This area may seem
an unlikely place to start the ministry of the first known black woman rabbi.
Alysa Stanton is commuting to the B'nai Israel synagogue in Grand Forks about
once a month from Reform Judaism's largest seminary, the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. She is in her second year
at the seminary.
"I think the reason they picked us is that we are a diverse and very
accepting community," said Mark Siegel, the president of the B'nai Israel.
The synagogue has about 40 families and about 100 people.
"We have a congregation with a few who are more orthodox, with a number
who are not Jewish by birth and a number of people who are not converted but
participate in the congregation because their spouses are Jewish," Siegel
said.
"You're not going to survive in North Dakota if you are going to try to be
'We only want this kind of person, or that kind of person,'" he said.
Stanton, 40, converted to Judaism at age 24, while in college, driving 144
miles a week to study two years with a rabbi.
"Over the years at various times, people have tried to make it seem like
being African-American and being Jewish are mutually exclusive," Stanton
said. "But I'm living proof that the two are not mutually exclusive. I'm
African-American, and I'm Jewish and I'm proud to be both."
Rabbi Donald Berlin, of Chicago, the interim director of the Great Lakes region
of the Reform branch of Judaism, which includes Minnesota and North Dakota,
said blacks have not been a major part of U.S. Judaism, largely because of the
ethnic-national origins of the religion in Israel, he said. Also, he said,
Judaism has not actively sought converts, partly as a way to avoid conflict
with Christianity.
Outside of Ethiopia, Yemen and Egypt, black rabbis have been rare, and none of
them has been a women, Berlin said.
Reform Judaism, a 160-year-old U.S. movement, aims at being more welcoming to
those who were not born Jewish, Berlin said.
Stanton said her life changed when she chanted the Jewish scriptures in Hebrew
in a Denver synagogue.
"The first time I chanted the Torah in front of the congregation, it's
like my soul stirred, something deep within the recesses of my being,"
Stanton said. "And I just got this thirst to live and grow and learn and
teach Judaism. That was my path; that started it."
Joyce Coleman, an associate professor of English at the University of North
Dakota who joined the synagogue a few years ago, said Stanton brings a new
excitement.
"She has this real sense we should make this joyous noise to the Lord. She
wants us all to sing a lot," Coleman said.
In Stanton's luggage, unpacked Friday, was her acoustic guitar, which she uses
in leading music during services.
"Music touches people oftentimes when nothing else may get through,"
she said. "I incorporate music in nearly everything I do."
Stanton was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and at age 11, she moved with her
family to Lakeland, Colo., a suburb of Denver.
"As a young child, I was searching and was pretty precocious," she
said. "I remember being 8 or 9 and calling up a priest to find out about
Catholicism. I explored various other religions, from Near Eastern to
charismatic Christianity. And Judaism is where I found a home."
Stanton led her first service in Grand Forks in early September. She returned
to the seminary early this week, and will return to Grand Forks on Friday for
the weekend's Yom Kippur activities.
Last year, Stanton's first at seminary, was spent at the Jerusalem campus,
studying Hebrew in the midst of strikes, political strife and bombing, as well
as the ancient history evident throughout Israel.
Stanton found that her 8-year-old daughter, Shana, whom she adopted as an
infant, learned it faster and better.
"It was a powerful year, a challenging year, a growing year," she
said. "We had gas masks in our rooms. There were several bombings. But God
protected us and brought us home safely."