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Following in the footsteps of America's first female rabbi, Rabbi Michelle Pearlman has been tapped as the new leader of Monmouth Reform Temple.

Pearlman, who assumes her new role July 1, said she admires pioneers like Rabbi Sally Priesand, who led the Tinton Falls synagogue for 25 years before retiring in 2006.

"I always looked up to Rabbi Priesand and the other women who broke down boundaries., Pearlman told The Jewish State. "I always say that I stand on their shoulders."

Pearlman comes from Temple Shalom in Newton, Mass., where she has been associate rabbi since the summer of 2006. She succeeds Rabbi Jonathan Roos, who has served as the synagogue's rabbi for the past four years and will be leaving for Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C.

Pearlman said she was attracted to the position because the synagogue leadership was "very warm, interested in building this community, and ensuring the continuity of Judaism in Monmouth County and beyond."

Myra Ostroff, a co-chair of the pulpit and "new beginnings" transition committees, said Pearlman was selected not only because she is a great teacher of Torah, but also because of her experience in outreach, membership, and youth programming.

"I can give a whole litany of qualities she has," said Ostroff, who has been a member of the temple since 1986.

Over the course of a search that lasted more than a year, the committee received 30 applications, held preliminary phone interviews with many of the candidates, and held two-day in-person interviews with four finalists.

Ostroff described Pearlman as a "warm and welcoming rabbi" who will be able to reach out to all members of the community from long-time members to children to intermarried families.

"I think the congregants are looking for a rabbi who is all inclusive when it comes to the congregational family," she said.

Though she has been active in Jewish and synagogue life since her childhood growing up in the Detroit area, Pearlman initially set out to become an opera singer. She holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree in voice performance from the University of Michigan and University of Illinois, respectively, and has performed with the Santa Fe and Palm Beach operas. Following graduate school, Pearlman took a job as a cantorial soloist at Congregation Kol Ami in Chicago in order to financially support her musical ambitions.

It was there, mentored by the synagogue's rabbi, that she decided to pursue the rabbinate.

"I fell in love in what I saw as the power of community and the power of Judaism to solidify that community," she said of her experience at Kol Ami.

She then entered Hebrew Union College in New York, from where she received her ordination in 2005.

Pearlman described her new position in New Jersey as a "homecoming." While a student at HUC, she worked under Rabbi Bennett Miller at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. In her first job as a newly ordained rabbi, Pearlman worked in the Washington Township office of the Union of Reform Judaism as the Director of Youth and Informal Education (New Jersey Council), and also as the project coordinator in the National Department of Outreach and Synagogue Community.

Among her goals for Monmouth Reform Temple is to "maintain that sense of family, which is one of the self-identifying features of the synagogue."

Pearlman also cited outreach to unaffiliated and interfaith families as another one of her objectives.

"I want to help make it a more welcoming place for everyone," she said. "There are a lot of opportunities in Monmouth County to open those doors."

That she will assume the pulpit formerly held by America's first female rabbi is not lost on Pearlman. Though Priesand was ordained at a time when the Reform movement was "forward thinking," Pearlman explained that many Reform synagogues at the time remained reluctant to hire a female rabbi. The fact that Monmouth Reform Temple, however, was willing to do so is a legacy that continues today, she added.

"Monmouth Reform Temple is a place that loves and respects their rabbis. They're a family," she said.

Pearlman pointed to her leading High Holiday services in 2004 and Passover seders in 2005 at Beit Warszawa in Poland as her most unique experience as a rabbi.

The Warsaw congregation, which she called the "ultimate outreach experience," is made up of young Poles who had rediscovered their Jewish roots.

"I want to bring that sense of excitement and new discovery to places where Judaism is more accessible," she said. "Judaism is joyful and rich and there is so much to be learned and that we can discover."

Pearlman is married to Dr. Andrew Denker, who works for the pharmaceutical company Merck and will transfer to their Rahway office. They are the parents of Madeline Rachel, 6, and Noa Elizabeth, 2.