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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Booming Jewish community attracts interest

Booming Jewish community attracts interest

By KAREN E. DAVIS For the Chronicle

Montana, and most likely Bozeman, is the next place in the world that the Chabad Lubavitch movement plans to place a full-time rabbi, according to a rabbi who has spent the past two summers working with Montana's far-flung Jewish community.

Chabad, headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., considers Montana to be "the No. 1 spot in the world for its next rabbi," said Rabbi Chaim Bruk.

Bruk will probably be that rabbi, he said. He and seminary student Arik Denebeim, 20, have been traveling around Montana for the past month and was back in Bozeman and Big Sky over the Labor Day weekend.

Judaism appears to be booming in Montana. Just two years ago, Bruk's Brooklyn yeshiva, or seminary, scheduled its students to cover all of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in three weeks. Now, they have a month just in Montana, and "I could use a whole month just in Bozeman," Bruk said.

Bozeman's Jewish community is the most active in the state, a primary factor in Chabad's plans to locate here, he said. Additionally, the Gallatin Valley seems to be a magnet for Jewish retirees.

Montana's Jews tend to fall into three categories: remnants of the pioneer community still in Helena or Butte; out-of-state professionals who mass in university towns such as Bozeman or Missoula; the lone Jew who lives in Townsend or Ennis or Miles City.

Only five other states have a Jewish population so sparse and isolated that they still don't have a Chabad rabbi: Mississippi, West Virginia, the Dakotas and Wyoming, he said.

Last year, Chabad sent a full-time rabbi to Boise, Idaho and the group has had a rabbi in Salt Lake City for 12 years. Now it appears to be Montana's turn.

Montana's Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger met Bruk and Denebeim in the capital last week and pledged his help.

"I'm quite excited about this," he said.

Bohlinger, a Catholic, remarked that "It's easy to be a Catholic in Montana; you're constantly surrounded by your own community. It can be difficult to be Jewish in Montana for the same reason. Your spiritual life deteriorates without that community. I'm very excited about them (Chabad) being here. I think it will help more Jewish persons live their Jewishness."

When Chabad Lubavitch places a rabbi here, it will be in a stereotypically well-off, educated, secular and liberal area. And it will be in a town that already has a Reform synagogue.

Setting up a rabbi and his family will cost about $120,000 a year, Bruk said. Chabad might give seed monies for the initial year, but after that, funds will have to come from the congregation served.

Chabad will only send a rabbi here if it is apparent that there is enough work and adequate financial backing to warrant one.

Montana has gotten to that point, Bruk added.

Newly ordained, Bruk is a Lubavitch Hasid, and part of the international sect of observant Orthodox Jews who follow the teachings of the late Rebbe Menachem Schneerson.

Chabad sees its mission as reinvigorating Judaism and fulfilling Schneerson's vision.

"His premise was that not one Jew in the world should feel alone," Bruk said. "We're the Jewish Peace Corps Š the 'No Jew Left Behind' program."

Asked which category of Judaism -- Orthodox, Conservative, Reform -- it falls into, Bruk said, "Well, Chabad is itself Orthodox and observant. But, my answer to that is there are three kinds of Jews - a Jew, a Jew, and a Jew. The labels are unnecessary. Our common denominator is our focus, what we share instead of how we are different."

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