In 2019, Sharon Brous became the first rabbi to ever serve as chaplain-in-residence at Chautauqua Institution, preaching every day in Week One from the Amphitheater stage.
Now, the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR, a leading-edge Jewish community based in Los Angeles, is returning to Chautauqua for the Interfaith Lecture Series. She’ll speak at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy to lend her perspective to the theme of “Spiritual Grounding for Social Change,” and then again at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the same venue, with a program titled “Remaining Open-Hearted in Anguished Times: A Community Conversation,” co-sponsored by the Everett Jewish Life Center in Chautauqua and the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua.
Brous is a leading voice in reanimating religious life in America, working to develop a spiritual roadmap for a soulful, justice-driven, multi-faith ethos in Los Angeles and around the country. She co-founded IKAR with the mission of reinvigorating Jewish practice and inspiring people of faith to reclaim a moral and prophetic voice. During her historic 2019 chaplaincy, Brous explored the power of story and the need, more than ever, for moral courage.
“A life of faith, lived in obedience to God, will claim its inheritance against unjust systems and even God. We have to find our Holy Hutzpah, our moral courage. The shape of tomorrow depends on exercising moral courage today,” Brous said in 2019, and reminded the congregation that “God stands with the righteous. Every social movement has one person who takes one crazy step forward. The time is coming that we will not be able to stomach cruel and heartless policies that harm families yearning for something better.”
In her sermons, Brous also discussed what she called then a critical point in American antisemitism.
“The reality is that antisemitism (in America) is a dangerous new challenge, and the way we address it as a country matters profoundly,” she said. In the past three years — again, speaking in 2019 — a new reality was emerging, and she pointed to the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh the year prior.
“The synagogue shootings, vandalism and hate crimes reflect a new and terrifying reality,” Brous said, and noted that antisemitism is “not like other forms of racism. … Jews are welcomed until a scapegoat is needed. And our oppression is cyclical. Why do people with power and privilege feel vulnerable? Because the downfall comes immediately and suddenly, and no amount of money or access or beautiful art can save us.”
The last several years were “banner years” for white nationalists, Brous said, as their views crept more into the political mainstream — meaning the danger wasn’t just for Jewish people in America, but for Muslims, Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, and allies. The threat, she said, was from those who would undermine “democracy and our social fabric.”
“We are all in this together,” she said in 2019. “If one of us drills a hole, we will all drown. We must address this with the urgency it requires.”
Five years later, the danger is even more urgent.
“Many people hold us in love and will stand with us,” she said in 2019. “The best antidote is to join forces, in the fervor of love, with those who are marginalized. We really are all in this together.”
