Rockland synagogue picks resident rabbi

ROCKLAND – For the first time since the 1930s, Adas Yoshuron Synagogue will have a resident rabbi.

Rabbi Amita Jarmon will arrive in August and become the first permanent spiritual leader since the synagogue renounced orthodoxy more than 65 years ago. The synagogue was founded in 1912.

Jarmon, 44, will graduate next month from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, said Stan Klein, synagogue president. Jarmon grew up in Amherst, Mass., and has lived in Israel and Nepal.

Jarmon had been working as a physical therapist, but at the age of 29, began returning to her religion, then aimed at becoming a rabbi, Klein said.

The synagogue has had visiting rabbis, such as Harry Sky of Falmouth and Cantor Deborah Marlowe of Liberty, but has relied on its members to lead. Now, the synagogue is ready for a rabbi.

“You can only do so much on a volunteer basis,” Klein said.