'Self-annihilation?' LA rabbi wants to heal a 'world on fire'

A 2010 article in the Jewish Journal said Brous’ work was “emblematic of the earnest chutzpah that has earned her almost cult-like allegiance from admirers … and a mixed reaction from some congregational leaders, who complain of the amount of attention heaped on IKAR.”

Brous is indivisible from her organization, but her vision has been in demand far beyond her congregation. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine with clergy of other faiths under the headline: “Who Gets to be American?” She has appeared often on TV, including on CNN and MSNBC. She has written opinion pieces for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, and has been a guest on the Ezra Klein Show and Chelsea Handler’s podcast. She studied Talmud twice a week with Eric Garcetti when he was mayor and has blessed Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the Inaugural National Prayer Service.

Brous is swift and slight and looks younger than her years. Her hair is long and black, falling over her tallit, which as her sermons go on — the pace sharpening, her command absolute — she sometimes removes with a slip of the shoulder. Her syllables flow from English to Hebrew, one language seeping almost unnoticed into the other. One can see a bit of a 1960s activist in her, abundant in spirit and sly and disarming in humor.

“She’s mischievous,” said Bronznick, a longtime mentor and friend. “She once set up a ping pong net on her dining room table. She wanted me to play. I wasn’t any good. She made a video of how ridiculous I looked and sent it to me. I loved it.”

In a sermon against the recent surge of book banning in schools, Brous, who asked for books instead of appliances for wedding gifts, said she read as many of the forbidden titles on LGBTQ+ and racial topics as she could. Then she noted that the Bible is filled with incest, promiscuity, prostitution and attempted rape. “It has loads of explicit sexual content,” she said. “And that’s just in the book of Genesis. Wait till you see what happens [with] King David.”

Brous is married to David Light, co-creator of the“Zombies” franchise for Disney. The couple has two daughters and a son who are accustomed to their mother’s zeal. “I wanted to raise my kids in a Jewish community that actually reflected our values,” she said. “You cannot disentangle politics from faith and religion. Politics is really just the human condition. Are you OK living in a society, in a city, where 76,000 people sleep on the street? Are you OK with that?”

The rabbi doesn’t want anyone to be forgotten. IKAR, which translated from Hebrew means “essence,” runs on that sentiment. “I was lonely and I found acceptance here,” said Deborah Pardes, a writer and audio producer who was sitting with about 350 other congregants in the Shalhevet High School gym on South Fairfax Avenue where IKAR holds Shabbat services. “Sharon’s teaching at the most fundamental level is about belonging.”

That is the theme of Brous’ new book,“The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World.” The work distills a philosophy that began when she was a child on vacation overseas and glimpsed for the first time the world’s deep poverty. “Why do we let that happen?” she asked her parents. “It’s not fair.” The book is about caring and showing up and listening in times of need, and building community with compassion rooted in ancient Jewish teaching that is both personal and global. Jewish history is a dialogue with God and a narrative of suffering, which, in her mind, should make Jews empathetic to the pain and injustice inflicted upon others.

A rabbi friend offered Brous advice in relaying her message: “You’re not a magician. You’re not a superhero. You’re just a conduit for something holy.”

At a recent author’s program at the Los Angeles Public Library, Brous sat on stage in conversation with Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries. The auditorium was full and carried a hum of expectation from many who looked as if they had rolled in from a kibbutz in search of enlightenment. A woman with a heart tattoo on her arm talked about powwows and “The Hobbit”; two others scrolled a phone, reading a profile of Patti Smith. The only sense of unease were police officers with security wands at the entrance, a sign of the growing animosity against Jews during Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza, which so far has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians.

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