IKAR

R' Brous Leads White House Passover Gathering

R' Brous Leads White House Passover Celebration

“We enter Passover amidst the compounding crises of our time, holding grief, isolation, loss and uncertainty. In the midst of all this, the story of the Exodus reminds us that we have the muscle memory for survival, built into our very beings. Retelling this story reconnects us with hope, the greatest act of defiance against a culture of presumed powerlessness and despair.”

– Rabbi Sharon Brous, speaking at The White House Passover Celebration

Sermons

Writing our Reopening Story – Rabbi Ronit Tsadok

April 10th, 2021 — Shabbat Tazria-Metzora

When we look back on this time of re-opening coming back together, what is the story we will tell? The journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai (a.k.a. the Omer Period) offers some guidance.

Watch /Listen

Learning Highlights

Poetry of the Prophets

When the Hebrew prophets delivered their thunderous moral messages, they usually did so in the form of poetry. So what is it about the language of poetry that can carry the voice of the Divine through human lips? For answers, we turn to three of our greatest poetic prophets:

Part 1: Isaiah – Prophet of Hope
Part 2: Jeremiah – Prophet of Doom
Part 3: Ezekiel – Prophet of Visions

Do Justice

IKAR Stands with our AAPI Family

#StopAAPIHate

On Tuesday, eight women were murdered by a young white man on a shooting rampage in Atlanta. The brutal and calculated nature of these massacres is particularly painful as it highlights the growing violence targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in this country, especially over the past year. This is just the latest horrific manifestation of the toxic combination of white supremacy, misogyny, easy access to guns, and the heresy that allows a person to claim love for God while taking the lives of human beings created in God’s own image. Click here for the full statement and links to resources.

#StopAAPIHate

On Tuesday, eight women were murdered by a young white man on a shooting rampage in Atlanta. The brutal and calculated nature of these massacres is particularly painful as it highlights the growing violence targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in this country, especially over the past year. This is just the latest horrific manifestation of the toxic combination of white supremacy, misogyny, easy access to guns, and the heresy that allows a person to claim love for God while taking the lives of human beings created in God’s own image. Click here for the full statement and links to resources.

Press

Anti-Semitism: Lisa Sharon Harper with R' Sharon Brous & R' Jill Jacobs

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and guests, Rabbi Sharon Brous (IKAR) and Rabbi Jill Jacobs (T’ruah) as they engage in this transparent, vulnerable, mind-blowing conversation that leans into critical questions that we all must understand in this current moment: What is anti-Semitism? What are its roots? How do we recognize it when it is in the room? And what can we do about it?

Event

National Inaugural Prayer Service

R’ Brous blesses President Biden/VP Harris in the National Inaugural Prayer Service

“Give us strength, God, as we usher in the dawn of a new America, a justice-driven, multiracial democracy… A new America, built on love, rooted in justice and propelled by our moral imagination.” Read/Watch Rabbi Brous’s full blessing.

Press

Spiritual Activism: An Interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous

An interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous, the Founding and Senior Rabbi of IKAR in Los Angeles. Rabbi Brous is a leading voice in reanimating religious life in America, working to develop a spiritual roadmap for soulful, multi-faith justice work in Los Angeles and around the country.