During a summer visit to Whitefish, Montana, we enjoyed a potluck Shabbat dinner with a small group of Jewish families, seniors, and singles. As the Shabbat candles flickered in the glow of the Montana mountains and we watched our kids playing, my husband and I sensed that this might be a new way of life for our family.
A couple years later, I left a career in the full-time congregational rabbinate to take a sabbatical in northwest Montana and see what the future might bring. After a year of volunteering in the Jewish community and driving the kids to school, baseball, and debate practice, I led the creation of the Glacier Jewish Community / B’nai Shalom.
Leading a start-up synagogue-without-walls was an adventure. We experimented with different gatherings in various settings: Torah study in a local diner, socials and annual meetings at a brewery, Friday night dinner, and Shabbat service on Whitefish Lake. It was a part-time job that allowed me to put my family first and create a calendar of Jewish offerings that interested me as well as the diverse Jewish residents of the area who were looking for belonging.
Here are a few of the core principles that oriented my work leading the Jewish community in northwest Montana.
- There are Jews everywhere. This is my answer to every question I receive about Jews in Montana. They might not affiliate but they have a level of Jewish identity. Some show their Jewish identity and look to connect with other Jews. Some will identify as Jews if they are asked, but not necessarily offer it first. Their social life is not organized around their religious, or cultural, identity; rather, they socialize with people who share their outdoor activities or interests in social issues.
- “Doing Jewish” may not be your people’s top priority. If you move to an area like ours, with no Jewish infrastructure, not even a synagogue building, then “doing Jewish” is not your priority. Maybe not even in your top 5 priorities. That doesn’t mean you don’t value your Jewish identity. It could have many meanings.
- Support do-it-yourself Judaism. Like us, many people moved here for the Western independent, outdoor lifestyle and have confidence that they themselves can provide for their children’s and their own Jewish identity and ritual life. The congregation can support that by providing Jewish education from a spiritual leader and other teachers, in low barrier ways such as the congregational email, holiday cards with notes about DIY home traditions, and connecting people with empowering resources like PJLibrary and myjewishlearning.com.
- People create their own, personal Jewish traditions separate from the organized Jewish community. One family I know flies “home” to be with extended family for the major holidays. Other families celebrate with their friends and family privately. One family holds a “Robert Zimmerman (AKA Bob Dylan) Seder” every year with people of all ages who don’t necessarily attend a traditional seder, or High Holy Day services, or even the annual Hanukkah party. Although it wasn’t kosher-for-Passover, I attended to honor them and model the importance of showing up. As long as I was supportive and not judgmental, I left the door open for engagement and outreach.
- Some people believe that the only way to be Jewish in the northwest is to “keep your head down and don’t attract attention.” When I arrived at the community and started Glacier Jewish Community, these folks were very unhappy that the Jewish community was in the news and attracting attention. Later, when a neo-nazi website targeted and cyber-terrorized the community, the Jews who didn’t like public attention left the community. However, people who didn’t connect previously stood up, identified themselves as Jewish, and gave their support for the Jewish community in response to the hate-based attacks. I will never forget the moment when our district’s state representative stood up at a Jewish community reception and identified himself as Jewish “because in times of trouble we stand up for each other.” Before that moment, many of us did not even know that he was Jewish.
- Jewish joy feeds Jewish souls. Many people have fixed ideas about what Judaism demands of them (giving up their personal interests for the greater good), whether they are “good Jews” (they don’t think they are), and what it means to give children a Jewish education (torture!) When we provide experiences of Jewish rituals and holiday celebrations and people walk away feeling happy, like they had fun, and excited that they met new people, they start to understand Jewish life in a new way. When I arrived, there was no tradition of celebrating Purim. What’s Judaism without Purim?! Not as fun, that is for sure.
- Jewish giving is a part of Jewish tradition. For some reason people believe that social action, or tikkun olam, is divorced from religious observance, yet many of our sacred times have commandments that involve contributing to those in need. At Passover, we collect money for people to celebrate the seder and receive matzah at no cost. At Purim, we collect essentials for the Food Bank whose reserves are low after the winter holidays. These small actions show people that “religious” practices speak to the social values they hold dear.
- If you honor people where they are, welcome them, help them feel comfortable in Jewish spaces, and thank them for taking the time to show up and participate, then they will return. In that way we are like any congregation across the country. Some come to talk to God and some come to talk to their neighbor! That’s okay by me. No one is made to feel uncomfortable if they don’t know Hebrew, or what the Kiddush blessing is, and I always read from a prayerbook or blessing sheet when I lead the community so that everyone is on the same page. Literally! Doing Jewish together, without judgment or one upmanship. We don’t take for granted that people chose to take the time to attend the gathering. There is no such thing, anymore, of “you come because you are supposed to.” And, again, that is okay. As long as we provide joyful, meaningful Judaism with depth and relevance to their lives, they will come back again to see what happens next.
- Being in majority-Jewish spaces is itself the draw. Some people want to learn more or practice more and some people just want the experience of being in a majority-Jewish space when they live in such a Christian-dominated area of the country. Without judgment, I welcomed people to the annual summer socials at breweries and never mentioned that I noticed they never came to services. If we did have socials, though, I always looked for fun, low-barrier ways to include Jewish content into the socials so that it was still a meaningful Jewish event when they looked back on it. Some people like to study; some like to debate; some like to practice tradition and maintain it for the next generation; and some just want to hang out with other Jewish folks and talk about bagels or bialys. The more we honor where people are, the more comfortable they will be to explore new areas of Jewish identity.
- We are spiritual Jews in the Glacier Jewish Community. I believe we might have more Jews that identify as “spiritual” than an average metropolitan congregation. That spirituality is experienced in nature. “Our synagogue is Glacier National Park.” “Our sanctuary is on top of a mountain!” Traditional prayer models are of little interest to most of the community. The challenge to future spiritual leaders is how to integrate Jewish prayers and teachings into the experience of nature and everyday life so that they speak to this community. The more we take traditional rituals outdoors and connect the ritual with the season, the more people are inspired by the experience.
In 2023, I retired from leading the congregation to pursue teaching resiliency and well-being, mindfulness meditation, and outreach to the interfaith community. My family continues to be members of the Glacier Jewish Community and to watch as the congregation evolves beyond its founding vision.
The last lesson that will guide the congregation’s future is an evolving truth in congregations around the country. Volunteers have limited capacity in their minds and hearts for Jewish engagement. They have a small window of “Jewish time” to allocate, so serving as a volunteer to help with a chosen gathering is preferable to meeting with a board or steering committee on a monthly basis. Without administrative support and spiritual leadership, the congregation becomes a social group. If there is no Jewish “value-add,” then people’s primary social groups take priority, understandably. The more diverse the Jewish opportunities–religious in nature, discussion in diners, Jewish games in breweries–the more people looking for Jewish connection will show up. The more they feel engaged in a way that honors who they are and helps them expand their Jewish identity, the more they will return and donate their time and resources.
I believe Jewish life can thrive anywhere it is planted. The soil was rich when I arrived in the Flathead Valley thanks to my predecessor Rabbi Allen Secher. I cultivated the fields during my time as rabbi and enjoyed watching the community grow and flourish. The next spiritual leaders and program directors will have plenty of work, and I have no doubt that their labor will bear fruit. Because we all need Jewish community. Now more than ever.