GRAND FORKS, N.D. Black woman becomes rabbi to embrace Judaism

She said she is proud to be Jewish and African-American.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- 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.
Her conversion
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, the interim director of the Great Lakes region of the Reform branch of Judaism, said outside of Ethiopia, Yemen and Egypt, black rabbis have been rare, and none of them has been a woman.
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."
Excitement
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."
Personal history
Stanton was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and at age 11, she moved with her family to Lakeland, Colo., a Denver suburb.
"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 for this 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.