By , Special to JTNews
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion ordained Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, a native of Tacoma, and Rabbis Laurie Rice and Philip Rice, who are moving to the Seattle area, at the end of May.
Rabbi Norman Cohen, acting President of HUC-JIR, ordained 31 rabbis and invested 11 cantors at the 2001 Investiture and Ordination Services of HUC-JIR/New York, held at Congregation Rodeph Sholom. Rabbi David N. Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C., gave the Investiture and Ordination address.
Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl was born in Seoul, Korea, to a Jewish father and a Korean Buddhist mother. At the age of five, she moved to Tacoma to attend religious school at Temple Beth El, where her family had been involved for three generations. Buchdahl was very active in synagogue life and at age 16 traveled to Israel on the Bronfman Youth Fellowship. Buchdahl received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Yale University and was invested as a cantor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1999. She received a Wexner Graduate Fellowship for her cantorial studies.
Buchdahl is the first Asian-American to be invested as a cantor in North America and the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi in North America. She serves at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y., where she has worked for the last 10 years as a rabbi and cantor. She lives in Scarsdale with her husband, Jacob, and one-year-old son, Gabriel.
Rabbi Laurie Rice, married to Philip Rice, will serve the Jewish community in Seattle. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, Calif. Laurie Rice received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. While in rabbinical school, she held positions as a student rabbi in Visalla, Calif., and West Hollywood, Calif. She also worked as a chaplain at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, as a research assistant to Dr. Eugene Borowitz, and as an intern at Temple Kol Ami in White Plains, N.Y. Laurie received awards for the Alexander Kohut Memorial Prize for achievement in Talmud and Outstanding Service in Chaplaincy. She will be the new principal of the Community High School of Jewish Studies and religious leader of Congregation Kol Ami in Woodinville.
Philip Rice was born in Washington, D.C., but he was raised in Miami, Fla. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and holds a master’s degree in Western Religious Thought from Florida State University. While in rabbinical school, Philip held several positions as student rabbi in Tomecula, Calif.; Santa Maria, Calif.; Indiana; Pennsylvania and Borough Park, N.Y. He was also an intern at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan. He is the recipient of the Stuart and Antoinette Matlins Prize in Liturgy and the Rabbi Mark Mahler Prize, awarded for involvement in interfaith activities. He will be the new assistant rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai.