Banff and Canadian Rockies Gets Its First Full-Time Rabbi

by Uziel Scheiner – chabad.org

The town of Banff, Alberta, sits in a tight pocket surrounded by the jagged snow-streaked mountains of the Canadian Rockies. It’s a dazzling place—the type where every scene seems to belong on a postcard and pictures taken on your phone don’t need any filters. Located within Banff National Park, the town is characterized by quaint homes and grand chateau-style hotels that cluster under the towering gaze of the surrounding mountains. Snaking along the bottom of the town, Bow River runs from Bow Falls and meets Spray River, the glistening water so clear one can see directly to the bottom.

Although the town’s residential population is quite small—fewer than 10,000 people—Banff’s natural beauty and cozy charm annually attracts 5 million tourists, who make the trip to indulge in the awe-inspiring scenery and variety of outdoor activities like skiing the Canadian Rockies, rafting on Lake Louise and bathing in the famous Banff hot springs.

Banff is one of many small towns that line the Canadian Rockies, getaway destinations to enjoy pure natural beauty and disconnect from an otherwise bustling world. But Rabbi Dovid Pinson, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., sees something more: a chain of untapped terrain, prime for an infusion of dynamic and authentic Judaism.

Pinson and his wife, Devorah, are no strangers to Jewish communal work. They spent two decades as part of the team at Chabad of Edmonton, Alberta, focusing on youth activities. Now, they have set their sights on a new opportunity and challenge: establishing Chabad of the Canadian Rockies.

There’s a New Rabbi in Town

When it comes to reveling in the Canadian Rockies’ abundant resources, visitors to Banff and its environs have no shortage of options. Until recently, however, the Jewish landscape presented a different picture.

“There’s absolutely no Jewish infrastructure in the Canadian Rockies,” Rabbi Pinson told Chabad.org. “Yet there’s a huge need … between the full-time residents, part-time residents and tourists, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”

Previously, the Rockies would receive seasonal “Roving Rabbis” sent by Rabbi Menachem Matusof, senior rabbi and executive director of Chabad of Alberta in Calgary. “There is a lot of potential in the area, and based on the feedback we got over the years we knew it really needed a full-time Chabad presence,” he said. “The Pinsons are the perfect fit.”

Rabbi Pinson’s enthusiasm and passion are real, but his exuberance is not without reservation. He is well-aware of the realities of the area and the specific difficulties inherent in his purlieu. The communities of the Canadian Rockies—Banff, Canmore, Jasper and Lake Louise, to name a few—are mostly isolated tourism towns. Activity is seasonal, and many of the residents split their time in other locations.

Moving to the Rockies also means the Pinsons need to relocate their five children (ages ranging from 6 to 19) from the home they’ve known their entire lives to a completely new environment. “It’s a huge lifestyle change,” said Devorah Pinson. “Our children are leaving the home where they’ve grown up for a completely new place. The change is easier for some of our children than others.”

Some ‘Rocky’ Conditions

The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, began sending emissaries back in 1950, tasking them with strengthening Jewish life near and far, with a special emphasis on places with less existing Jewish structure. Today, there are more than 5,000 Chabad emissary couples stationed around the world—from the heart of metropolises like New York City and Paris to the very edges of the earth.

“We’re embracing the challenges because we know we’re doing this for the right reasons,” said Pinson. “We are here to serve the Jews in the area and build a community, just as the Rebbe wanted.”

The Pinsons moved into their new home in Canmore this winter, just down the road from Banff and, with a population of around 15,000, the region’s largest town. Among their plans are a synagogue, mikvah and a kosher store. But given the composition of their mandate, the Pinsons are tailoring their efforts to the particular conditions of the Rockies.

The towns of the Canadian Rockies are a favorite for makers of destination weddings, family getaways and conferences. A large portion of its visitors are part of such groups, who settle in the local resorts and hotels to celebrate amid the magnificent backdrop of the mountains, parks and lakes.

For Jewish groups, however, there’s a significant problem. There’s no access to kosher food in the entire region. Pinson’s solution? A state-of-the-art, industrial-grade mobile kosher kitchen that can be brought to any venue and used to cater events in-house. The $200,000 project bypasses the often-complex process of kashering a commercial kitchen.

“If someone’s making a wedding or a bar mitzvah in one of these hotels, they don’t have to come up with a whole new solution to figure out how to get kosher,” said the rabbi. “We can pull up right in the back of any of these places. You can bring your chef, your staff, and we provide all the kosher equipment you need.”

Pinson has started to develop relationships with the management of the various venues in the area, and his goal is for all the main hotels to have access to Chabad’s kitchen so that kosher food can be available to the groups who visit throughout the seasons—many of whom might not eat kosher otherwise.

A Time for Everything

The seasonal nature of the Rockies means that some points of the year, like the summer, and certain times of winter when the skiing season is ripe, are packed and bustling with intense levels of tourism. Other times, like the freezing stretches of winter when temperatures drop well below zero, remain still and quiet.

The Pinsons see both times as opportunities to focus on two different avenues of impact. In the off-season, the Pinsons aim to focus on the most isolated of local residents, mining the assorted towns and cities that dot the Canadian Rockies and Bow Valley for individual Jews and Jewish families to connect with and incorporate into their budding community. When tourism is high, the Chabad center will serve as a hub and resource for the high volume of travelers descending on the Rockies from all over the world, in addition to the local Jewish population.

For all the varied initiatives the Pinsons plan on introducing to the region, their primary focus remains simple: make lasting relationships and nurture a Jewish community that will blossom in the Rockies. With the dearth of any existing Jewish structure, the Pinsons are starting from scratch. The current nature of the community is a scattered Jewish population lacking a central point of contact. The Pinsons find themselves forming the core of a Jewish network, connecting Jews who have lived in the area for years but had not known of Jewish neighbors living right next door.

“For the longest time, there was nothing Jewish here besides for what we did in our own home,” said Belle Toren, a resident of Canmore. Toren first started spending time in Canmore in 2003 and has lived there full-time since 2013. She described how in the 20 years since she has been in Canmore, it has been without a center around which a Jewish community could gather. Jewish life was relegated to whatever customs or practices were done at home or outsourced to larger cities like Calgary, more than an hour’s drive away.

“This Chanukah was the first time that our Jewish community properly came together,” Toren said. “The exposure to other Jews from Canmore—being able to feel the connection and see the outpouring of people coming together in honor of Chanukah—is something I will cherish forever.”

To the Pinsons, moments like these are the purpose of their venture to the Canadian Rockies. As Devorah Pinson describes it: “To match the spiritual beauty of the Rockies with its natural one. That’s what we’re here for.”