Celebrating Asian American, Native Hawai'ian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Angela Buchdahl, first Asian American rabbi

Angela Buchdahl, born July 8, 1972 in Seoul, South Korea, is the first Asian American to be ordained as rabbi in the US.  Her mother was a Korean Buddhist and her father was Jewish.  Her family moved to the US when she was 5 and raised Jewish in Tacoma, Washington.

She graduated from Yale University with a BS in Religious Studies in 1994 and started her rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College.  She was ordained as a rabbi in 2001 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion becoming the first Asian American rabbi.  In 2013, Buchdahl was named Senior Rabbi of the Central Synagogue. 

In December 2014, she delivered led prayers at the White House Hanukkah celebration, welcomed by President Barack Obama.

Celebrating Black History Month - Arnold Josiah Ford, first black rabbi

Arnold Josiah Ford, born in Barbados, April 23, 1877, was the first black rabbi in the United States.  He wrote many songs for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Community League.  He co-authored the Unversal Ethiopian Anthem and published the Universal Ethiopian Hymnal in 1920.

He traveled to Ethiopia with a group of black Jews in 1930 where they acquired 800 acres of land for uniting black Jews of the Diaspora with their counterparts already in Ethiopia.

Rabbi Ford died in Ethiopia in 1935.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Josiah_Ford