America has its first black president in the White House—and now we’re about to have our first female black rabbi in the holy house. On June 6, Alysa Stanton will make history when she is ordained as the FFBR by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. She certainly didn’t see this in her cards growing up. She was raised in a Pentecostal fam, but she was always interested in other religions. “Judaism was what resonated with me. It’s what touched my soul,” says Stanton. She reportedly drove 144 miles a week to meet with the rabbi who agreed to perform her conversion ceremony. “I’ve been breaking down barriers the moment I stepped out of the mikvah, but the amount of attention that it’s been getting and the well-wishers have been amazing to me,” she said. Well, we’ll drink to that. L’chaim! [Jewish Journal]
