Patrick Anderson

panderson@argusleader.com

Matilda Oppenheimer didn’t know what it was like to live in a city without a rabbi until she and her husband moved to Sioux Falls.

“I grew up with a perception, with the rabbi as an integral part of the community,” Oppenheimer said. “He was a fixture of the community. And then I come here.”

She was raised in Buffalo, N.Y., where her childhood synagogue had full-time educators and full-time clergy.

What she found in Sioux Falls was an active community of lay people, and a place to raise her kids and give them a good education. Just, without a permanent rabbi.

A Brooklyn, N.Y.-based rabbi hopes to change that. Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz is planning to move to the city this spring, hopefully in time for the Jewish holiday of Passover, he said.

Alperowitz will be the first resident rabbi to live in South Dakota in decades. He is a rabbi trained in the Chabad tradition of Orthodox Judaism, a movement known for its outreach to far-flung Jewish communities. Chabad institutions send rabbinical students to South Dakota each year as part of the Roving Rabbis program.

South Dakota is the only state without a Chabad house, and Alperowitz plans to open the first.

“The idea of Chabad is to give each Jew the opportunity to practice their tradition and heritage in the most welcoming environment possible,” Alperowitz said.

The 27-year-old was born in southern England and has been living in New York for the last 10 years, also studying in Detroit and London. He decided to leave behind the big city for rural South Dakota after helping with Purim celebrations last year in Sioux Falls.

“You just feel this is the right thing,” Alperowitz said. “And it’s an honor to be able to serve and be able to dedicate ourselves to other people.”

Alperowitz will move to the area with his wife, Mussie, and two young daughters.

Those who practice Judaism in Sioux Falls have been without a resident rabbi for decades. Instead, Jews in the city and the rest of the state have relied on traveling students for studying the Torah and for practices and traditions that often require a rabbi.

Tracking the miniscule scope of the local Jewish population is no easy task. Some sources estimate the city’s Jewish population tops out at about 100, but board members at Mt. Zion Temple say membership at the reform synagogue itself exceeds that number, closer to 150.

According to 2014 report form the Jewish Federations of North America, South Dakota’s combined Jewish population is 250, the smallest of any state, making up .03 percent of total residents.

But at least a couple of things are certain: The state’s Jewish population has drastically decreased over the years, and regardless of the estimate there are people raised in the faith who are going uncounted.

Ari Maccadi, 36, say the numbers are smaller when it comes to the number Orthodox Jews in the state. He guessed he is one of roughly 20 people in Sioux Falls who are Orthodox. The Sioux Falls business owner said he helped pioneer an effort to get kosher meats at the Hy-Vee on 49th Street and Louise Avenue.

Having Alperowitz in Sioux Falls will be a resource for the community, Maccadi said. Before Alperowitz announced his plans, Maccadi was planning to drive to Omaha or Chicago to have a rabbi help with his son’s bar mitzvah.

“Once we establish that, an Orthodox synagogue, the community will grow leaps and bounds,” Maccadi said. “A lot of Orthodox Jews are not willing to come to a place like this, simply because there is no rabbi.”

Alperowitz will not lead the Reform congregation at Mt. Zion, but Oppenheimer said he will be a valuable addition to the community. Mt. Zion services will continue to be led by lay people and by students who visit from an Ohio-based school, Oppenheimer said.

“It’s going to be nice having Mendel here, and he will be a resource,” Oppenheimer said. “He has said he is happy to work with us.”