Cantor Rachel Reef-Simpson Featured on AndoverTownsman.com
Check out this excerpt from a great write-up on Andovertownsman.com highlighting Cantor Rachel Reef-Simpson as our first female cantor.
Not long after Jewish communities marked the 50th anniversary of the first female rabbi in the United States, Temple Emanuel in Andover welcomed Rachel Reef-Simpson, their first female cantor.
Similar to a rabbi, cantors in Reform Judaism are ordained and act as co-clergy with rabbis, in addition to singing and performing a number of task, said Reef-Simpson.
“They basically do everything a rabbi does and with a specialty in music,” said Ellen Dreskin, a mentor of Reef-Simpson’s, who used to train cantors.
“I believe people can connect through music and their spirituality through music in a much broader sense. I think people can connect to one another, to each other by joining together in song, and I think that music is a universal language,” Reef-Simpson said. “It speaks to people of different belief systems, to people of different denominations.”