Watch, Listen, Learn

Sharon Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR, a leading edge Jewish community based in Los Angeles, and author of The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World, a national bestseller. Brous is in the inaugural cohort of Auburn Seminary‘s Senior Fellows program, which unites top faith leaders working on the frontlines for justice, she sits on the faculty of REBOOT, and serves on the International Council of the New Israel Fund and national steering committee for the Poor People’s Campaign. Find more podcasts like this on www.prisma.guide

Following Services, we invite you to continue to join us over lunch at Shalhevet or live-stream on YouTube to hear from Sima Awad and Maayan Inon as they share their journeys towards reconciliation. Sima is a bereaved Palestinian sister whose brother was killed by an Israeli soldier when she was just 3 years old. Maayan is a bereaved Israeli daughter whose parents were both killed on October 7 by Hamas. Witness the transformative power of empathy in the face of devastating violence in Palestine and Israel. Their message that it’s possible to hold grief, humanity, and hope at the same time feels especially important right now. Learn more here.

Shalhevet Rooftop Sukkah + live-streamed on YouTube Yotam Polizer is the Global CEO of IsraAID, Israel’s leading humanitarian NGO. Yotam oversees IsraAID’s global operations, strategy and partnerships across 15 countries. He became IsraAID’s co-CEO in 2017 and Global CEO in 2019. Polizer is the 2023 Charles Bronfman award laureate. He has 15 years’ experience in education, humanitarian aid, and international development.

Colin Campbell and Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation on Yom Kippur 5787/2026 (Minhah). Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He is the author of Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Seraglio, a short film he wrote and directed with his lovely and talented wife, Gail Lerner. He has taught Theater and/or Filmmaking at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Cal Poly Pomona University, and to incarcerated youth through The Unusual Suspects. His one person show titled, Grief: A One Man ShitShow, premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it won a Best of Broadwater Award. He lives in Los Angeles and sometimes Joshua Tree. Learn more about Mend Collaborative.

A conversation between Rabbi Sharon Brous and Dr. BJ Miller on Rosh Hashanah II. Co-author of the book A Beginner’s Guide to the End, and palliative care specialist BJ Miller helps patients and families face illness and death realistically, comfortably, and on their own terms. Miller is cultivating a model for palliative care organizations around the world, and emphasizing healthcare’s quixotic relationship to the inevitability of death. He is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and sees patients and families via telehealth at Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the many practical, emotional and communication issues that come with serious or chronic illness, end of life and disability. Miller’s passion for palliative care stems from personal experience — a shock sustained while a Princeton undergraduate cost him three limbs and nearly killed him. But his experiences form the foundation of a hard-won empathy for patients who are running out of time.

“We’ve tried everything, and we nonetheless fear that it just wasn’t enough. Now we are here standing before you with no more plays in the playbook. There’s nothing more we can do, and we just hope that you can be satisfied with what we were able to fix and forgive us for the rest. Avinu Malkeinu, show us mercy, answer us, not because we’re beyond saving, but because we’re trying.” Intro provided by rabbinic intern Jacob Schatz. Thumbnail includes portion of artwork by Carole Silverstein: my story flows in more than one direction Acrylic Ink on Mylar, 48” x 36” Carole Silverstein

Part genealogical detective story, part gripping history, part contemporary reporting on war-torn territories, The Wanderers – A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II, chronicles Daniela’s journey to unearth this past and reveal its echoes in still-contested lands from Ukraine to Israel.

In On Courage, former White House senior advisor Ami Fields-Meyer offers a deeply reported manual for how ordinary people defy authoritarianism. Written with Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin and built on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across five continents, the book expands their acclaimed New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?” into a practical case that even under repressive conditions, each of us holds power to help defeat autocrats — at a moment when nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarian rule, the highest rate since the late 1970s. Fields-Meyer joins Rabbi Sharon Brous to discuss the people at the heart of the book — a Hong Kong student who risked everything for democracy, a Caracas mother who broke with the movement that raised her, Americans who faced serious risk for dissenting in their own workplaces — and what our tradition asks of us as the walls of history close in.  

Join Donniel Hartman and Rabbi Sharon Brous at the Shalom Hartman Institute for a profoundly honest and challenging conversation on the moral responsibility of Jewish leadership today. Together, they explore the complexities of holding onto faith and hope in a world facing overlapping crises—from climate change and the rise of AI to political extremism and the disturbing normalization of violence and antisemitism. Drawing on the teachings of the prophet Micah, Brous and Hartman share what keeps them up at night and where they find reasons to be optimistic. They delve into the crucial difference between winning the war in the Middle East vs. maintaining a moral standing on the global stage, the necessity of truthtelling within the Jewish community, and the controversial debate over the utility of the label “Zionist” in contemporary political discourse. This discussion is an essential watch for anyone grappling with identity, community, and the ongoing struggle to build a just and loving world in times of deep uncertainty. Topics Covered: The “polycrisis” of our time: Climate change, AI, and violent extremism. The tension between internal truthtelling and external public relations. What it means to drop a “sea anchor” when facing waves of fear and anti-Semitism. Why the words we use matter, and the growing debate over the term “Zionism”.

Watch the sermon that Reverend Senator Warnock delivered before this conversation here. Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation with Raphael Warnock, Baptist pastor and senator from Georgia, discussing his book The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America. Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock is a transformational voice in Congress and the pastor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and for the semiquincentennial of America, he exhorts us to reach for the highest and noblest aspects of our national character. Senator Warnock argues that we suffer not from a paucity of resources but from a poverty of moral imagination.

Many thanks for joining us at Pride Shabbat with Dr. Sara Glass and Lani Santo, CEO of Footsteps, co-sponsored with JQ. The discussion centered around LGBTQ+ identity, chosen family, and building a self-determined life after leaving ultra-Orthodoxy. For those of you interested in learning more on the challenges and triumphs of those choosing to forge their own path beyond ultra-Orthodoxy, we hope you’ll consider reading Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Dr. Sara Glass. At Footsteps, Pride is an attitude we embrace all year, providing safe spaces and critical services for our LGBTQ+ members and all of our members, as they pursue self-determined lives.

We are a nation built by people who dared to believe the unbelievable, even when the odds were far worse and the stakes much higher than at any blackjack table… Our shared history, our family stories, our collective legacy is one of impossible dreams made real– …we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. -Sen Cory Booker (STAND, 215)

Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and director of its Initiative on Regional Security Architectures. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dalia is an internationally recognized expert on geopolitics and Middle East policy. During her fifteen years at the RAND Corporation, Dalia served as a senior political scientist and the director of the Center of Middle East Public Policy. She has received numerous awards and held previous positions at an array of research and public policy institutions, including as a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at Lund University, a fellow at the Wilson Center, an advisor at the Foreign Ministry of The Netherlands, an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She is a frequent public speaker and contributor to leading media outlets, including BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, and Foreign Affairs. She is the author of dozens of articles and policy reports, as well as three books, including most recently Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy (Stanford University Press, 2026). Dalia holds her BA, MA, and PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

California State Senator Ben Allen, representing Senate District 24, including Beverly Grove, Fairfax, Mid City West, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood, joined Rabbi Sharon Brous in conversation.

Michael Lynton and Joshua Steiner discuss their new book with Rabbi Morris Panitz. From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You (https://www.simonandschuster.com/book…)

2025 Charles Bronfman Prize Recipient, Gideon Maltz (CEO, Tent Partnership for Refugees) and Rabbi Sharon Brous (Senior and Founding Rabbi, ikar) will be in discussion. Learn more about Mr. Maltz’s work and about the prize here.

Jonathan Jacoby, President and National Director of the Nexus Project on Fighting Antisemitism and Its Weaponization in a Time of Rising Authoritarianism. He was the founding Executive Director of the New Israel Fund and founding President of the Israel Policy Forum. He also held leadership positions at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Americans for Peace Now.

In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society? Sharon Brous—a leading American rabbi—makes the case that the spiritual work of our time is to show up for one other in celebration, in sorrow, and in solidarity. To invest in relationships of shared purpose and to build communities of care. Brous contends that through honoring our most basic human instinct– the yearning for real connection– we reawaken our shared humanity and begin to heal. Her wisdom is drawn from experience building and pastoring to IKAR, a trail blazing faith community, over the past two decades. The talk is a clarion call: the sense of belonging engendered by our genuine presence is not only a social and biological need, but a moral and spiritual necessity. Rather than offering quick fixes, Brous proposes a deeper shift: reclaiming connection, curiosity, and shared responsibility as core human values. At a moment when retreating from one another feels instinctive, Brous offers a blueprint for a more meaningful life and a more connected and caring world. Sharon Brous is the Founding and Senior Rabbi of IKAR, a trail-blazing Jewish community based in Los Angeles, and author of “The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World”, a national bestseller. A leading voice at the intersection of faith and justice in America, she has been named #1 Most Influential Rabbi in the U.S. by Newsweek/The Daily Beast. She blessed both President Obama and President Biden at their National Inaugural Prayer Services, and her TED Talk “Reclaiming Religion” has been viewed 1.5 million times. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. She lives with her husband and children in California. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

After lunch, join us for a special discussion with AFT President Randi Weingarten to discuss her new book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy. Learn more HERE.

Join us on 12/6 around 11:30am PT in person & on YouTube.com/ikarlosangeles for a conversation between Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Rabbi Sharon Brous on faith, identity, leadership, and Buchdahl’s new book, Heart of a Stranger.

The Jewish community is being offered a false choice between countering antisemitism and protecting democracy and civil rights. But there is no inclusive democracy without Jewish safety — and no Jewish safety without inclusive democracy. Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and a nationally recognized leader on countering antisemitism and extremism and protecting democracy — who previously led the successful lawsuit against the Charlottesville neo-Nazis — joined Rabbi Sharon Brous for a conversation on how we can reject the false binaries of this moment and advance a more just and inclusive world for Jews and all communities. Helpful Links: Sign up to receive JCPA updates Jewish communal statement led by JCPA, rejecting the false choice between Jewish safety and democracy Civil rights coalition statement organized by JCPA and the Leadership Conference on recent antisemitic violence June 2024 webinar with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Antisemitism x Democracy report Op-ed by Amy Spitalnick and Randi Weingarten – To Fight Antisemitism and Preserve Democracy, Educators and the Jewish Community Must Partner Closely

Join us for a conversation over lunch with Scholar in Residence, Rabbi Mel Gottlieb.

After Services, join us for a conversation with Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J Street. Jeremy Ben-Ami is an American lawyer and activist who is the founder and president of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically

After services, authors Jeff Hobbs (Seeking Shelter) and Alexis Madrigal (The Pacific Circuit) will be in conversation about homelessness and the shaping of urban America.