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High praise for new Temple Am Echad rabbi
response to Sim was “overwhelming.”
“As people left these meetings, they’d look at me, and they’d look at my cochair Ed, and they’d say ‘don’t let her leave!’” Neely said.”
“She got a very positive response from everybody,” said Warren Cooper, president of Temple Am Echad. “She seems approachable. She seems to appeal to the different demographics that we have.”
Sim’s background immediately set her apart from other candidates. She has traveled across 13 states to serve as a rabbi for congregations without a full-time clergy presence. Sim went wherever there was a need — whether it was for a marriage ceremony or a funeral service.
“One of the beautiful things that happens is everyone figures out how to get along with each other,” Sim says of her rabbinical experiences in the south, where there are fewer synagogues available for people to attend. “Because it’s important for them. Everybody’s gonna have differences — political differences, ideological differences, opinion differences — but people find more ways to get along when they can be a part of a Jewish community and celebrate the tradition.”
“She had to relate to so many people with so many different needs,” Neely said. “And that’s what our congregation is all about.”
For Sim, being a rabbi means serving all members equally, regardless of age or background. This is especially important to Temple Am Echad — the community has a strong presence of older con-