His travels are related to preoccupying concerns of international political leaders, but this nuclear scientist says that it's his encounters with Chabad around the world that inspire him in his travels.
SANTA FE, NM — Steven Gitomer’s State Department funded missions to prevent nuclear scientists from selling their knowledge to rogue states takes him to distant outposts of the former Soviet Union. Whether his plane lands in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, or Russia, Gitomer makes a point of spending Shabbat with Chabad.
On State Dept. Missions, Nuclear Scientist Checks in With Chabad
His travels are related to preoccupying concerns of international political leaders, but this nuclear scientist says that it’s his encounters with Chabad around the world that inspire him in his travels.
SANTA FE, NM — Steven Gitomer’s State Department funded missions to prevent nuclear scientists from selling their knowledge to rogue states takes him to distant outposts of the former Soviet Union. Whether his plane lands in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, or Russia, Gitomer makes a point of spending Shabbat with Chabad.
Although he says he does not himself observe Shabbat, the retired Los Alamos scientist who is now a senior science advisor to the State Department, makes it his business to seek out Chabad wherever he goes.
“It is a great credit to the Chabad movement that there are rabbis and rebbetzins who settle their families in remote places and bring Yiddishkeit to folks there,” said Gitomer.
A member of Los Alamos Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) Division’s Center for International Security Affairs, Russian Nonproliferation Programs Office, and Counter Nuclear Terrorism Program Office, Gitomer will be sharing tales of his adventures at a Shabbat dinner hosted by Chabad-Lubavitch of Santa Fe, NM, on May 23.
Internationally themed Shabbat dinners, introduced this year by Rabbi Berel and Devorah Levertov, directors of Chabad, have drawn crowds to the synagogue and brought the community together.
Tales of Gitomer’s experiences, which he previewed to Lubavitch.com, range from the harrowing and poignant to the “only at Chabad” variety. A weeklong visit in the predominantly Muslim country of Azerbaijan found him in Baku.
