You can kayak from New York to Iceland in 1,317 hours. Or fly Icelandair in five. At least that’s the tagline Iceland’s main airline plastered all over the Big Apple a few years ago as part of an ad campaign to attract New Yorkers to the land of the Northern Lights (it would be 1,417 or six, respectively, from Washington, D.C.). Along with most of the 2 million tourists who visit Iceland each year, Rabbi Avi and Mushky Feldman will be flying to the island country’s capital of Reykjavík later this year. But unlike the others, they and their two young daughters, Chana and Batsheva, are flying one-way in order to establish the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Iceland.

Their appointment was announced at the Sunday-night gala banquet of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchos), which brought together 3,000 female Chabad representatives from 100 countries and their guests.

The Feldmans’ arrival will herald a new era for Iceland’s tiny Jewish community and fulfill a number of firsts for Iceland’s long but sparse Jewish history. The Chabad Jewish Center will be Iceland’s first institutional Jewish presence; Feldman will be the country’s first permanent rabbi; and aside from congregations formed by British and American troops during World War II, theirs will be the first synagogue in Iceland’s 1,000-plus years of history.

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Until now, Reykjavík also had the distinction of being the last major European capital without a synagogue or a rabbi.

All this is not to say Iceland did not have a Jewish community until now. It did, and does, run for decades by volunteer Mike Levin, a Chicagoan who has lived in Iceland since 1986. Gathering for years on Jewish holidays and for various programs, they kept the flame of Jewish life alive—a pilot light protected from the cold Nordic air.

“We have always had a small group of Jews here,” Levin, who over the years has been identified by almost every news report on Jewish life in Iceland as the community’s “unofficial spokesman,” tells Chabad.org. He notes that “in the old days, we had a phone list, and we’d contact everyone who was interested in taking part and let them know. We did things for most major holidays, and at one point, we had a regular Shabbat service.”

Volunteers like Mike Levin, a Chicagoan who has lived in Iceland since 1986, helped keep the flame of Jewish life alive.

But running a Jewish community on a volunteer basis comes with difficulties. The United States military had a base in Iceland where Jewish personnel were serviced from time to time by Jewish chaplains, but it closed in 2006. Iceland’s Jews got a boost when Rabbi Berel Pewzner—then a rabbinical student and today co-director of Chabad of the Cayman Islands—initially reached out to Levin in 2011 and as part of Chabad’s Roving Rabbis program arranged the first public Passover seder there, drawing 50 people. Pewzner arranged High Holiday services later that year, and in response to the warm reception they received from the community, rabbinical students have come a few times a year ever since. Over the years, through holiday programs and regular home visits, the Roving Rabbis managed to connect with many individual Jews living throughout Iceland.

Another resource Iceland’s Jews made use of was Chabad.org. The largest Jewish educational and inspirational website, Chabad.org provides thousands of articles, Jewish audio and video content, daily Torah classes, Shabbat candle-lighting times, “Ask the Rabbi” and access to primary Jewish texts—a resource regularly tapped into by millions of people around the world. It is very often a lifeline for isolated Jewish communities and individuals, Iceland being just one example.

The Feldmans traveled to Reykjavik in December to celebrate Chanukah with the Jewish community.

But talk always returned as to whether it would ever be feasible for a Chabad couple to set up shop.

“By now, it’s kind of necessary,” says Levin of the Feldman’s impending arrival. “If someone puts their full-time concentration on [Jewish life in Iceland], they can do a lot of things here.”

While there are around 100 Jews who have participated in community functions in one way or another, the year-round Jewish population, including university students and staff, is likely closer to 250. Along with the burgeoning tourist industry, which has exploded in the last decade and currently contributes to 10 percent of Iceland’s GDP, Feldman sees a bright future in Reykjavík.

“We want to focus on the Jewish needs of everyone who lives, works or travels to Iceland,” states the rabbi.

“Over the last decade we have been sending rabbinical students to Iceland as part of our effort to serve every Jew wherever they may be,” says Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad movement, and the person who oversees assistance for outlying Jewish communities. “We felt that now is the right time, and the Feldmans are the right couple, to establish a permanent presence to serve the Jews living in and visiting Iceland. With G‑d’s help, this monumental step will give every Jew in Iceland the opportunity to connect to their heritage.”