A grassroots support group for Chabad women living off the grid, convenes for an annual retreat
What’s it like to keep a kosher home where kosher food isn’t available? Or to give your children a Jewish education where none exists?
The geographic isolation experienced by growing numbers of Chabad representatives who serve in places far from Jewish life, has spawned a community of its own.
Devorah Leah Levertov has been directing Chabad of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the past twenty-two years. “It gets lonely living without family and Jewish infrastructure, and you need to be creative and highly motivated to make it work,” says the mother of six who learned to improvise when her children wanted Italian pizza. (The nearest kosher cheese is sold in Denver, a six hour drive away.)
With Chabad now in most large and small cities, more and more young couples committed to serving as Chabad shluchim are venturing out further afield. Many call the veteran emissaries for advice on how to navigate the unique challenges, and four years ago, Devorah Leah and three friends in similarly isolated areas—Bassie Feldman in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nechoma Goldman in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Mussie Kesselman in Greenville, South Carolina—realized there was a strong need for a support system.
The women wanted to help the couples who had moved to places like Fargo, North Dakota and the Cayman Islands, where they are the only observant families for hundreds of miles. They formed the community and network they had wished for when they first set out.
“Think about it,” says Levertov, “these are communities where you cannot outsource anything. There’s no Jewish schools, so you have to teach your kids yourself. There is no kosher caterer so you’re cooking weekly Shabbat meals for crowds of people from scratch. So we wanted them to be able to network and support each other, and at the same time show these hardworking rebbetzins, who are always helping others, that we are all there for them, that we all understand and appreciate them.”
Source: http://lubavitch.com/news/article/2107919/Isolated-But-Not-Alone.html
