For many in the area, it is hard to think about the upcoming Niles Township interfaith dinner held the night before Thanksgiving every year without thinking about popular Rabbi Neil Brief.
“I’ve known Rabbi Brief since my wife and I first moved to the village and he was, in fact, one of the first religious people I met,” Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said Oct. 16, when Brief was honored at a Skokie Village Board meeting.
“He has always highlighted the interfaith of our community,” the mayor said.
He called the village’s reputation for being a welcoming community — one of the most diverse in the state —”a tremendous credit to the spirit that Rabbi Brief brought to us.”
According to a proclamation approved by trustees, Brief spearheaded the creation and served as the president of the Niles Township Clergy Forum, which brought faith leaders from different backgrounds together. The interfaith dinner sprung from that work.
“Rabbi Brief has always stood by those who were oppressed and, through his congregational, interfaith, political and humanist work, helped create our Skokie spirit and become the rabbi for our community,” the proclamation reads.
Brief said he retired more than a dozen years ago from the Skokie synagogue now called Ezra-Habonim, the Niles Township Jewish Congregation, but he has remained connected both inside the synagogue and within the larger Skokie community. He serves as rabbi emeritus for Ezra-Habonim.
“Everyone is a member of the congregation — for those who pay their dues,” he said, jokingly.
Ezra-Habonim was scheduled to celebrate Brief’s 80th birthday in 2014, but the event was canceled because his long-time wife, Erica, unexpectedly died while they vacationed on a cruise just before the date.
The Briefs were a fixture in Skokie, having organized, hosted and attended many events. They were married for 57 years, according to the proclamation.
Brief said that had his wife lived, this would have been their 724th month of marriage.
“It wasn’t meant to be but I’m so thankful she was my beloved for 57-plus years,” he said.
According to the proclamation, Brief overcame childhood poverty and developed leadership skills by becoming president of the Brooklyn Brownsville Boys Club and coaching two club championship basketball teams.
He trained as a Reform rabbi and is a member of the rabbinical organizations of Judaism’s Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, according to the proclamation. He attended New York University and Hebrew College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
In Skokie, he served as community volunteer with the Skokie Commission on Family Services, the Rotary Club, the United Way of Skokie Valley and other service organizations. He also played a lead role in organizing rallies and groups that highlighted peace and diversity during his years living and working in the village.
Brief called his hometown “a miracle.”
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“You have to be grateful for everything and this is a great evening and I rejoice in it,” he said. “I’m grateful for all the blessings that have been accorded to me in family, in friends.”
@SKReview_Mike