Traveling Rabbis visit eastern Idaho to strengthen Jewish community
Published at
IDAHO FALLS – A pair of Chabad rabbinical students from New York are headed to eastern Idaho to connect with members of the Jewish faith.
Rabbis Yossi Bistritzky and Eli Sputz are collaborating with Chabad-Lubavitch of Idaho, a Boise-based Jewish outreach organization, to visit fellow Jews and arrange programs to help them connect with each other. The duo will arrive in Idaho Falls on Tuesday and remain in the area for the next three weeks.
“Our main efforts will be put into finding Jews, many of which don’t know of any Jewish community in the area,” Bistritzky tells EastIdahoNews.com. “For some of them, all they know is that they’re Jewish but they don’t know much about their heritage. Our job is to find them and help them connect with their roots.”
Bistritzky says they hope to gather the Jewish community together for a Friday meal at some point during their trip to “help bring some sense of community and togetherness.”
In December, Rabbi Zali Lifshitz with Chabad-Lubavitch of Idaho — who Bistritzky says is one of their classmates in New York — told us there are about 3,000 Jews in Idaho and several hundred live in the Idaho Falls area. Pocatello, which is the home of Temple Emanuel, a Jewish Synagogue, has a sizable Jewish population as well.
Since the 1950s, hundreds of student rabbis have been sent throughout the world to “strengthen Jewish life and traditions.”
Although this is Bistritzky and Sputz’s first visit to the Gem State, Bistritzky says an effort to bring the Jewish community together in eastern Idaho has been in the works for two decades.
RELATED | Jewish Passover Seder returns to Idaho Falls with visiting ‘Roving Rabbis’
In March, two traveling rabbis hosted Passover Seder at the Shilo Inn’s Snake River Event Center. Chabad-Lubavitch of Idaho hosted its fourth annual Chanukah Celebration in December.
RELATED | Shilo Inn closure throws Idaho Falls restaurant, employees and events into limbo
RELATED | Community invited to fourth annual Chanukah celebration in Idaho Falls
Both of these events were open to the general public and were well-received by the community. While there is no event for the general public planned with this visit, Bistritzky says they’re hoping to “spread the word of God and help people connect regardless of who we meet.”
Helping people ‘connect with themselves and their own heritage’
Sputz says he grew up in Chabad, a specific sect of Hasidic Judaism. Its founder’s message of “making the world a better place” and strengthening your community with goodness and kindness was inspiring to him and led him to pursue the path to becoming a rabbi.
“I decided to make it my mission to join that effort,” Sputz says. “This (trip to Idaho) is an opportunity to invest in that mission.”
Similarly, Bistritzky says his dad was a rabbi near Los Angeles where he grew up. His home was open to Jews from all walks of life, and they visited frequently.
Bistritzky says Judaism isn’t just a religion — it’s a family, and every person who visited his childhood home was treated as such. His father’s welcoming, open-door policy is a message that resonated with him.
“This is the mission I grew up with, and this project of sending out young Chabad rabbis around the world to find their Jewish brothers — it is an honor and a privilege to take part in spreading the ideas we were taught and the message we were given,” he says.
Unlike other religions, Bistritzky says they aren’t looking to convert others to their faith. They believe everyone has “infinite value” and all people have their own unique mission, whether they’re Jewish, Christian or religiously unaffiliated.
“It’s every individuals job to look at themselves and say, ‘How does God view me?’ and ‘What would God want for me right now?'” says Bistritzky. “We’re looking to help people connect with themselves and their own heritage.”
The pair say they are looking forward to helping their fellow Jews make those connections over the next few weeks.
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE TRAVELING RABBIS IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.