BRATTLEBORO — Rabbi Amita Jarmon has begun as spiritual leader of the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, Congregation Shir Heharim (Song of the Mountains), the synagogue for Windham County's residents and seasonal visitors.
She grew up in Amherst, Mass., spent a year in Israel after high school and fell in love with the land and the people, returning there several years later to become a citizen and to study physical therapy at Tel Aviv University.
She worked for more than a decade as a physical therapist in Philadelphia and western Massachusetts before attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and becoming the full-time rabbi at a synagogue in coastal Maine.
She felt a call to return to Israel, where she renewed her physical therapy skills in long-term-care facilities, working with secular and orthodox Jews from around the world, Palestinians, native Israelis, and African asylum seekers.
Jarmon has been active in projects with Rabbis for Human Rights and Seeds of Peace, and she has served on the steering committee of the Sulha Peace Project, which brings Israelis and Palestinians together to share personal experiences and feelings that create bonds of empathy and affection.
Even while spending most of the last 12 years in Israel, Jarmon served on various communities in North America as rabbi and/or cantor for the High Holy Days each year.
She says her heart and soul belong to both Israel and New England and that she is grateful for the opportunity to serve Shir Heharim.