A more unpromising candidate for admission than 14-year-old Brian Comrov of Skokie, Ill., could hardly have presented himself to the principal of Yeshivas Brisk in Chicago, a school affiliated with Yeshiva University (Orthodox).
Comrov’s parents belonged to a Reform synagogue, and he had done enough study to have a bar mitzvah. But when the principal shoved an open prayer book at him and said, “Let’s see what you can do,” the terrified Comrov suffered from “instant amnesia.”
Nevertheless, as Comrov recounts it now, the principal told him, “You know nothing, but I’m going to take a gamble. I see a lot of determination in you and something in your eyes.”
Though his parents were accepting of their son’s interest in Judaism, they didn’t expect him to last more than a semester at the yeshiva. But Comrov had decided even then that “God has a higher purpose for humanity, something spiritual,” and that he wanted to become a rabbi. His determination carried him through nine years of study at Brisk — three of which were spent battling to catch-up to his fellow students.
That scared teen is now Rabbi Baruch Comrov, 30, who this month joined Wisconsin’s rabbinical roster as director of pastoral care at the Jewish Home and Care Center.
But determination to become a rabbi wasn’t the only force shaping his life. Comrov had also decided that “God’s ultimate purpose for people is to help other people.” This made him decide he did not want to become a congregational rabbi. “I wanted to … avoid the politics, the fund-raising…. I wanted to get to the meat of it, which is helping people.”
Relating to people will be his primary focus in his new job. “My main vision is to be a presence to the residents here, at the Home and in Chai Point [the assisted living facility],” he said. “I want to spend quality time with each resident [and their families], to share and … have good heart-to-heart discussions.”
He also wants to “intensify the classes” in Judaism offered at the JHCC and is “hoping to instill more ruach [spirit] into the services.” But he emphasized that he is “not out to convert anyone to my brand of Judaism,” but will “take people for who they are and share in our commonalties.”
And these qualities seem to have impressed his new boss. “I think he is very compassionate, very caring,” said Nita Corré, president of the Weinberg Jewish Terrace, where the JHCC and Chai Point are located. “He’s committed to the social service profession. [And] he sees himself as a rabbi to everyone. He really will be a pastoral care leader.”
Comrov graduated from Brisk in 1994, one year after his marriage to Ronit (nee Simon). (They now have three children.) After a year of study in Israel, Comrov became manager of a Jewish shelter for homeless people and a Jewish food pantry in Chicago.
He was able to help many people in the five years he held those positions, despite the “tough love” he was sometimes required but disliked to impose on shelter residents.
Then one Friday afternoon hours before the start of Shabbat, Comrov got an emergency call that he was needed to visit a dying Jewish woman in a hospital. He was just able to see her and return home before Shabbat began; but the experience “changed my life” by making him understand that he wanted to become a health care chaplain.
He began researching places to obtain training and discovered the Jewish Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Program at Milwaukee’s Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, funded by the Helen Bader Foundation.
As he came to the end of this year-long program, he learned that the former JHCC director of pastoral care, Rabbi Jeffrey Orkin, was leaving to take a position in Baltimore.
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