Rabbi Sharon Brous leads the IKAR Jewish community in Los Angeles, USA, and was voted America’s most influential Rabbi in 2013. She tells Jane Little about her decision to become a Rabbi and discusses the ideas she holds about Judaism and how social justice has challenged the orthodoxy within her faith.

Rabbi Brous also explains how she reaches out to young Jews who feel they have lost touch with or become disenfranchised from the religion and how she is now trying to draw them back by re-emphasising what she calls “the basics” of their faith. She explains why she did not want to head a traditional synagogue and why she set up IKAR to challenge the traditional ways of worship and how she views her faith and the role of a Rabbi.

This is the second on a three-part series for Heart and Soul where Jane Little meets a new generation of female religious leaders in America who are challenging the establishment within their respective Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.

(Photo: Rabbi Sharon Brous. Credit: IKAR) Show less