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NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — We don’t get many visitors from New York. But two men from Brooklyn are journeying through North Dakota to learn more about their heritage and connect with their community.
They’re rabbis, and they’re part of an international organization called the Roving Rabbis. They travel to isolated Jewish communities — such as those in North Dakota — and share stories and experiences. And one of the rabbis has a special connection to our state.
“One of the reasons why I actually decided to come out to North Dakota is, about 130 years ago, my great-great-grandfather immigrated from Lithuania to Grand Forks, North Dakota,” said Rabbi Meyer Orenstein. “He became the rabbi of not just that community, but the community throughout North Dakota. There were over 120 Jewish settlements at the time that the Homestead Act was passed; a lot of Jewish people moved out here with the hope of farming and the opportunity that it presented.”
Orenstein’s grandfather, Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster, was a “one-man band” for the Jewish communities in North Dakota. He traveled around the state to minister to the Jewish population, providing resources and performing ceremonies. And, like Rabbi Papermaster, these rabbis are also ministering to the Jewish families in our state hundreds of years later.
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“We’re here in North Dakota traveling around and giving access to those resources to those Jews– wherever they are,” said Rabbi Levi Shusterman, who is traveling around North Dakota with Orenstein. “We provide them with a little bit of Jewish flavor to their lives which might otherwise be lacking, in different areas around the state.”
The rabbis will be traveling around North Dakota for the next week– visiting Jamestown, Grand Forks, and Fargo. If you’d like to contact them, you can reach them at rovingrabbis@jewishnorthdakota.com.
If you’d like to learn more about the organization, you can click the link here.
