By Gary Rotto
SAN DIEGO — Summer vacations. I remember road trips as a kid with my folks, driving south from New Jersey to Gettysburg, Williamsburg and Fredericksburg. And another time, we drove through New England up to Canada, eventually to Montreal and Quebec City.
I’ve continued that tradition with my daughter. This year, we ventured to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Mount
Rushmore. Our trip was planned over 13 days and over one full Shabbat. Since our trip was to begin and end in Denver, our full Shabbat would be spent somewhere in Idaho, Western Wyoming or Montana. I remember as a kid visiting a few synagogues on our trips like the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island and the Congregation Shaar
Hashomayim in Montreal. So my daughter and I thought that it would be nice to attend Kaballat Shabbat
services somewhere near where we were touring. That is relatively near – say within two hours. Now Wyoming, Idaho and Montana are not exactly the bastions of large Jewish communities. And yes, there seems to be a Jewish presence anywhere that there seemed to be a trade route. But would we be able to find a place to celebrate Shabbat?
Dueto our schedule, we had some flexibility, but not too much. Denver has a large thriving Jewish community and I remember visiting friends affiliated with a conservative congregation in Salt Lake City many years ago. But we were not able to plan to be in either city during Shabbat. Looking at our itinerary and the map, I thought that I would begin the inquiries in Western Wyoming. Jackson has a small organized Jewish community which conducts Shabbat services once a month at the St. John’s Episcopal Church. In contacting the community’s Executive Director, Mary Grossman, I discovered that the community services were to be held the following weekend.
She noted that there was a Chabad minyan, but I had to decline as my daughter and I like to sit together in shul.
How about Eastern Idaho? Pocatello, Idaho has a small Jewish community that was formally established with the creation of a B’nai Brith lodge in 1923. The community purchased a renovated a church in 1946. On its website, one sees the beautiful stained glass windows. It’s interesting to note that in the American Jewish Yearbook reported a Jewish population of 140 in 1927 – and the website for Temple Emanuel notes that it has not been
surpassed since. We were hopeful, but again, not on this Shabbat would there be a formal service.
Our goal was to be relatively near the Yellowstone since we had specific lodging reservations in the park. So what about Billings, Montana? We’d be located a little farther north of Yellowstone than we would like, but only by a drive of 90 minutes, but one that would be doable. Congregation Beth Aaron, affiliated with the Reform movement was established in 1938. Billings may be best remembered for a rash of anti-Semitic activities – and the strong response from the cross section of the city leading to the “Not in our Town” movement.
I noticed when consulting the web that Rabbi Allen Secher was the only rabbi in all of Montana traveling around the state from Whitefish to Bozeman. I like the photo of Rabbi Secher holding up what I think is a trout that he has just caught. However, Rabbi Secher retired in 2008. But the state has established the Montana Association of Jewish Communities, or “Majco”, which includes Great Falls, Billings, Flathead Valley, Helena, Missoula, Butte and the largest community, Bozeman. In contacting the congregation in Billings, I was in luck – well sort of. The weekend on which we would be visiting Montana just happened to be the annual gathering of the Jewish community from all over the state. And this year it would be in … Great Falls! Another three plus hours
away. Hmmm. A seven hour drive back to Yellowstone. We’d have to pass.
In the end, we celebrated Shabbat on our own with grape juice and bread from the Albertson’s in Cody, Wyoming . And I added the weekly blessing over my daughter as we have done every week since her birth.
The old saying was that “you can’t make your own Shabbos” as in you have to follow certain rules like the Jewish Sabbath being on Friday night and not Wednesday night. But sometimes you have to be creative in order to still have Shabbat during its proper time of the week and still be thankful for that day of rest and for the blessing of family – and the opportunity to see the spectacular beauty in nature around us.
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Rotto is a freelance writer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at gary.rotto@sdjewishworld.com