He is, after all, the descendent of Balfour Brickner, his father and leading voice in the reform movement as well as Barnett Brickner, his grandfather, a prominent rabbi of a large congregation in Cleveland, Ohio.
While Rabbi Brickner was ordained twenty-one years ago, he did not always think he wanted to be a rabbi. In fact, he had no idea he would go to rabbinical school. Instead, he was a cop on Martha’s Vineyard and then involved in housing preservation and development in New York City. He also had a short stint as a ski instructor in New York.
What he realized is that all of his jobs were in someway about building community and eventually it dawned on him: what better way to build community than by building his own community in a temple.
He began his work as a rabbi in southern New Jersey and then migrated to St. Louis, Missouri where he was an associate rabbi o f a 1500 family congregation. He then moved to a solo pulpit back east on southern Long Island and then to the north shore of Chicago, Illinois.
His move to Sun Valley in June 2007 seems only natural. Having spent his summer months growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, Rabbi Brickner is not only used to small town life; he loves it. And having a ski mountain doesn’t hurt.
Shalom, Rabbi Brickner!
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