((PKG)) THE FIRST CHINESE AMERICAN RABBI ((TRT: 04:09)) ((Topic Banner: Melding Traditions)) ((Reporter: Jiu Dao)) ((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki)) ((Map: Oakland, California)) ((Main characters: 1 female)) ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) When people think rabbi, they are often thinking of an old man with a big old beard ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) and that's never what I'm going to be. I'm Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) and I'm the senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Oakland, California, ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) and I'm the first Chinese American rabbi. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) Rabbis are, the word means teacher. What does it mean to be an insider? What does it mean to be Jewish? What is that experience of it? ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) If we go back as far as we can, nobody can think of anybody who was ever a rabbi. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) It’s not a family tradition. ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) I grew up in San Francisco. My parents are both physicians. ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) My mom is an OB-GYN [obstetrician-gynecologist]. My dad is a psychiatrist. My mom converted to Judaism before my parents were married. I have four siblings. So, we have a very big family. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) ((Popup Banner: Her mother is a second-generation Chinese American. Her father is the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants.)) ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) My father's family also escaped Nazi Europe. They were in Vienna. ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) So that family story was very significant to us and was a huge part of our understanding of who we are. I became very active in the Jewish community on my own, especially as a teenager. ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) We all celebrated becoming bar and bat mitzvah [Jewish religious ritual and family celebration] when we were 13. ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) There were lion dancers at every single one of our bar and bat mitzvah [Jewish religious ritual and family celebration] celebration. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) At these significant moments in our lives, it was important to us to be able to make sure that like all the symbols ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) that represented us were there. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) We didn't have a lot of other families that have the same kind of make up as ours. ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) But because we were a large group, I think that also just helped us to feel like we had our own like mini tribe and our way of doing things. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) My favorite Jewish food I would say is matzo ball soup. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) And my favorite Chinese food is chicken feet, which was one of my favorite thing ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) when we would go out to dim sum. ((MUSIC)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) We celebrate three New Years. Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah is usually in the fall, the early fall. And then of course we have January 1st and then we have we have Chinese New Year. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) There was such a wonderful wealth of tradition and of holidays and of family. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) I was a Religious Studies major and then I added Cultural Anthropology. I remember some of my other Religious Studies classes that spoke about Judaism. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) And when you are on the outside describing a religious tradition, it's very different than being on the inside and experiencing it. ((Courtesy: Videoblocks)) That was the shift. I wanted to be with the practitioners. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) ((Popup Banner: In 2002, Jacqueline Mates-Muchin was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.)) ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) What is it like? ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) In terms of just encouraging people to be authentic to who they are and connected to Judaism and connected to all aspects of, you know, their heritage and things like that. ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) I think it's a big responsibility. It’s humbling. It's an honor in a lot of ways. A lot of people also come to me to talk about ‘how do we make sure that our kids understand where they come from?’ ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) That's where I just feel so fortunate about the way that my parents ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) had modeled that for me. Things don't have to be at odds. They don't have to be clashing. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) It's actually a really special way to go through life to understand that you fit in many places. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) My being Chinese and Jewish ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) is very much a product of my being an American, that my parents, right in the 60s at UC Berkeley, ((Courtesy: Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin)) that enables me to be here. ((MUSIC)) ((Courtesy: Temple Sinai-Oakland)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) If you ask me, what feels like it outweighs one or the other being Chinese or Jewish, I couldn't answer. ((Courtesy: Skype)) ((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai-Oakland)) Truth is, if there's any one identity that probably stands out the most, it's probably being American. ((MUSIC))