Our Trip To Alaska Part 10 - August 2012

We had an absolutely wonderful Shabbat in Anchorage

We arrived early enough on Friday to go to the local supermarket and buy supplies for Sunday and Monday and get ready to go to shul.

Chabad has just moved into its new building, a magnificent centre which houses its shul, kindergarten, and soon to be opened Alaska Jewish Museum. The rabbi and his wife moved here about 20 years ago, soon after they were married. 

The Chabad centre is located next door to the hotel where we were staying, literally a 2 minute walk. So given that the forecast was rain, we had no worries. 

We lucked out this Shabbat as the Rabbi and rebbitzin were hosting Sheva brachot for their daughter and new son in law who got married this past Wednesday. The wedding received wide coverage in the local press as it was the first chassidic Wedding in Alaska and was attended by many dignitaries including the Alaska state senator. The mechutan from Kiryat Malachi and his many children were all here for shabbat so there was quite a large crowd for Anchorage. 

There are about 4000 Jews in Alaska with the majority of them in Anchorage. There is only one Orthodox shul in the entire state and this was it. There are a number of other reform shuls in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks. 

On a normal Shabbat in the winter, there is no minyan on Friday night as Shabbat begins at about 3 pm and there are few tourists. On Shabbat morning they will get about 10 to 15 people.  

In the summer, with the number of cruise tourists, there is a Friday night minyan of 15 to 20 men and women and a Shabbat morning minyan of 20 men and 20 women plus tourists. This week because of the simcha there were about 25 men and 25 women Friday night and 50 men and 50 women on Shabbat morning.

There is a famous Alaskan Jewish family here called the Greens. They moved here in the early 1900s and established a furrier business. They are celebrating their 90th anniversary this year and are recognized as the leading fur business in the state. But more important they are also the address for hachnosas orchim and chessed in the Anchorage area. 

They have been responsible for establishing the minyan and raising much of the funds necessary to expand and sustain the Chabad center. Some of the original Green family children lived in Seattle so they knew the Genauer family (Ayala's family) well.

On Friday night after davening we had a very nice meal (our first meat meal in about a week). Besides the tourists like us, Rabbi Greenberg and his wife Esti and their children, the chosson Levi and kalla Mushka, the mechutonim and some of the leading Anchorage Jewish families were all there for dinner.

After we ate, there were a number of divrei Torah and then the rabbi began asking people in the crowd to make a toast to the bride and groom. Representing us, Shabsie made a wonderful speech. Everyone who spoke praised the rabbi and his wife for all that they had done for their family and for the community.

We made it back to the hotel by midnight. 

Like a typical Chabad shul, the davening began on Shabbat morning at 10:30 am. Being rosh chodesh, davening was longer than usual and the rabbi's son was the shaliach tzibbur and the Baal koreh. He lained faster than anyone I had ever heard, but was remarkably clear.

The kiddush that followed was a sit down meal complete with hamotzi and zemiros and divrei Torah; and again the rabbi challenged people in the crowd to contribute something. This morning, I was the spokesman for our group.

At the end of the meal, we struck up a conversation with one of the couples who were members of the Green family, David and Debbie Grashin. They have lived here and in Seattle, she went to Stern and he went to YU and their kids have all been to yeshivas in Israel. 

They invited us to seudah shlishit and while we were not up to more eating, we did decide to take them up on their offer to try and learn more about growing up Jewish and frum in Alaska. 

We finished our meal at about 3:30 pm.

After a good rest, we headed over to their home. It was close to 9 pm and was still very bright outside. Sunset was close to 10 pm and Havdala would not be till past 11 pm. 

They had a few other people there, including a couple that had just left Alaska for Hawaii. Talk about going from one large community to another and changing climates. He was a sea pilot before he retired and he is working on setting up a Chabad community in Kauai. He has a Sefer Torah there and an etrog orchard. 

We heard a number of interesting stories about the community and its early origins. One of the interesting things was that everyone we met over the weekend spoke glowingly about life in Alaska. 

After Shabbat, we went to pick up our rental cars for the next two days and finally got into bed after midnight. 

On Sunday, we are driving over two hours back to Seward to take a cruise of the fjords.

We will fill in again Sunday night

All the best

Fran and David