Shluchim to South Dakota Story Goes Viral

Several national and international media outlets have pickup up on the story of Chabad sending an emissary to South Dakota, thus solidifying its permanent presence in all 50 states – a story which was first reported here on CrownHeights.info.

South Dakota, with its minuscule Jewish community scattered throughout a geographically expansive area, has had the dubious distinction of being the only state in America with no rabbi. That will all change this winter, it was announced at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, when Rabbi Mendel and Mussie Alperowitz move from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Sioux Falls to establish a Chabad center that will cater to a community dating back to the days of the Wild West.

The appointment comes as the American Jewish community marks 75 years since the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, arrived on U.S. shores from war-torn Europe in 1941.

Chabad-Lubavitch has been serving Jews in South Dakota for more than half a century, since the Rebbe established the Merkos Shlichus (Roving Rabbis) program, which dispatches pairs of young rabbis to small and isolated communities around the globe. Although it has been widely accepted that fewer than 400 Jewish people reside in the entire state, Rabbi Alperowitz estimates that it may indeed be home to as many as 1,000 Jews. He believes that the Jewish population may have been bolstered in recent years by the growing financial and health-care industries.

Among the media outlets who have picked up on this story are:

The Washington Post – South Dakota is getting its only full-time rabbi — and becoming the 50th state for Chabad

The New York Post – Brooklyn man set to become South Dakota’s only rabbi

The Jerusalem Post – Chabad center to open in South Dakota, last US state without one

The JTA – Chabad to open Jewish center in South Dakota, its 50th state

Tablet Magazine – Last U.S. State Without a Rabbi Finally Gets One

Photos by Chabad.org / Eliyahu Parypa