Notes from Roving Rabbis

Jacksonville was among 2500 cities worldwide visited by rabbinical students who spent part of their summer canvassing small, isolated communities. While not as exotic and remote as Vietnam, Ireland or Peru, our pair of roving Rabbis had quite some stories to tell.

The program, which is now in its 65th year, challenges Chabad rabbinical students to apply their training out in the field while providing a vital service in locations where there is often no Jewish community infrastructure.

“We cannot begin to estimate the numbers of Jewish people whose lives have been affected in a positive way, as a result of this program,” says Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of Lubavitch World Headquarters the project’s sponsor. “Our students literally travel the world in a tradition established by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1946, to search out Jewish people and connect with them no matter where they are,” adds Kotlarsky.

During the month of July, Jacksonville was graced by two wonderful young Rabbis-in-training, one named Zalman, the other Shmerel, who spent three weeks roving the city’s outbacks. Here are some notes they were kind enough to share:

“Our travels in the areas around and about Jacksonville brought us to many interesting places. Most of the Jews that we meat had two things in common: They were sure that they were the “only” Jews in the entire area, and they had very little Jewish affiliation and knowledge. The welcome was still, all-in-all, very pleasant. Most were intrigued at the sight of two Chassidic youngsters standing at their doorstep and were interested in hearing more about their heritage.

Amongst the communities where we spent some time was Green Cove Springs, a place – we were told – had once been under the strong influence and control of the KKK, we found that to be particularly providential. We exhausted our list of contacts, save for two names. The following week, as we concentrated our efforts on nearby areas, we decided to go back to Green Cove Springs and look up the two remaining addresses that we have not gotten to.

The woman who opened the door at the first destination, assured us that she was not-Jewish but politely offering to take whatever literature we had. We quickly moved on to the second address, which turned out to be on a dirt trail close to Black Creek.

As we pulled up to the house in our flashy orange car, we noticed a man driving a pickup slowed down. He surveyed the strange scene for a while with an unmistakable look of suspicion, if not disgust, and then continued slowly down the street. Unperturbed (or at least pretending to be), we walk up to the house. We quickly discovered that there was no one home, so we left a note at the door and returned to our car.

Just as we’re about to drive off, a car suddenly pulls into the driveway and a man jumps out. As the man looks at us sitting in the car his expression goes from hostile to tender. A conversation ensues, in which we learn that the man’s name is Justin and that he and his small child live in the house together with his parents.

Justin’s father is not Jewish and his mother doesn’t really consider herself Jewish, but her mother is Jewish and sometimes attends synagogue. Based on this it is clear that Justin is 100% Jewish. Justin, who always felt Jewish, never had a bar mitzvah, and agrees to put on Tefillin for the first time in his life right there in the driveway.

As soon as we conclude the Sh’ma, Justin tells us that the reason he came was, “because his neighbor in the pick drove by the creek where he was swimming with his son, alerting him that ‘some guys dressed up like Abraham Lincoln were hanging around his house, and that I ought to check it out.’

“As soon as I saw the Hebrew writing on your bumper sticker, said Justin, “I knew who you were and that G-d sent you to me.” He told us that he left his child with someone at the creek and that he had to return right away. With that he thanked us and turned to leave, disappearing into the same oblivion from which he has come.

We stood there taken aback by what had just occurred. We found ourselves marveling over the obviously “Fateful encounter” – how we came exactly at the right moment to be noticed by the suspecting pickup truck driver, so he could report his strange observation to his friend, enabling a Jew to do connect with his religious core by performing a special mitzvah for the very first time in his life. The amazing turn of events reminded us how everything is orchestrated by G-d – when we make the effort He does the rest.”