Our 'shlichus' (serving our role as Chabad Emissaries) is not an assembly-line shlichus; it is handmade. Every Neshama is hand-crafted. We wouldn't trade any for the world. We had the incredible opportunity to build up our community from the ground up.
We feel like absolute lottery winners. The Rebbe chose us to be the Shluchim (Chabad Emissaries) in Boise, Idaho. There was no logical reason for us to end up here. My wife and I have no connection to Idaho. She was raised in South Africa, I'm from Cincinnati, and neither of us had ever visited this place before.
We had other offers for Shlichus, but we wanted to be pioneers. We wanted to serve as Shluchim in a place where there was a critical need, and where we could make a pronounced difference.
Prior to arriving in Idaho, it had been over a decade since a Chabad centre was established in a new state. Our closest neighbours, Rabbi Benny & Rebbetzin Sharonne Zippel, had moved out to Utah twelve years prior. None of my peers were exploring shlichus opportunities in the remaining far-flung and remote states. It was a new and, at the time, unpopular challenge. We embraced it and arrived, together with our eldest son Dovid, in 5764 (2004) as the first shluchim to Idaho.
On our initial preparatory visit to Boise, we met three Jews. By the time we actually moved, one of them had left the city, and another was terminally ill. We had very little to work with. To this day, Idaho does not have a Jewish Federation, JCC, or any other typical community-based, Jewish organisations.
Surprisingly, Boise's Jewish history was very different from the other Western States. On the one hand, Idaho was the first state to elect a known Jew as governor when Moses Alexander became governor of Idaho in 1915, and the Reform congregation of Boise dates back to the 1890s.
On the other hand, there was never any organised Orthodox community. The small Jewish community had a storied history but remained very secular. Until today, there isn't a kosher Jewish cemetery in Boise, something we are fervently working to create. When we arrived, we became Idaho's first-ever “Religious” organisation!
Boise is also the most remote metropolitan area in the continental USA. Seventy-two percent of the land in Idaho is wilderness, with limited roads traversing the mountainous terrain. Boise is an up-and-coming city, currently experiencing an explosive growth spurt. With the metro population inching toward a million, it nonetheless has been able to retain its western, small-town feel. People here are incredibly friendly and polite.
As we were considering the Shlichus, our biggest concern was not the remoteness, the lack of kosher food or the ten-hour round-trip drive to the nearest mikvah. Our key question was, would we be able to successfully raise children with our Chassidic lifestyle in this spiritually undeveloped corner of the universe. To that end, we deliberately, yet organically, strived to operate our Shlichus as a family, with our children as critical partners.
With the Rebbe's blessings, we have Thank G-d been able to maintain our children's active role in our Shlichus. Preparing Shabbos meals, going on mivtzoim outreach, and running our Hebrew School are all examples of our children's shared ownership of our Shlichus. Our 12-year-old daughter's email signature is “Proud Shlucha to Boise, Idaho”!
Baruch Hashem, we have been blessed with a large family. Our daughter is learning in New York. At a Shabbat meal with a local Crown Heights family, she was asked, “How many Shluchim are there in Idaho?” Matter-of-factly, she responded, “Thirteen,” referring to our family (the only shluchim in the state), which had started off as three when we moved to Idaho. Our children are an integral part of everything we do in our Shlichus and this is giving them the best life they could have. It brings out the best of their talents, abilities, and personalities.
When our eldest son, Dovid, was about five years old, we brought him to the East Coast for a few weeks in the summer and enrolled him in a Jewish day camp. After his first day, he excitedly came home and declared, “All the kids in my bunk are my cousins!”
When I asked him why he came to that conclusion, he innocently asserted, “All the boys were wearing yarmulkes.” That was one of our first wake-up calls that we were raising Shluchim in a heretofore desert.
Our 30-strong Hebrew School student body originally started with 3 students. Baruch Hashem we've seen slow and steady progress. Interestingly enough, the two years of Covid brought more people to Boise than in all the previous ten years combined. Just last Shabbos, we had three new families at our Shabbos table. This year, we opened a CTeen chapter. After six months, Baruch Hashem, we had 30 teens participating in a variety of events.
One day, a college student from Northwest Nazarene University called our Chabad House. She told my wife, “I'm looking for a dreidel and a kippah. We're doing a comparative religion class and I decided to present about Judaism. I am looking for a place where I can get hold of these items. Can I come pick them up?” As one of the only local Jewish listings, we often receive these types of random requests. My wife readily agreed.
When the girl came to the Chabad House, we observed a girl deeply influenced by today's culture, down to her numerous body piercings. My wife handed her the dreidel and kippah and asked her why she had chosen to showcase these items at this type of university.
“I thought my grandmother would be proud,” the girl responded. “She was a Holocaust survivor.”
Immediately, we asked her in unison, “Which grandmother?”
“My mother's mother,” she answered, a bit puzzled at our obvious excitement.
“What are you doing Friday night?” my wife asked.
It took a few months for her Jewish identity to sink in. She had been raised without knowing she was Jewish. She gradually became more and more involved, attending events and shiurim in our Chabad House. Most of all, she connected with our family, spending countless Shabbos meals at our table. Her spiritual growth continued along many stations in her journey, and she is now living a proud observant life in Chicago with her husband and children.
Our Shlichus and our community have grown over the years. We now have a miniature version of what many large-town Chabad Houses have, with a wide range of programs. As we look toward the future, we remind ourselves never to forget the individual as we aim to influence the community. “Hand-made in Idaho is still our motto”!
A shliach's job is to do our little part, one step at a time, with the blessings from the Rebbe, and Hashem figures out the rest.
Reprinted from DollarDaily.org
Rabbi Mendel and Esther Lifshitz & Family of Boise, Idaho
