Canadian Town’s Jewish Community Revitalized

In the shadow of a skyline dominated by the General Motors Renaissance Center across the narrow Detroit River, the small, public University of Windsor draws close to 15,000 students from locations throughout Canada to the quiet and unassuming city of Windsor. Located on the border, it occupies a swath of Ontario locals point out is the only part of Canada that lies south of the United States and was once a source of prohibition-busting smugglers and black market liquor.

But for all its charm, its proximity to Detroit has tied its economy to the fate of the American automotive industry. Its sizable and fractured Jewish community has dwindled, but a family of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries is working to make sure those left – and the students coming in – are provided for spiritually.

Dana Horwitz, a New Yorker who moved here 16 years ago to be closer to her husband’s family, laments at the difficulty of being observant in Windsor, especially raising children with few local Jewish influences or opportunities.

“My oldest is graduating high school and I know he’s going to leave Windsor and probably not come back, because there are really not that many opportunities for Jewish families here,” she said.

The Horwitzs are one of a handful of observant families that three years ago welcomed Rabbi Sholom and Rivka Galperin into their community, hoping to reignite Jewish life for the area’s residents.

None of Windsor’s three Jewish congregations could be considered growing at the time of the Galperins’ arrival, but residents are fiercely loyal to their own places of worship. Instead of attempting to start a rival synagogue, the rabbi discovered that Congregation Shaarey Zedek, the city’s oldest, was looking for a new leader.

Though the mostly elderly congregants had already established their own traditions and though at first Galperin was careful not to interfere, he nevertheless felt the community needed to be imbued with the spirit and liveliness that is the hallmark of the Chasidic way of life.

“When we came here, we saw that there was a lack of the regular Chabad spirit and heimishkeit making it a beautiful and a homey place where a person wants to go,” explained Galperin, sprinkling some Yiddish in his words to better illustrate the concept. “Heimishkeit is the warmth and the caring within a Jewish community, the sense of hospitality when you attend a synagogue service and you’re greeted with a ‘Hello’ that makes you feel special.”

The rabbi and his wife also saw a need among Jewish students attending UWindsor, many of whom were used to a vibrant, cosmopolitan Jewish life in their home cities. They established a Chabad House separate from the synagogue in their home, their door always open to anyone looking for Jewish resources, education, somewhere to stay, or just a welcoming atmosphere for the Sabbath and holidays.

Dinners at the Galperin home on Friday nights have become a big draw for the students. During the academic year, it’s common for the family to host between 10 and 40 students each weekend.

“We realized that there is a yearning for people to have something like this away from home, and for the students, it is sometimes their only cooked meal for the whole week,” said Galperin, referring to the relative lack of kosher food in Windsor.

Naphtali Silverman, 25, a recent graduate of UWindsor Faculty of Law, has personally seen and benefited from the Galperins’ work, and has been part of its growth from the beginning. Raised in Toronto, Silverman attended high school at Yeshiva Or Chaim; he found Congregation Shaarey Zedek when searching online for a synagogue to attend as a graduate student.

“I think the biggest draw is that Rabbi Galperin is very good at not judging people, and at making things comfortable,” said Silverman. He “has a way of subtly handing you a [skullcap] to put on when you come into the synagogue without making it awkward. When you come to the house, it’s always free; they never charge anyone, and they encourage people to bring whomever they want to make themselves comfortable. People don’t feel overwhelmed.”

Although, the Galperins do their best to make guests feel at home, adherence to Jewish tradition is prioritized. Blessings, prayers, traditional melodies, and discussion of Jewish topics hold precedence at Chabad House of Windsor dinners, as in Chabad Houses all over the world. According to Silverman, this is not a deterrent to students, because the Galperins are great at explaining what’s coming next or at translating the songs and prayers.

Elsewhere on campus, the rabbi conducts weekly “Lunch and Learn” sessions, assists organizations like the Jewish Students Association with events, and contributes a segment on CJAM 99.1FM student radio’s weekly morning show, “Boker Tov.”

Horwitz, who serves as Shaarey Zedek’s secretary and treasurer, ascribes a rejuvenating quality to all of the activity.

“It’s refreshing when the average age could be in the 70’s to have these students coming in for the services,” she said. The Galperins themselves are also a “young couple, dynamic, and with lots of energy and innovative ideas that they use to bring events that we didn’t have before.”

Every Chanukah, the Galperins host a large public Chanukah menorah lighting inside Windsor’s Devonshire Mall that is attended by hundreds of residents.

“It brings out people who wouldn’t necessarily come to a religious service,” said the rabbi.

For their second public lighting in 2010, they built the menorah out of donated cans of food that were later sent to a local food bank. The following year, they built one out of Lego building blocks that were later donated to a local hospital’s pediatric wing.

Non-Jewish residents have also begun to notice the Chabad House. Horwitz recalls how on one recent Sabbath afternoon, the Galperins hosted the rabbi’s father and two brothers, all of whom are also Chabad rabbis

“The four of them, with their long beards ranging from vibrant red to brown to black to gray, wearing yarmulkes and hats, got stopped numerous times by strangers on the street during their half-a-mile walk from the synagogue to their house. They wanted to ask questions and take pictures,” described Horwitz. (The family politely declined the pictures.) “It’s so unusual to see Chabad rabbis walking in Windsor.”

The Galperins hope to expand their Chabad House activities in the near future by completing the necessary paperwork to receive chaplaincy status at the university, and to continue building on their community-wide programs.

“I think it’s important to stress how much the Galperins do for the community,” said Silverman. “When there is a funeral, they are there. When there is [ritual circumcision], they are there. When somebody is in the hospital, they go to visit. They are really dedicated to everyone and without them I don’t know what I would have done.”