Brooke Berman, a Baltimore native, started her career as a special education teacher in a school in Delaware as a part of Teach for America. That was a challenging and rewarding experience, but ultimately, it showed her just how special her hometown is.
“I had zero Jewish community when I was living there,” she said. “When I came back to Baltimore, I really wanted to reimmerse myself in the community that I grew up in and make those connections and have that be the world that my children were raised in.”
While Berman ended her career as a teacher to focus on raising her children, she is still exceptionally involved in the Jewish professional community of Baltimore. She is a community connector with the Jewish Connection Network, volunteers and serves on various committees, and is a part of The Associated’s Young Leadership Council, Class of 2027.
Her background in education made her a perfect fit for her role with the JCN, where she serves as Beth Tfiloh Preschool partner connector. Her kids attend the school, too. She works intimately within the Beth Tfiloh community, and helps young Jews in Baltimore have the same sort of experience that was so formative to shaping her into the Jew that she is today.
“I went to Jewish day school from preschool through elementary school, and it was a very formative part of the person and the Jew that I am today,” Berman said. “It was always my hope that my children would have the same experience — that they would be able to start their lives with a strong Jewish foundation and Jewish identity.”
Berman actually attended Beth Tfiloh when she was young before going to The Bryn Mawr School for part of middle school and high school. There, she lacked a strong Jewish community. She returned to the all-girls school early in her career to teach dance and choreograph the school’s high school musicals.
Berman said that the embrace she felt from her community in Baltimore and in Pikesville, where she and her family live, has made the return home so much sweeter.
“It really felt like a sense of comfort,” she said.
Although Berman grew up in many Jewish circles and considered herself an engaged Jew, she said she didn’t fully understand the scope of the work done by The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore until she returned home. That discovery helped set her on her current path.
“I realized all of the amazing work that The Associated does, how far their reach is, how diverse their agencies are and the work they do,” she said. “It’s so crazy to think that I grew up here and thought I was involved, and there’s still so much that I wasn’t aware of until I started actively seeking more engagement.”
Berman hopes the work she is doing now for the Jewish community is only the beginning of what she will accomplish in serving Baltimore Jews. Her plan is to keep on going, the Beth El member said.
“I would love to continue my involvement with The Associated as part of YLC. You become a board observer for the second year of the program, so we’re in the process of selecting which board we want to observe,” Berman said. “I hope that wherever I end up, it becomes an ongoing relationship, not just a one year observer-ship, and I’m also going to begin a position on some other boards in the community next year … I’m really excited about that opportunity, so I’m just kind of waiting to see how it all plays out.”
For Berman, the work she does for others is great, but the best feeling is seeing her children grow in their Judaism.
“Judaism is just a part of their daily lives, and I think they don’t know that a world exists where people don’t talk about Israel every day at school and do prayers at school and say the bracha before they eat,” she said. “I feel like they’re wrapped up in Judaism like a warm hug.”
