First black female rabbi speaks at Pitt

By Estelle Tran / Assistant News Editor

published: Thu, 4 Mar, 2010

Alysa Stanton wants you to know that she’s a butterfly. She’s struggled with her heritage and her faith for most of her life. But last year, she was given wings. Stanton became the world’s first black female rabbi of mainstream Judaism in June.

Stanton sauntered into the William Pitt Union Ballroom last night like a chain-linked prisoner.She was wearing a noose, a canvas dress and a cream blanket around her shoulders. She hummed a painful song before stopping at the podium. 

“Society taught me to be ashamed of my heritage. I now embrace it with pride,” she said.

Stanton, 46, began her monologue describing the struggles of her great-great grandparents who were slaves. She shed the noose, blanket and dress revealing a plum T-shirt with picture of Mickey Mouse.

In that moment, she was a child again and being thrown out of a friend’s house because of her skin color. She took off another layer of clothing. Then she was a 9 year-old girl who knew that she wanted to be a Jew. 

She pealed off another layer of clothing until she revealed she was as a proud rabbi wearing a navy skirt suit and black and turquoise yarmulke. She picked up her guitar three times to sing about discrimination against people of other races who choose to be Jewish.

Quietly picking the guitar strings she sang, “Please don’t look away. Instead say, ‘Shalom.’”

She said that she received death threats before and after she was ordained, but the overwhelming support she has received serving God outweighed those negative experiences.

The Hillel Jewish University Center, Pitt’s Cross Cultural Leadership and Development staff and the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh brought Stanton to speak to members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community about Judaism in different ethnic groups. 

“My Christian friends acted like I had grown horns. My African-American friends treated me like I was a sell-out,” Stanton said.

Stanton was born in Cleveland but has lived in Colorado, England, Cincinnati and Jerusalem. She currently works as a Rabbi in Greenville, North Carolina.

 “I’m a butterfly soaring in the air. As I flap my wings, I’m flying high,” she said. “I am beautiful. I am worthy. I’m free.”