RABBI SCHICKER
Rabbi Simone Schicker serves as the full-time spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Israel in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Rabbi Schicker was raised in an interfaith household and found herself drawn to Judaism after multiple summers at Camp Young Judaea – Texas (CYJ). Her experience at CYJ led her to have her bat mitzvah and become active in youth group as a teenager. She worked as a camp counselor at CYJ for two years while in college. Rabbi Schicker earned her BA in History with honors at Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) in Birmingham, AL.
After a few years working and studying, Rabbi Schicker headed to Israel for her first year at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in the summer of 2013.
Rabbi Schicker distinguished herself throughout her time at HUC-JIR: as President of the Rabbinic Student Association, as a member of the HUC-JIR admissions committee, and she received awards both for her service to the College community as well as for her academic success.
Rabbi Schicker is especially proud of her role in starting the conversation on campus about Gender Dynamics and was the student leader of the Gender Task Force through which she helped coordinate multiple campus-wide learning opportunities on the topics of microaggressions and gender.
Rabbi Schicker earned her Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 2017 and was ordained a rabbi in 2018 at the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR.
Currently, Rabbi Schicker is on the Executive Board for Friendship Village in Kalamazoo, and is active in ISAAC. She was honored to receive the award of Clergy of the Year from ISAAC in 2021. Rabbi Schicker is a member of the third cohort of the Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship through 18 Doors.
Interested in asking Rabbi Schicker to speak to your congregation/class/organization? Please reach out via email at rabbischicker@gmail.com
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
TRAVEL
Rabbi Schicker believes the trope that travel broadens the mind and every place she has had the opportunity to visit has helped her see another point of view. Whether it was Oxford, England for a summer study abroad, Lithuania with HUC-JIR classmates, South Africa where her roots are or any of the other places, travel has helped shape Rabbi Schicker into the person she is today.
"AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS"
A photographic selection of my travels
Israel. South Africa. Greece. Lithuania. France. Canada. England. USA.
“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
John Green