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MORRISTOWN, NJ — More than 75 people participated in a Shabbaton at the Rabbinical College of America’s Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim, where they heard Dovid Voluck, who enthralled them with his tale of living with Alaska’s Native American tribes and organizing the first minyan on the island of Sitka.

Alaskan Jew Inspires Shabbaton

Chabad.edu

MORRISTOWN, NJ — More than 75 people participated in a Shabbaton at the Rabbinical College of America’s Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim, where they heard Dovid Voluck, who enthralled them with his tale of living with Alaska’s Native American tribes and organizing the first minyan on the island of Sitka.

Voluck, an alumnus of the yeshiva, which has special summer programs for college students, told those who had gathered for the occasion that he was almost adopted by a tribe as one of its own. He was ultimately prevented from joining by an elder, whose grandmother, she said, had visited her in a dream.

“You cannot give him one of our names,” Voluck said the elder heard in her dream. “He is from his own tribe.”

Voluck, who as a Kohen is actually a member of a Jewish priestly tribe, then embarked on an exploration of his true identity. After learning in yeshiva, he returned to Alaska to open up a law practice.

Comedian and actor Reuven Russell also addressed the Shabbaton.

After Shabbat, the yeshiva and its guests enjoyed a lively farbrengen – in which participants took upon themselves firm resolutions in Torah and mitzvot for the upcoming year – before the recitation of the Selichot supplications that precede Rosh Hashanah.

Dr. Henry Epstein, a Houston resident and father of one of the students, said, “I never experienced such a feeling of brotherhood and togetherness.”

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