnati
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May 21 . 2009
,. ast May, the JTA inter-
viewed Alysa Stanton
(Web link: jta.org/news/
article/2008/05/06/ 108413/
StantonOgulnick), a Hebrew Union
College rabbinical student who insist-
ed she never set out to be the world's
first African-American female rabbi.
But that's what she'll become after
her June 6 ordination at the Reform
seminary's Cincinnati campus.
In contrast to last year, when she
seemed a bit overwhelmed by her
new status as a role model for young
black Jews in America, she now
speaks confidently of what her ordi-
nation means.
"I represent the new face of
Judaism, a new era of inclusiveness,"
she told the JTA by phone Sunday. "I'm
honored to have this opportunity, and
I'm thankful to my God for making it
happen:'
Stanton never chooses the easy path.
A convert and single mother of an
adopted daughter, 14-year-old Shana,
she has been hired by Congregation
Bayt Shalom in Greenville, N.C., a
53-member Conservative synagogue
that also is affiliated with the Reform
movement. So along with the usual
settling-in challenges, she'll be dealing
with the politics of a merged congre-
gation.
That's OK with her, though. After
16 years as a psychotherapist special-
izing in trauma and grief, she's well
equipped to deal with personal con-
flicts.
"I look forward to embracing the
commonalities we share," she says with
some delicacy.
About 20 percent of American
Jews are racially or ethnically diverse,
according to the San Francisco-based
Institute for Jewish and Community
Research, yet they are greatly under-
represented at the community's
leadership level. There are a handful
of African-American congregational
presidents, but none who are rabbis of
majority white congregations. Stanton
Rabbi Alysa Stanton
will be the first.
Asked whether any Jews of color
belong to her new congregation,
Stanton jokes, "Yes, me and Shana."
But, she adds quickly, there are many
intermarried families, so there is out-
reach work to be done.
Institute associate director Diane
Tobin sees Stanton's ordination as
an important step in mitigating the
marginalization felt by many Jews of
color.
"There are so many who do not
identify with the mainstream Jewish
community," she says. "As more people
like Rabbi Stanton come along as role
models, others will see themselves bet-
ter reflected in the community"
In this era of universalism, young
Jews of any color find an ethni-
cally diverse Jewish community more
appealing than the older, Ashkenazi-
centric model, Tobin suggests.
"Especially with Obama as president,
it's particularly exciting for younger
Jews to see themselves as part of a
global religious community," she says.
Meanwhile, Stanton is packing up
her Cincinnati home for next month's
move to North Carolina and bracing
for a week of interviews scheduled to
begin Monday.
"It's back to back all week," she says.
"I knew this day would come, and
`Baruch Hashem: it's here."