Hillary Brooks grew up in the Mid-Hudson Valley in the ½ of 3½ black families in her little town, where there were many Jewish families, but not many observant ones. Hillary’s religious and cultural journey really began at Boston University in 1990, where she began a long search for a shul. After living in San Francisco (where she did a great deal of grassroots organizing), Los Angeles (for California Institute of the Arts), and New York City, she returned to the Bay Area in 2005 to become a mom. After having a child, Hillary began to explore Kehilla in earnest, joining in 2014 and sending her kid to Kehilla School and the b’mitzvah program.
A retired musician (under the name Hillary Maroon), she has long worked for nonprofit organizations, currently at Disability Rights Advocates as Controller. Until her particular disabilities got in the way, Hillary was an active member of Kehilla’s Immigration Committee, co-founding the Let Our People Go protests with Kehillan Laura Weide at Richmond Detention Facility after the advent of POTUS #45. She also worked with the Belonging and Allyship Initiative early on and is now a member of the BIPOC Congress. Hillary’s b’mitzvah service is in March 2025. Jewish Renewal is her jam and she loves Kehilla dearly.