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VOL. 30 nO. 19
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Relay for Life returns to Hofstra
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MAY 4 - 10, 2023
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ROOTED IN STRENGTH
Condo plan still needs approval Lynbrook residents, businesses remain divided on proposal By nICOLe FORMIsAnO nformisano@liherald.com
Herald file photo
An ARCHIteCt’s RendeRIng of the proposed apartments at 161 Union Ave.
As of an April 27 zoning meeting, Lynbrook’s village board had not yet decided whether to approve a plan to convert 161 Union Ave. to a condominium complex. The proposal continues to divide business owners and residents. The plan would allow Long Island Building Corp. to buy 161 Union Ave. and build an 18-unit condo complex, replacing the local Japanese restaurant Asahi. The proposal was
first discussed in a public hearing in November 2020. Though Asahi owner Jiabiao Wang urged the village board to reconsider, the board unanimously approved the necessary rezoning that December. Lynbrook residents assumed the plan to be dead after more than two years had passed with no further updates. However, residents learned this February that the board is continuing to move forward with the project. The two condo buildings would be called Parson’s CorContinued on page 2
The perfect combination of progressive and traditional After extensive search amid scarcity of rabbis, Caroline Sim will join Temple Am Echad By nICOLe FORMIsAnO nformisano@liherald.com
Temple Am Echad has spent the past two years searching for a rabbi traditional and progressive, spiritual and intellectual, easygoing and compelling. They have found all this and more in Caroline Sim, who will join the congregation this July. “I was the first person who spoke with Rabbi Caroline,” said Carole Neely, co-chair of the rabbi search committee and past president of Am Echad. “Do you ever feel, just immediately: this is it?”
The current landscape has made the search difficult — there are many synagogues seeking rabbis, and a scarcity of rabbis to fill that need. Even so, Temple Am Echad remained selective, waiting for the perfect fit for its 240-person reform congregation. When Sim came along, Neely knew the search was over. Neely recounts the first time Sim met the congregation. It was Purim, and the children were all making hamentashen, a traditional pastry dessert. Sim dived right in, spending time with the kids and helping
them make the dough. “That’s something you can’t rehearse for,” Neely said. “That’s something that’s just in you.” Sim, who attended rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College Jewish institute of Religion in Cincinnati and is currently the director of rabbinic services at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, is looking forward to serving the Lynbrook community. “I want to help people,” she said. “I want to be able to serve them as a rabbi — to comfort
them when they’re in need, to answer questions they have, to celebrate holidays, to offer spiritual guidance, to help grow the community.” Sim is remarkably popular with members of Am Echad — she is the first rabbi to be chosen unanimously by both the
board and the congregation. During the selection process, rabbi candidates often meet with members of the synagogue during torah studies and other events, and the members offer feedback to the selection chair. According to Neely, their Continued on page 18