Rabbi Carlie Daniels is passionate about embracing all who seek a Jewish life. She is a compassionate and visionary rabbi, and her steady leadership strengthens and nurtures a sense of belonging. Rabbi Daniels is a skilled problem solver, offering creative solutions and fresh perspectives to address both age-old and new challenges of the Jewish community. She is a dynamic service leader and teacher who brings warmth and joy to the bima and her community.
Rabbi Daniels is the Acting Senior Rabbi at Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, a 330 family community nestled on the North Shore of Chicago. She is leading the community during a period of exciting transition, following the retirement of the congregation’s founding Senior Rabbi. Rabbi Daniels loves serving a community that welcomes interfaith families and accepts people in the fullness of their identities.
Rabbi Daniels comes from a tight-knit interfaith family. Her father was born and raised in Queens in a traditional Jewish family of the 1960s. Her mother grew up in an Italian-Catholic family in upstate New York and moved to Florida as a child. Rabbi Daniels was born and raised in Rockledge, a small town on Florida’s Space Coast, alongside her extended family. Growing up in a small Jewish community, she discovered her love for Judaism at a young age. Her own experience growing up in an interfaith family shaped the core of her rabbinate: to be open to all who seek a Jewish life.
Rabbi Daniels graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville, with a B.M. in Voice with a combined focus in Psychology. She earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature and Rabbinic Ordination at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Prior to attending HUC-JIR, Carlie worked for two years at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center at Indiana University. During her years at the College-Institute, Carlie served as Student Rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom in Steubenville, OH, Rabbinic Intern at Jewish Home Lifecare in Manhattan, and also as the Rabbinic Intern at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.
Carlie met her husband, Ryan, during their first year in rabbinical school, and they have two precious daughters, Amalia and Cora.