Apropos of recent conversations on Jewesses With Attitude about diversity and multi-ethnic identities, nine years ago today, Angela Warnick Buchdahl was invested as the first Asian-American cantor.

Another forthcoming "first" is Alysa Stanton, a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati who is on track to be ordained as the first African-American female rabbi in May 2009.

Both of these women's stories are quite compelling, reminding me how important it is that they be included in the richness of our collective Jewish experience. Read more about these women in JWA's This Day of Jewish American Heritage and in JTA. Bravo, Angela and Alysa!