Bringing the light to the darkest of places, across 50 states

Minneapolis, MN — Last week, they were in Iowa and South Dakota. Next week, they’ll be in Texas and Kansas.

And this week, Rabbis Moishe Raksin and Shneur Pruss are in Minnesota traveling to prisons as part of the group’s quest to visit every Jewish prisoner in the United States this summer.

The two rabbis, along with two dozen other volunteers with the nonprofit Aleph Institute, will visit 450 prisons to advise, console or listen to an estimated 5,000 Jewish inmates in state and federal prisons.

“Every Jew has to be reached,” said Raksin, 21. “Even in the darkest places we can bring the light.”

On Wednesday, the two men, from New York City, drove to Stillwater in Washington County to talk with one prisoner and to Shakopee in Scott County to talk with two inmates at the women’s prison.

The prisoners were not identified by the rabbis.

“Every Jew has a responsibility to his fellow Jews,” Pruss, 22, said when asked why he volunteered for the visitation program. “This was the best way to spend the summer.”

The two men estimate they will travel hundreds of miles to minister to a small number of Jewish prisoners around the Midwest. That includes 13 Jews incarcerated in Minnesota.

“We consider them a good resource,” said Shari Burt of the Minnesota Department of Corrections. “They’ve been coming here for a number of years. We have a good relationship with them.”

The Aleph Institute, based in Florida, has been reaching out to Jews since it was founded in 1981. Although the nonprofit’s main work is to reach Jews in isolated situations, it also reaches out to Jews in the U.S. military, sending packages to Jewish soldiers abroad to help them observe or celebrate holidays such as Passover, Hanukkah and Rosh Hashana.

Mutual benefit

Rabbi Schmuel Margolis, who runs the summer inmate effort for Aleph, said the prison program benefits inmates and the volunteers, who tend to be rabbinical students or recently ordained rabbis.

“After the summer we get a lot of mail from chaplains, inmates, inmates’ relatives saying thank you for the visit; my son, my father was really touched,” Margolis said Wednesday. “It gives them hope, the ability to keep moving in their day-to-day lives in the prison.”

The volunteers, such as the recently ordained Pruss and Raksin, get experience in dealing with bureaucracy and ministering to Jews in difficult situations, Margolis said.

David Berg, chaplain and religious coordinator at the Shakopee women’s prison, said the Aleph volunteers help provide needed spiritual guidance to the Jewish prisoners.

“Prisons are not easy places,” Berg said. “The visits clearly provide a sense of support for them while they are serving their time.”

Pruss and Raksin, on their way to the state prison in Faribault and the federal prison in Rochester today, also sense that they have a positive impact on prisoners’ lives.

“In prison, everyone is trying to become a better person,” Raksin said. “So we try to inspire them, encourage them and help them out.”