Nine years ago, Rabbi Daniel Brenner came to Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara as a rabbinic intern and quickly became a familiar presence — teaching, listening, and showing up in the everyday moments that make a congregation feel like a home. He went on to serve as assistant rabbi, and recently he was formally installed as CBB’s senior rabbi, stepping into the role with both continuity and new responsibility.
His installation was marked with a celebratory weekend of music and learning that included a special Shabbat service featuring speaker Dr. Andrew Rehfeld, president of Hebrew Union College; Israeli dancing and Havdalah with musical guests Nava Tehila; and a festive family Hanukkah party.
Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller — Rabbi Brenner’s rabbi as he was growing up — served as the installing rabbi, adding a personal throughline to the celebration.
In the Q&A that follows, Rabbi Brenner reflects on the Dec. 12-14 weekend, the path that brought him here, and the work ahead.
Q: You started at CBB as an intern eight years ago, and now, at just 37 years old, you are the youngest senior rabbi in the country for a synagogue of CBB’s size. Could you ever have
imagined this trajectory?
Rabbi Brenner: It was always in the back of my mind that this was something I had hoped would happen. Even before my internship, I got married at CBB (to wife Felicia), and we joked that it would be so cool if I ended up in Santa Barbara. At the time, it was a pipe dream. CBB had a wonderful, beloved rabbi and an assistant rabbi, but years later the temple was looking for two interns and I was selected as one, which coincided with my last year of rabbinic school. Once ordained, that internship turned into an offer to become an assistant rabbi.
Question: When you reflect on the recent installation weekend, is there one moment that stays with you most?
Rabbi Brenner: The highlight was definitely sharing the wonderful news of our daughter’s cancer remission with the community who has been supporting our family over the past nine months. (Rabbi Brenner’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma at just 10 months old, and over the past year has undergone a variety of intensive treatments, including chemotherapy and surgery).
Our family has been public from the beginning, in part because I did not want people to feel uncomfortable, and I did not want to field 300 questions per week. But I also felt that I was in a position to model an option for families going through a health crisis on one way to handle it.
The experience connected us deeply to our community, and the support was overwhelming. We found out just five days prior to our weekend festivities that she is cancer free, and being able to share that news was incredible!
Q: What did the weekend reaffirm about CBB?
Rabbi Brenner: This is a community that loves to spend time with each other. We had over 400 people attend Friday night Shabbat and 300-plus in attendance for our family Hanukkah party. One of the values that I hold in my leadership is that we don’t just get together or work together, but that we enjoy and want to be together.
Q: Is there something you feel newly “permissioned” to do as senior rabbi? Or is there something you want to protect — no matter how the congregation changes?
Rabbi Brenner: One of the gifts that Rabbi Cohen gave me was a long leash to work on
projects that were important to me, so I don’t feel this sudden newfound power to dictate things in any different way. Our synagogue is in a very good place, and when things are working well, we can look for ways to make them better, but we don’t need to make changes that are not needed.
One thing that I strongly commit to not changing is our approach to what it means to be a member of CBB. We have developed a culture that you don’t have to pay to pray, and that is so important to me. We can honestly say that membership isn’t about money; it’s providing a Jewish space for everyone. It’s about relationships and commitment to our mission — creating a diverse, inclusive community of individuals and families building together a warm and vibrant house of living Judaism.
Q: This is a moment when many Jews are carrying both pride and fear. How do you advise and lead in this critical time?
Rabbi Brenner: A match can light a thousand candles, and it can burn the room down. When you are playing with fire it has to be treated with sacred care. We don’t want people to be foolhardy and rush with pride to be unsafe, but we also don’t want to hide who we are as Jews. We would wish for all communities to be able to practice religion and culture free from fear, and we will not let that fear define us. But I also won’t ignore it for the safety of our community.
This is also a time to come together with our interfaith communities. I received a call from the iman of the Islamic Society offering support, and I will be attending his service to offer gratitude for the brave Muslim man who risked his life to save so many in the Bondi Beach shooting.
Q: How do you hold the needs of a diverse community — deeply observant, culturally Jewish, interfaith families, seekers — while still offering a clear spiritual center?
Rabbi Brenner: Personal practice does not define a person’s Jewish identity. I don’t believe in the terms of being “more Jewish” or “less Jewish” than another, and I don’t buy that Reform Judaism is Judaism-lite.
As long as we remain committed to the greater purpose of Judaism and less committed to any brand of Judaism, then we can continue to serve all well.
Q: What’s giving you the most hope right now?
Rabbi Brenner: Certainly, the young families and children in our community give me a lot of hope, but I was surprised earlier this year by something one of our high school seniors said when asked what he wanted for the year ahead. He shared: “I want to be sure we do the Jewish stuff. I like when we pray and study Jewish texts.” For years I operated on this principle that I had to make prayer cool and fun, but actually what many of our students want is, simply, prayer.
Judaism is a comfort to them, not just an identity. They are actually getting calm and rest
through Jewish practice, and it was so beautiful to realize that we’ve been doing it right all along.
We can simply sit and pray and be content. I think we may not give adults or kids enough credit for their spiritual seeking. We are a community whose lives are made better by the fact that we pray and learn Torah, and that has sustained us for centuries.