Young rabbis visiting Jews in Midwest prisons

Jefferson City, MO — Two newly ordained rabbis from Brooklyn, N.Y., traversed Missouri this week, seeking to make contact with every Jewish person in the state’s prison system.

Moishe Raksin, 21, and Shneur Pruss, 22, stopped briefly in Jefferson City to talk about their project. Other states they will visit on their three-week tour include Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

“Our goal is to reach every Jewish inmate in every prison in these five states,” said Pruss.

The two rabbis are affiliated with the Aleph Institute, a Florida-based Jewish organization that provides social services to families in crisis.

“We want to show them there are still people who remember them,” said Pruss. “We’re not there to judge them… but we want to encourage them. Not too many have access to a full-time Jewish chaplain.”

Pruss noted it can be difficult for Jewish offenders to practice their religion; state prisons are often in remote locations, where few Jewish amenities are available.

The Aleph Institute tries to make sure that Jewish inmates have the spiritual items – menorahs, candles, kosher food – they need to practice their faith.

Pruss said the inmates they meet are grateful to see someone familiar.

“The visits are very fulfilling for us and the inmates are very happy to see us,” said Raksin.

At each stop, the two rabbis are willing to conduct a prayer service, study with the inmate (studying is an important part of the faith) and “schmooze,” explained Pruss.

Pruss, a cheerful, wise-cracking young man – one of 14 siblings back home in Brooklyn – doesn’t think of his work as a somber or depressing duty.

“When you are cheerful and upbeat, then everyone around you is upbeat,” he said.

He said he’s had all kinds of conversations with the inmates he’s met. “Some of those conversations are light-hearted, some are intellectually stimulating,” he said.

About 30 Chabad-Lubavitch students are participating in the summer visiting program. Working in small groups, they’ll drive thousands of miles to visit 5,000 Jewish inmates in 45 states in six weeks.

Already, Pruss and Raksin have traveled about 2,500 miles.

Chabad Lubavitch is one of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism; adherents of the faith are Orthodox Jews.

But Pruss is not a big believer in religious divisions.

“I don’t like labels; labels are for clothing,” he said. “We’re all a part of the same tribe. Our common ground exceeds our differences.”

As a Jew, Pruss said Chabad focuses on “the beauty of being involved in Judaism and the richness of living an observant-Jewish lifestyle.”

Pruss said he and Raksin are following the teaching that “every Jew should be reached, even in the darkest places.”

Pruss said, in his faith, there is no such concept as imprisonment. The two young men hope to teach offenders that simply because their bodies are trapped, doesn’t mean their souls are.

“When you engage in a spiritual deed – a mitzvah – you are transcending the confinement of the prison,” he said.

He said sometimes the inmates bring up the topic of forgiveness and repentance.

“But we are not there to judge them,” he said.

Sometimes, non-Jews also come to listen and learn from the two rabbis.

One African-American man Pruss met surprised him when he spoke Hebrew.

“They have time to study the Bible and many know it by heart,” said Raskin.

While Raskin and Pruss are young, they feel they’ve already seen the world.

As part of their rabbinical training, Raskin studied in Russia and Los Angeles, Pruss studied in London and Israel.

Between July 30 and Aug. 6, the young men have plans to visit prison facilities in Bonne Terre, Bowling Green, Cameron, Farmington, Jefferson City and Licking.

On Thursday, they met with a man in his fifties at the South Central Correctional Center.

“He actually stayed up the whole night preparing his questions,” said Raskin. “He only gets a visit once a year so he stayed up the whole night. His eyes were red.”