Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, far right, with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. Photo: Instagram.

An Asian-American female rabbi who lit the menorah at the White House on Wednesday said lighting Hanukkah candles in front of an African American president is something America’s founding fathers would have never predicted.

“I would say that our founding fathers, they inspired to build a county that was truly a place of religious freedom and equal opportunity for all,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl said while addressing a Hanukkah reception at the White House. “But I have to predict that they could not imagine that in 2014 that there would be a female, Asian-American rabbi lighting the menorah at the White House for an African-American president.”

“You don’t think they predicted that? Really?” President Obama sarcastically asked Buchdahl, who is the senior rabbi at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue.

“I think they’d be surprised,” she replied. “But we are celebrating miracles that happen today. Those days of old and the miracles of now and this country is a country of miracles. And we are tremendously grateful to be here as Americans and Jews.”

Watch Rabbi Buchdahl speak at the White House below: