The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote has selected Hebrew Bible scholar Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi as its new leader, writes Gabe Friedman for The Jerusalem Post.

This marks the first time a Jew of color has been chosen by the Reconstructionist movement to lead its rabbinical college and is also a first for a major American Jewish movement.

The 44-year-old will become vice president of academic affairs at the college, which is the school’s highest post. She will report to Rabbi Deborah Waxman, CEO of Reconstructing Judaism, the movement’s umbrella organization.

Her rabbinic education vision is that “it equips students to envision, embody, and bring forth new possibilities for the world – to root them in Jewish tradition and equip them to engage others in that tradition in all of the diverse embodiments and social locations that people are bringing to Jewish community now.”

Amanda Mbuvi is currently serving as a faculty member at High Point University, where she helped found the Jewish studies minor.

She holds a Ph.D. in religion from Duke University and has published “Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation” in 2016.

Read more about Amanda Mbuvi and Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in The Jerusalem Post.