The Black Fedora in the Cowboy State: Rabbi Zalman & Raizy Mendelsohn

00:00 Speaker 1 The reason it's called Jackson Hole is because it's surrounded on all four sides by mountains.

00:04 Speaker 2 That's Rabbi Zalman Mendelson. In early 2007, he and his wife, Rebbetzin Raizy Mendelson, took a pilot trip to Jackson Hole to explore the potential there for Jewish outreach.

00:17 Speaker 1 And I knew that Jackson Hole, being a tiny little town, would be somewhat overwhelming for Raizy to consider moving here full-time.

00:25 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons had rented a car, so in order to make Jackson Hole, population 10,000, seem more like the bustling metropolis Raizy had grown up in, Zalman drove in circles, trying to make the town look bigger than it was.

00:41 Speaker 3 And he said, "Oh, you haven't seen it all yet. We still didn't drive down High School Road. Really, there's a bunch of cows."

00:46 Speaker 1 And she said, "This place is beautiful, but can we perhaps consider other opportunities?"

00:52 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons had many other options, but Zalman had previously gotten to know Wyoming and the Jewish community in Jackson Hole. He loved it there. On that same trip, he invited a few dozen for Shabbos.

01:06 Speaker 3 And we had a beautiful, beautiful Shabbos dinner.

01:09 Speaker 2 That was expected, but what happened during that dinner stunned both of them.

01:14 Speaker 1 A group of attendees, unbeknownst to me, had collaborated and colluded beforehand to surprise us.

01:22 Speaker 2 Members of Jackson Hole's Jewish community had clearly demonstrated their demand that the Mendelsons locate there permanently. They were overwhelmed.

01:32 Speaker 1 And at that point, it became apparent to both of us that this was the future.

01:36 Speaker 3 I felt like, wow, yes, there's no question we're moving here.

01:39 Speaker 2 For Rabbi Zalman and Rebbetzin Raizy, the future of their Jewish outreach would hold high challenge and high reward in a location known for its natural beauty and its wealthy seasonal and permanent residents. I'm Gary Wollek, and this is Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Here's a great opportunity for you. You rely on the Lamplighters podcast to bring you inspiring stories of Chabad emissaries all over the world. Now you can help keep our series going strong. To dedicate an episode, please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com to explore dedication opportunities. That's podcast@lubavitch.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. Raizy Mendelson was born in Toronto.

03:19 Speaker 3 And when m- I was 12 years old, my family made Aliyah and moved to Israel.

03:24 Speaker 2 While attending Bais Yaakov High School in Toronto, Raizy also worked at Camp Emunah as a counselor when she was 16 years old. It was there that her dream of working as a Chabad emissary began to take shape.

03:38 Speaker 3 Looking around at all the bunks, I felt like you could pinpoint which girls grew up on shluchas. And watching the campers who grew up as shluchas, I said, "That is the way I want to raise my children."

03:51 Speaker 2 A few years later, she'd meet her bashert, who would help her realize that dream. Zalman Mendelson grew up in Miami Beach, attended yeshiva in Brunoy, France, Kfar Chabad, Israel, and 770 in Crown Heights. He received rabbinic ordination in 2006 in Morristown, where he taught for two years, but he had always known what he wanted to do.

04:18 Speaker 1 From my, uh, elementary school yearbook, I already described myself as wanting to go out on shlichus. The heroes in my life as a child were shluchim, the kindest, sweetest, nicest people that I had gotten to know.

04:32 Speaker 2 Mendelson had been very involved in Merkos Shlichus, working in Chabad houses in about 30 countries, but he had a special affection for Wyoming.

04:42 Speaker 1 I had visited Jackson Hole for three years. I had already known about the people in the community. The raw beauty of this place, the majestic mountains, the nature, the wildlife creates an overall person that is in tune with nature and that is humbled before God's creations and looks up at the mountains in awe.

05:04 Speaker 2 Mendelson wanted to go there permanently. In 2006, Raizy was working at Chabad of Eastern Queens, helping run the Friendship Circle and Camp Gan Israel there. A friend of Zalman's mother told a friend of Raizy's mother about a great guy looking for a shidduch. The reply was that she knew of a great girl also looking for a match. Raizy, intrigued, was about to get a lesson in geography.

05:33 Speaker 3 When my husband's name came up as a shidduch suggestion, my mother said, "You know, he spent a year in Singapore, and he spent time in 30 countries. He spends a lot of time in Wyoming." And I'm born in Canada and grew up in Israel, never studied American geography, and I said, "Well, where's Wyoming?" And my mother opened up a map and said, "You know, it's south of Montana, and it's to the right of Idaho, and it's above Colorado, North Dakota." And I said, "Okay, now where's that?"

06:05 Speaker 2 Raizy and Zalman began dating in late summer 2006. Zalman began to enthusiastically promote the idea of outreach in Jackson Hole, citing its natural beauty and unique Jewish community, which numbers about 500.

06:20 Speaker 1 When Raizy and I dated, it was fairly certain that we would end up moving on somewhere in Wyoming and likely to Jackson Hole.

06:27 Speaker 2 It was certain to him anyway. The Mendelsons were married in early 2007. Later that year, they went on a honeymoon vacation together to see if Wyoming would work for both of them. But when Raizy stepped off the plane-

06:45 Speaker 3 I felt suffocated, and, you know, I said, "When I look to my right, there's a mountain, and I look to my left, there's a mountain, and I look in front, there's a mountain, I look behind, there's a mountain."

06:53 Speaker 1 The reason it's called Jackson Hole is because it's surrounded on all four sides by mountains. We're in a valley, and so we're in a hole.

07:02 Speaker 3 And we have very high altitude, and I said, like, "I feel like I can't even breathe over here." And I was seven months pregnant, and I, I was feeling very claustrophobic and very suffocated.

07:13 Speaker 2 And there was another potential problem: Raizy had grown up in larger cities.

07:18 Speaker 1 And I knew that Jackson Hole, being a tiny little town, would be somewhat overwhelming for Raizy to consider moving here full time. There's about 10,000 people that live in the town of Jackson, and about 20,000 in the entire Teton County.

07:33 Speaker 2 So when the Mendelsons picked up their rental car, Rabbi's plan was to drive around in circles to make Jackson Hole look much larger than it was.

07:43 Speaker 3 And my husband's, like, driving up and down.

07:46 Speaker 1 Unfortunately for me, my wife has a very good sense of direction.

07:49 Speaker 3 And I'm like, "Wait, we went here already. Wait, we drove this block already." He said, "Oh, you haven't seen it all yet. We still didn't drive down High School Road." I thought there was, like, this big thriving metropolis down High School Road. Really, there's a bunch of cows.

08:03 Speaker 1 So she right away noticed that this town is tiny.

08:06 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons had received offers to open a Chabad house in the Philippines. They also had options in upstate New York and Russia.

08:15 Speaker 3 I was like, "Oh my gosh, do we really have to move here?" So at the beginning, the way my husband sold the place was incredible. When I actually got here for the first time, I was not that excited.

08:28 Speaker 2 But there was much more to that first trip. Zalman had invited about 50 of the Jewish people he'd gotten to know in Jackson Hole for a Friday night Shabbos meal at the home they were borrowing, a 6,000-square-foot guest house located on a 120-acre lot.

08:46 Speaker 1 Raizy had prepared a beautiful Shabbos meal.

08:49 Speaker 3 And we had a beautiful, beautiful Shabbos dinner.

08:52 Speaker 1 After we had made kiddush, eaten challah, one person got up and said, "Rabbi, Raizy, if you would be willing to open up the Chabad House over here, I pledge to pay for your salary for the first three years." And another person got up and said, "Rabbi, Raizy, if you plan on opening up a Chabad here, I will pay for the location where we could host services and events and community gatherings for the first year." And one person at a time got up and made a significant, substantial pledge.

09:19 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons were stunned.

09:22 Speaker 3 But to me, it wasn't about the pledges. To me, it was about connecting with the people and getting to know the people. I felt like, "Wow, yes, there's no question we're moving here."

09:31 Speaker 1 Then it grew into a beautiful shlichus opportunity.

09:36 Speaker 2 Raizy and Zalman Mendelsson moved permanently to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the spring of 2008. They had the benefit of having met many of its residents. Since Chabad began visiting Wyoming in 1956, Jackson Hole had grown from a small ranch and farm community to a playground for skiers, hikers, and outdoor lovers of all kinds. Its per capita income is one of the highest in the nation. On one hand, that can make for very generous donors. On the other hand...

10:10 Speaker 3 It's very, very, very expensive to live here. You know, a small four-bedroom home could easily rent for $15,000 a month. You know, you don't buy anything under two, three, four million. 98 and a half percent of the land over here is consecrated for natural use, for animals and beauty, and it's not allowed to be built upon.

10:30 Speaker 2 With the help of their new community, the Mendelsons rented a home on the main street running through Jackson Hole, and they began to run programs.

10:40 Speaker 3 We used to deliver challah every Friday to Jews in Jackson, just to connect with people. Um, we had a, a weekly class called Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, where we would connect.

10:53 Speaker 1 So one of the first holidays that we celebrated in Wyoming was Purim. So for the first night of Purim, we hosted a event in a hotel ballroom. We hired a bartender, a DJ. We did a, a singles focus. We advertised, we sent out emails and text messages, and lo and behold, five people showed up, two of which were Raizy and I, and, uh, the other two were a couple, one of whom was not Jewish. So we ended up essentially with one single for this huge event that we planned, and they say the only thing worse than having no one show up at an event is having one person show up at an event, and this was literally that experience.

11:41 Speaker 2 Undaunted, they shifted their strategy the next day.

11:45 Speaker 1 We just had a family Purim party. Anyone was welcome to our home, no advertising, just by word of mouth, and we had some 20 people that came to our home for a community Purim meal. We read the Megillah, we hung out, and it was amazing.

12:03 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons had known that their new community was different in many ways from the ones they had lived in. Now they were seeing that firsthand.

12:13 Speaker 1 We can have people that are CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations, but at the same time they'll help clear the table during a Friday night dinner, and they'll be cleaning the dishes afterwards. And I've come to have enormous respect for the members of our community.

12:33 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons were also doing a lot of long-range travel, sometimes at a moment's notice.

12:39 Speaker 1 When we get a call that there's someone that needs a bris that's six hours away from us, while I'm not a mohel, I certainly make sure to be there for that celebration and to be there for that family. Uh, when there's someone who passes away, unfortunately, in a far distant place, and they need a tara or they need help with a klura, I'm certainly there to be able to help with that. And so I often find myself on long road trips visiting one single Jew in a small town somewhere in Wyoming to bring them the joys and the comforts of Yiddishkeit.

13:09 Speaker 3 Our closest mikvah is a 10-hour round-trip drive or a 12-hour flight door-to-door. For the first eight years of our shlichus we drove as a family, and it was a two-day trip, and after eight years my husband said, "I am done. You're flying." And a flight could be easy over $1,000. It took time, but I learned to embrace it, and I love it. And I get on an airplane with a book, and I go away for a 12-hour mini vacation, and it's great. I am a platinum Medallion member at Delta.

13:43 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons say that although getting kosher food shipped from LA is an easy and quick, albeit expensive matter, they do miss having kosher restaurants nearby.

13:55 Speaker 3 Our closest kosher pizza shop is 10 hours in each direction, you know? 20-hour round-trip drive.

14:00 Speaker 1 It would be nice to be able to go pick up donuts and sushi whenever I want. Unfortunately, that isn't available locally.

14:06 Speaker 3 When we go to Florida or when we go to New York, we eat out in those one or two weeks more than most people eat out in a year.

14:15 Speaker 1 I would say that the most difficult challenge on the whole is that we're sort of on our own. We're living as, to some degree, as strangers in a foreign land. But we have, Baruch Hashem, developed very close relationships with locals in the community, and slowly but surely they're becoming Hasidim in their own right and learning about the beauties of Chabad and Hasidus and Yiddishkeit, and so Baruch Hashem for that.

14:41 Speaker 2 One family in the Mendelsons' community has embraced their approach in a particularly inspiring way.

14:48 Speaker 4 My name's Avi Cantor.

14:49 Speaker 2 Avi Cantor is the managing partner of an independent financial planning firm near Philadelphia. He describes his upbringing in Judaism as traditional.

15:00 Speaker 4 Growing up we did all the holidays and, uh, celebrated them, but that was about the extent of it over the years.

15:06 Speaker 2 But the Cantors would soon be challenged to be more than that. Avi and Rachel Cantor loved to ski. They began vacationing in Jackson Hole beginning in 2006 when their daughter Leah was just a baby.

15:22 Speaker 4 It became a, a special place for us. You've got beautiful, uh, landscapes and topography, the Teton Mountains. So for a number of years, uh, we would go back once or twice a year, uh, together as a couple. It's a very worldly town, very interesting people, very successful people.

15:39 Speaker 2 But the Cantors had only visited in the winter during ski season. Leah, who began to race competitively when she was in her teens, also loved it there.

15:49 Speaker 5 Wyoming is an absolutely magnificent place. It kinda feels like you're living in a postcard when you're there. Everywhere you look you're surrounded by mountains, like 360 degrees around, and just really, really beautiful, beautiful views everywhere.

16:03 Speaker 2 The Cantors liked it so much that in 2012 they decided to move there for one year with Leah and their two sons. They had been told by friends in the community that they should reach out to the Mendelsons, so they did.

16:17 Speaker 4 And we spoke for quite some time about the kids and the background, and he immediately showed a lot of interest and excitement, and assured us that, uh, they would be there to support us and gave us ideas of different programs and things. So that gave us a lot of confidence in, uh, embarking on this journey.

16:36 Speaker 2 Leah and her brothers had been enrolled in a Jewish day school back in Philly, so the Cantors wondered how they'd continue their Jewish learning in Wyoming.

16:46 Speaker 1 And they wanted to be sure that they would have the same opportunities here in Jackson Hole.

16:50 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons told the Cantors that frankly there weren't.

16:54 Speaker 4 So what Rayzi immediately helped us do was, uh, create a Hebrew school of sorts, and we immediately enrolled the kids and started, uh, weekly classes for them. And that's the beauty of Rabbi and Rayzi, is that they effectively customized an experience for our children. They customized lessons and an education, you know, and a way to keep my kids connected and engaged that had us spending, uh, as you would imagine, a lot of time by them.

17:22 Speaker 3 They wanted Shabbos. They wanted high holidays. They wanted, you know, more for their children. The Cantors came wanting a mezuzah for their door.

17:32 Speaker 2 What had begun as a program to educate the Cantors' children expanded into an educational opportunity for the whole family.

17:40 Speaker 4 The way they spoke about things and then the way they interacted with us, we began to understand the why behind these things, which gave it that much more meaning and much more desire for us to spend more time doing the things that until then were simply expected of us. So we went from a got to mindset, we got to do this or we got to do that, to a get to mindset. It was we get to do this, it's not a got to, because we understood the why behind it.

18:04 Speaker 5 And, like, over time our kesher really, like, strengthened, and I loved having that.

18:09 Speaker 2 In June of 2013, the Cantors' lease expired on their Jackson rental home. Avi's business was still in Philly, so the family moved back East. But the allure of the West, and of Jackson, and the Mendelsons, and authentic Yiddishkeit still tugged at their hearts

18:28 Speaker 4 My wife, uh, felt like, uh, we had moved there in some ways. You know, we became very connected with the community, and, uh, she didn't want to leave

18:35 Speaker 2 They returned in 2015

18:37 Speaker 4 Coming back to Jackson, we, uh, picked right back up with the Mendelsons, and summer camps, and studies, and things like that

18:46 Speaker 2 The Cantors learned and grew for the next few years. Leah had become very involved in sports. She was a competitive ski racer, ice skater, runner, and captain of her school soccer team. But Raizy saw another opportunity

19:02 Speaker 3 I had just seen online that there was the C-Teen Shabbaton coming up. And so I said, "Look, you know, there's an opportunity in three weeks, Jewish teens from around the world that all get together in Crown Heights for an incredible weekend of inspiration, Jewish connection, Jewish pride, and deep fun, and learning, and what do you think?"

19:31 Speaker 5 And I kind of, like, laughed at the idea, and kind of, like, ignored it, kept pushing it off, and I was like, "I don't know, probably not for me. I'm not much of, like, a Shabbaton kind of person."

19:39 Speaker 2 Raizy was persistent. With her parents' blessing, Leah agreed to make the trip to New York with Raizy

19:46 Speaker 5 I was the only person from my chapter in Wyoming

19:51 Speaker 3 You know, we get to New York, we went to this boat where all the teens were getting together, and she was dancing and having fun, and everybody that I saw was like, "Oh, you brought a group. How many people did you bring?" And I said, "One." And Jordan connected with a bunch of girls from, like, Great Neck chapter, and this chapter, and that chapter, and she made some really good friends

20:11 Speaker 5 I just felt so, like, spiritually aflame. It was really incredible

20:16 Speaker 3 And it was really a turning point because she realized that maybe skiing isn't my whole life, and maybe there's something deeper to life. At the end of the trip, she said, "I want to start learning with you every week."

20:28 Speaker 2 Over the next few years, Leah learned with C-Teen groups all over the country that she had connected with at the Shabbaton, and she began to understand something very important about living a Jewish life

20:41 Speaker 5 It really opened my mind to that, you could choose it

20:43 Speaker 2 Leah was accepted to a Frum high school in Philadelphia, and she's now in her first year at a seminary in Jerusalem

20:51 Speaker 5 The last, like, three, four years have just been nonstop, like, learning and growth, and avodas hamiyuchas, and avodas, uh, everything. And Baruch Hashem

21:01 Speaker 2 Avi travels back to Philly a couple times a month for work. He says he and the rest of the family support Leah, and now she's teaching them about Yiddishkeit. Leah came home for Pesach last year. She gave her father a one-on-one lesson about Passover kashrus

21:19 Speaker 4 And we went shopping, and she took me to the creek, and we toiveled. And so she taught her dad how to toivel. And we broke a few glasses, so we bought more glasses, and it all worked out

21:31 Speaker 2 The Mendelsons estimate that about 60,000 Jewish tourists come through Jackson Hole every year. Zalman and Raizy serve a growing number of them, as well as their flourishing year-round community

21:43 Speaker 1 Now, a week doesn't go by that we don't have 20, 30, 50, 100 people that join us on a Friday night, depending on the time of year

21:52 Speaker 2 And Chabad outreach in Wyoming is also growing outside of Jackson. Until recently, Zalman Mendelsohn was the only Chabad rabbi in the state. In July of 2023, with the help of the Mendelsons, new shluchim settled permanently in Laramie

22:10 Speaker 1 So we have now full-time shluchim that are servicing Cheyenne and Laramie under the esteemed leadership of Rabbi Yaakov and Malkie Raskin, who are doing already wonderful work

22:19 Speaker 2 Which helps Rabbi Mendelsohn keep the mileage down on his SUV, which also leaves more time for Torah classes

22:27 Speaker 1 In the beginning, I was giving maybe two or three classes a week. Today, I give 18 classes every single week to individuals in our community. We've expanded our services, and events, and programming

22:41 Speaker 2 Which has led to another challenge

22:43 Speaker 1 It's reached a point where there's no longer enough space for us to accommodate all of the people for many of the Friday nights, just on a regular weekly basis, certainly not for holidays. And over the last several months, we've been building a 10,000 square foot beautiful Jewish community center, which will include a mikvah, a shul, four apartment units for visitors to be able to stay close by to Chabad, and a residence for our family. Our long-term goals include not just a mikvah, but a busy mikvah, not just a shul, but a dynamic and active shul. The message is that Yiddishkeit and Judaism's on the move. We are booming, we're growing

23:30 Speaker 3 The Rebbe raised a generation of leaders to themselves desire to move out with no salary, with no, um, no glamour, to move out to spend their entire life, tears, sweat, and joy to think about, to inspire every Jew wherever they are in every corner of the world

23:57 Speaker 1 If Yiddishkeit can thrive in the Wild West in a small town, and people can be connecting in a deep, and beautiful, and meaningful way to Torah, and the Eretz Yisrael, and to Klal Yisrael, if it can be done in Jackson Hole, it can be done anywhere

24:23 Speaker 2 I'm Gary Wollek. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast at L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast