Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz started visiting Cherry Gulch, an Idaho-based therapeutic boarding school for boys, more than a decade ago. At the time, the school was looking for better ways to serve its Jewish students. The rest is history.

These days Lifshitz, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Idaho in Boise, makes the roughly hour-long drive to visit Jewish students on a weekly basis. The informal group gathers to talk about issues they face, particularly in a Jewish context, and about upcoming Jewish holidays. Bar mitzvah-aged boys put on tefillin. Lifshitz serves as a mentor and friend to the boys, offering spiritual guidance to those who are interested.

“What’s most effective and rewarding for me is seeing their progress, and having them recognize and feel that somebody really, genuinely cares about them,” he tells Chabad.org.

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The therapeutic boarding school for middle-school boys has up to 50 students at a time, assisting them with a range of issues, including anxiety, ADHD, conflicts at home and educational challenges, according to Bernie Zimmerman, executive director of Cherry Gulch. “Our job is to reinvest them in academics, help them work through some of the family issues and work with the parents to help bridge them back home to get back involved in their community,” he explains.

The school for middle-school boys has up to 50 students at any given time, helping those struggling with a host of issues, including anxiety, ADHD and conflicts at home.

Zimmerman says he appreciates the support the rabbi provides for students at the school (about 25 percent are Jewish), who come from all over the United States and beyond. Lifshitz visits weekly, planning activities for the boys and proactively keeping the school in the loop regarding the Jewish calendar. And a major venture is on the horizon: In June, a group of Cherry Gulch families are going to Israel, with the rabbi joining them on the trip.

“He’s constantly present,” says Zimmerman of Lifshitz’s involvement, especially during the holidays, “helping boys reinvest in their faith.”

Working with Jewish teens who find themselves at the boarding school evolved over the years into an official Chabad program called jHEART (Jewish & Hebrew Education for At-Risk Teens), notes Lifshitz. He also serves Cherry Gulch’s sister school, Novitas Academy, for older students.