Judaism's First Black Female Rabbi

Next month, Alysa Stanton will “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 CNN. Stanton will lead the Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, North Carolina. “A Cleveland, Ohio, native from a Pentecostal Christian home who moved to Colorado at the age of 11, Stanton was first exposed to Judaism as a child and converted more than 20 years ago during her college days.” She was convinced to attend rabbinical school by “her appreciation of the role of cantors, the beauty of chanting Torah and learning of a middle-aged man who didn't let his age get in the way of entering rabbinical school.”