How a singer added the title of rabbi to her playlist, and mixed sign language into sermons
Charlene Brooks has a pretty neat day job, and then some. As a professional singer, she has done it all; from rock to country, jazz to Broadway.
But that's just the beginning. Brooks also is Rabbi Charlene Brooks, but the people at Congregation Bene Shalom in Skokie, Illinois, simply call her Rabbi Char.
How did she get from singer to rabbi, and why does she conduct services in sign language? It's a long story, and Rabbi Char loves a good story.
"I grew up mostly in Andersonville, which was a very nice neighborhood, especially if you were Scandianvian; and if you were Jewish, it was a little more difficult," she said.
Singing came easily. So did a love of records.
"I would play them and play them, and dance around the living room like I had an audience of a thousand people," she said.
She got really serious about singing after college, and when a job in accounting just didn't cut it, she jumped at an offer to put together a band and hit the clubs on Rush Street in downtown Chicago.
"It was six nights a week, six hours a night, no monitors, just singing my heart out," she said.
Brooks even traveled, singing country songs at state fairs and one-woman shows.
"During that time, I joined this temple with my family," she said. "I remember sitting there in the sanctuary, and listening to the cantor, thinking, 'That's so cool, I'd love to do that.' … and I ended up doing a Chanukah program, and the next thing I knew, I was cantoring here."
It was a job she held for the next 27 years.
"I started seminary somewhere in there – somewhere before the 27 years was over – and started studying Hebrew seminary, and was ordained. The rabbi passed away, and I was offered the job," she said.
Brooks said she's never had to choose between her life on stage and on the bima.
"As I was doing services on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, I was doing shows on Saturday nights, and a large part of the audience was my congregation," she said.
Not a typical rabbi, and not a typical congregation. It's why you see Brooks and an interpreter communicate in sign language. Bene Shalom was formed over 50 years ago by a group of families who were deaf.
"The deaf families had no place of their own that was dedicated with sign language and with respect," she said. "We have more hearing members than we have deaf right now. However, we're always respectful of the deaf people that are watching on zoom, or here with us in person. … and my daughter even comes in and adds to the sign language."
While she loves being in front of her congregation, Brooks said there's something else that's important.
"My goal as a rabbi, believe it or not, was to do funerals," she said. "Both of my parents were survivors of the Holocaust. They lost every human being they knew. … None of them had a funeral, or had anyone attend their death other than the other people dying."
"As long as I can remember, I wanted to honor them," she added.
Brooks said coming from a family of Holocaust survivors taught her to both endure sadness and cherish joy.
"This conversation is a moment. The time you have a dinner where everyone's laughing, that's a moment. You have to grab on to that, because it could change in a heartbeat," she said.
That belief is clear in Brooks' sermons.
"I'm not happy unless people have laughed and they've cried; and then hopefully they've laughed as they're leaving," she said.
Brooks said she once thought her mission in life was to sing, but she said that's only part of it.
"The other part is taking that and helping people with it. That's my mission," she said. "I have a job where I can sing, and I can help people. Petty good."
Brooks said she even writes original songs especially for sabbath services. She said it's one of her claims to fame, but she has many.
