Creating Jewish Ambassadors in the KKK’s Backyard: Rabbi Levi & Chaish Mentz

00:00 Speaker 1 So I went to the supermarket, and I decided that I would just stand by the kosher aisle and just wait for the next Jew to come to, you know, buy themselves some matzah, what have you.

00:09 Speaker 2 In 2014, Rabbi Levi Mintz was on a mission in northern Georgia.

00:15 Speaker 1 And so I stood there and stood there, and a, and a, and a lady came, and I, I asked, "Are you Jewish?" "Yes." And I asked, "What's Jewish life like up here?" And she laughed. She looked at me and she says, "I am the only Jew that lives here."

00:28 Speaker 2 Mintz wasn't so sure about that, so he also visited the local Home Depot, where he asked the same question.

00:35 Speaker 1 "Are you Jewish?" She said, "Yes." And I asked her, I said, "What is it like to be Jewish living up here?" So she's like, "I'm the only Jew that lives here." The two Jews that I met think that they're the only Jews.

00:46 Speaker 2 Not long after, Mintz and his wife, Chaye, were working in Atlanta and running Jewish crafts programs all around Georgia, including Forsyth County to the north.

00:57 Speaker 1 The first event, it was a Hanukkah event, 25 people showed up. Interesting. Passover, Forsyth County had 50 people. It comes Rosh Hashanah, 100 people show up. Whoa. They were all looking at each other like, "You're Jewish? You're Jewish? You're Jewish? Where do you live? Here?" Mind-boggling. And my wife and I are looking at each other, "This is a mission. This is a calling that is vital."

01:28 Speaker 2 I'm Gary Wolk 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. Levi Mintz grew up in Bel Air on the west side of Los Angeles. His parents, Rabbi Chaim and Rebbetzin Charna Mintz, are Chabad emissaries there.

02:56 Speaker 1 It was incredible. I grew up feeling that I was the luckiest kid in the world, that I was able to be part of the Rebbe's special forces to spread Yiddishkeit to the area that I grew up in. It was so beautiful growing up, that all I wanted was to continue living that life.

03:16 Speaker 2 Mintz attended cheder and mesivta in Los Angeles. His yeshiva studies included stops in Brunoy, France, Crown Heights, and Ma'ayanot in Jerusalem, where he received his rabbinic ordination. He did Jewish outreach in Melbourne, Australia, but he never lost the intention to establish his own Chabad house after marriage.

03:37 Speaker 1 But when Rabbi Gav and Rivka Holtzberg were murdered in Mumbai, it was just like, "This is what I wanna be doing."

03:49 Speaker 2 Chaye Mintz grew up in Atlanta. Her parents, Rabbi Yossi and Rebbetzin Dasi New, have served as head Chabad shluchim to the state of Georgia since 1984. She also says that Jewish outreach had long been her dream.

04:05 Speaker 3 Yeah, it was pretty much something that I wanted to do and felt like I was going to do my whole life. I mean, even since I was a little girl.

04:13 Speaker 2 The Mintzes were married in the summer of 2012, after which the couple moved to LA, where they worked with Rabbi Mintz's parents.

04:22 Speaker 3 I kind of thought, "Oh, California's so nice." I enjoyed it. It was fine.

04:25 Speaker 2 They considered permanently locating there, but the large and diverse Bel Air Jewish community was already well-served. So the Mintzes discussed relocating to a spot where there wasn't already Jewish infrastructure, where they would be desperately needed. They had discussed the possibility of Australia, and then they were presented with an opportunity that neither had really anticipated: Georgia.

04:51 Speaker 3 And when we would go visit my parents, you know, for Yom Tovim or anything, he would be like, "This place is so nice."

05:00 Speaker 2 On one visit in 2013-

05:03 Speaker 1 My father-in-law came over to me and says, "I don't really know anything about this place, but there's a place called Forsyth County, Georgia. Look into it." Let me tell you something. I never heard of a place called Forsyth County, Georgia. It meant nothing to me. I sat down by the laptop, opened it up.

05:26 Speaker 2 Mintz quickly learned that the county, situated in North Georgia, had a population of over 200,000, but Jewish infrastructure was totally lacking, so he could only guess how many of them were Jews. He began by calling local supermarkets.

05:42 Speaker 1 I called up Kroger's, asked if I can speak with the manager, and I said, "Do you have a kosher section?" And they said, "We don't have a kosher section, but we have, like, a kosher part of an aisle." "Amazing. What do you sell?" They're like, "Oh, we sell matzah. We have gefilte fish. We got yortzeit candles." "Amazing." I said, "Does anyone ever buy this stuff?" "It's like, uh, what... We sell it. It's here." So I called up Publix. "Do you have a kosher section?" They said they do. There's obviously got to be Jews in Forsyth County, Georgia.

06:16 Speaker 2 The following Pesach in 2014, Mintz did more research, this time in person.

06:22 Speaker 1 We spent Passover with my in-laws in Atlanta, and during the intermediate days, I drove up to Forsyth County to see what does this place look like? I get off the exit, and I see a lot of construction. I was like, "Okay, this place is moving. There's growth." So I went to the supermarket, and I decided that I would just stand by the kosher aisle and just wait for the next Jew to come to, you know, buy themselves some matzah, what have you. And so I stood there and stood there, and a, and a, and a lady came, and I, I asked, "Are you Jewish?" "Yes." And I asked, "Hey, what's Jewish life like up here?" And she laughed. I said, "No, seriously, what's Jewish life?" She's like, "There's nothing. I am the only Jew that lives here." I said, "Really? You, you think you're the only Jew that lives here?" She says, "It's not a question. I'm the only Jew that lives here."

07:17 Speaker 2 Rabbi Mintz sensed that as well-meaning as she was, the woman's demographics might not be entirely accurate, so he visited the nearby Home Depot and asked the same question to a woman in the lumber aisle.

07:31 Speaker 1 "Are you Jewish?" She said yes, and I asked her, I said, "What is it like to be Jewish living up here?" So she's like, "First of all, I'm the only Jew that lives here." And she pulled out a Magen David necklace, a Star of David necklace, and she says, "This is what it means to be Jewish in Forsyth County. I have to keep my Star of David under my shirt. I don't feel comfortable wearing it outside." I said, "Why not?" Well, she told me about the fact that the area had a history of having public marches of the KKK.

08:04 Speaker 2 Mintz broadened his research. He consulted a marketing company. He learned the county was home to about 1,700 Jewish households, which meant there was a local population of somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 Jews.

08:20 Speaker 1 And the two Jews that I met think that they're the only Jews simply because there's zero infrastructure. It was very clear at that moment that there was a major need and that my wife and I would do whatever we could to be there for the local Jewish community.

08:37 Speaker 2 But Levi and Chaye Mintz didn't move to Forsyth County right away. Instead, they moved to Atlanta in the summer of 2014. They worked at a Chabad elementary school, Chaye as a principal and Levi as a Judaics teacher. They ran JCrafts workshops, which teach Jewish cultural awareness through art and science in public schools and in Georgia's outlying areas, primarily to Jews who've had little to no Jewish education. They had a hunch that JCrafts would be a very good way to let the Jews of Forsyth County know that they weren't alone.

09:15 Speaker 1 And we started partnering with Home Depots across the state of Georgia to, uh, bring Yiddishkeit, Judaism, in a meaningful way to the families there. And what happened here in Forsyth County was that we had the first JCrafts event. It was a Hanukkah event. 25 people showed up. Interesting. Passover, we did it again in all the locations. Forsyth County had 50 people. It comes Rosh Hashanah, you can make your own shofar for the holiday. 100 people show up. Whoa. They were all looking at each other like, "You're Jewish? You're Jewish? You're Jewish? Where do you live? Here? I thought I'm the only Jew." Mind-boggling. And then that Hanukkah, after another year, we did another menorah-building workshop. Over 200 people showed up. They had to block the entire section to have enough space for all the people to have a working space with their families.

10:18 Speaker 3 And it was so powerful to them to see how many Jews there really were.

10:23 Speaker 1 And my wife and I are looking at each other. This is a mission. This is a calling that is vital.

10:31 Speaker 3 It's the real build it, and they will come, or build it because they have already come.

10:35 Speaker 2 The Mintzes reached out to friends and family members and raised enough funds to move their growing family to Cumming, Georgia, the seat of Forsyth County.

10:44 Speaker 1 And after Passover 2016, my family officially moved as shluchim to Forsyth County, serving the northern region.

10:58 Speaker 2 They rented a home and a one-room storefront office space and got right to work building the community.

11:04 Speaker 3 Our house was a two-and-a-half mile walk to shul, so that was one of the biggest marketing gigs was my husband walking to shul every week. Doing five miles of walking on a Shabbos, you know, a lot of people were like, "Oh, we saw you walking." And that was how they learned that there was something going on over here.

11:20 Speaker 2 They also ran ads in the local papers and put yard signs everywhere they could. Rabbi Mintz canvassed the town.

11:28 Speaker 1 What do you think I did every day? I woke up in the morning, and I drove to another business complex, and I simply knocked on doors to find Jews.

11:37 Speaker 2 Hundreds responded with enthusiasm, so much so that the Mintzes realized they'd need immediate startup money. So Rabbi Mintz went to a major Jewish benefactor in Atlanta. He had every reason to be optimistic.

11:55 Speaker 1 Come to the meeting. I got it all down. I mean, and, and it's like the easiest pitch. It's the easiest pitch. You have thousands of Jews that live in a region in America. There's absolutely zero infrastructure. My wife, myself, and our children, we moved there to be there for the Jewish community. I'm just asking for your support. What can you do? How can you help? And I'm not asking you for forever help. A one-time gift. I sit down, I share the story, and what do I get? An absolute unequivocal no. Dumbfounded. Dumbfounded. Very, very humbling.

12:32 Speaker 2 Mintz wanted further explanation. The man told him that his organization had once helped raise millions for a Jewish community center in suburban Atlanta. The citizens of Cobb County, which is much bigger and wealthier than Forsyth, had funded a beautiful campus for Jewish life there, but they had not supported the center once it was operational. It was eventually sold. It's now a private Christian school.

13:00 Speaker 1 So this individual looks at me and says, "I don't believe that there'll ever be a future in Forsyth County, in North Georgia. I only make good investments."

13:12 Speaker 2 Mintz walked out of the office empty-handed, but then he realized something.

13:17 Speaker 1 I think I just was taught the most amazing lesson that will bring about what will become the most vibrant Jewish community. Every single person that I would meet, it would be a question about how do we come together, me and you, become Jewish ambassadors, and together build a local vibrant Jewish future.

13:37 Speaker 2 Chabad of Forsyth now had their game plan. They began by opening a Hebrew school and preschool. They established adult education programs and ran services on Shabbos and holidays. Their first menorah lighting drew 400 people. The Jews of North Georgia were showing up by the hundreds, and they were committed to helping build Jewish life there. In 2017, Chabad of Forsyth's first crowdfunding campaign raised over $250,000 in less than 24 hours. And did those funds come from members of the local community, Rabbi?

14:18 Speaker 1 Local. All local.

14:19 Speaker 2 But that's not entirely true. During that campaign, Mintz received a phone call from a man whose voice he recognized.

14:28 Speaker 1 And he says, "I'm watching this campaign, and I cannot believe what's going on." He says, "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that permanent Jewish living could ever have been established in this region." He says, "I don't want this to be public, but I want to contribute $1,000 to this campaign."

14:48 Speaker 2 It was the benefactor who turned Mintz down the year before. This time, he was making a personal donation. In May of 2017, with the help of their growing community, Chabad of Forsyth purchased a five-acre lot with a building on it. It was established as Congregation Beth Israel, the region's first ever synagogue. Just three months later, they purchased another adjacent five-acre lot and building. They set their sights on a comprehensive campus for Jewish life, and they imbued local Jews with a sense of how important they were to the project in a way that goes far beyond dollars and cents.

15:34 Speaker 1 Every single Jew that we meet locally is invited in meeting one, in conversation one, to be a Jewish ambassador, and we give every single Jew many different opportunities in many ways. And if we don't have a way that's relatable to them, then the question that we pose is, "Okay, tell me, how do you think you can be a Jewish ambassador? Perfect. Let's do it."

15:54 Speaker 3 Once they saw the vision and were able to see how much was going on and how many people were affected by it, everyone's ready to get busy.

16:02 Speaker 2 Including Jeremy Lefkovitz. Born in Brazil and raised in Venezuela, Lefkovitz is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He attended a Jewish school in Venezuela, but he was really inspired by Chabad shluchim, who would travel to his small Jewish community every year to lead high holiday services.

16:22 Speaker 4 We loved having the shluchim, and they would always stay in our home.

16:25 Speaker 2 Lefkovitz reconnected with Chabad when he attended the University of Georgia at the age of 18. After graduation in 2001, he worked as an investment banker, but he eventually left corporate life for organic farming in Forsyth County with his wife and two children.

16:43 Speaker 4 The positives were beautiful area, low taxes, lower cost of living, excellent public schools. The drawback for me was that there was no Jewish infrastructure.

16:52 Speaker 2 But in 2014, Jeremy received a postcard mailer from an organization called JCrafts. He called the number on it.

17:01 Speaker 4 And Rabbi Mintz answers the phone. I'd never heard of him, never knew anything about him. I say, "Hi, my name is Jeremy Lefkovitz." "Jeremy, how are you?" The most warm voice I ever heard. And I say, "I, look, I just got this postcard and I'm very perplexed. First of all, how did you find me? I'm the only Jew in Forsyth County." He starts laughing and says, "That's what they all say."

17:19 Speaker 2 Rabbi Mintz explained to Jeremy the long-term plan to build a synagogue and other Jewish resources for the thousands of Jews in North Georgia.

17:29 Speaker 4 You need to understand, this is Forsyth County eight years ago. It was unthinkable. It was like putting a Jewish colony on Mars. We're gonna have a synagogue in Forsyth County? He says, "That's the plan." I said, "When can we meet?" The next day we met for coffee, and we talked about his vision for Forsyth County, and I said, "Amen, amen, amen."

17:50 Speaker 2 Okay, so you're in, but as you know, Levi and Chaye Mintz are big on the idea of involvement and ambassadorship. So what did you commit to in terms of your own involvement in the new Jewish community there?

18:04 Speaker 4 I didn't have any skills. All I had was passion and fire in the belly. I loved the idea that we were gonna establish a community, a Jewish community, in my backyard.

18:12 Speaker 2 At first, Jeremy helped with outreach and community building. Then he became what he likes to describe as the rabbi's secular unofficial right-hand man.

18:23 Speaker 4 I helped him with fundraising, helped him with organization, with everything from picking up this from Home Depot to getting that from this place to basic stuff It was step by step by step by step, constantly building a very, very strong community with a very strong foundation. Never biting off more than we could chew, but definitely aiming very, very high in terms of the goals.

18:43 Speaker 1 And it's amazing what happens when you tell a Jew, "You need to be a Jewish ambassador." They get so fired up, so engaged. They have a talent, they have a skill, they have something to contribute.

18:54 Speaker 2 In just eight years, the community has grown to over 200 families, made up of well over 1,000 individuals. There's the man who joined after hearing Rabbi's radio show, The Schmooze, on a local radio station. He now helps lead Torah services on Shabbat and holidays. There's also the woman who was devastated by her father's passing, whose need for comfort and community compelled her to Google, "Jewish near me," and happily discovered there was a lot of Jewish near her. I asked Jeremy Lefkovitz if he would share Chabad of Forsyth's recipe for community-building success.

19:35 Speaker 4 The secret sauce is not that secret. It's just creating a warm, loving, non-judgmental environment where every Jew of every level of observance and every level of background and every age group has a home and a place to thrive.

19:49 Speaker 2 Now, Chabad of Forsyth has about 25 lay leaders running a variety of programs and services, even a team of 15 people who identify sites and get clearances for the 20 or so public menorahs that go up before Hanukkah each year in northern Georgia.

20:07 Speaker 1 And now you start seeing the benefit of this broad reach. The vision of touching every single Jew is not so crazy.

20:14 Speaker 2 That model has worked beautifully. The Chabad of Forsyth community is proud and public. But on March 21st, 2023, antisemitism touched the community there. On that day, Rabbi Mintz was working alone in the Chabad Center office.

20:35 Speaker 1 There's a loud bang on the door. I come and I open up the door, and two people say, "We were sent here from the FBI." My brain is running at a million miles an hour. "What, what, what's going on?" They said, "We've just discovered an active bomb threat here on the site. You must evacuate now." I say, "Could I please run to the main sanctuary and grab the Torahs?" "No, you cannot do anything. Out now." And they literally grabbed my hand and took me out of the Chabad Center.

21:09 Speaker 2 An FBI team equipped with bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the building. A law enforcement official informed Mintz that the bomb threat had been made on Twitter. No bomb was found, but the culprit was. 18-year-old Cooper Hansen of Cumming, Georgia, was arrested for making a terroristic threat against Congregation Beth Israel.

21:32 Speaker 5 My parents were just absolutely shocked. They didn't raise me to do things like this. This wasn't what was being taught to me in my home.

21:39 Speaker 2 Hansen says he was motivated by antisemitic content on social media.

21:44 Speaker 5 There was a special attention given towards Jews in these kind of far right groups, like the blood libel and stuff, Jews drinking blood, and they're vampires, and this kind of stuff, international conspiracy, stuff like that, you know? And so I've had to ask myself, it's like, "Why would I do something so, so irrational?" You know, this is not something that a healthy, productive 18-year-old should be up to.

22:10 Speaker 2 Hansen's parents agreed.

22:12 Speaker 5 Just a few days later, my mom had looked up this rabbi, and she showed me a picture of his family, and he's got young kids, and we just cried, 'cause I had terrified this man. And I thought about his fear for his wife, his wife's fear for their children. It was kind of difficult for me to really accept that I had done something so terrible, emotionlessly, callously.

22:37 Speaker 2 Cooper Hansen pleaded guilty to making a terroristic threat. The by-now-19-year-old faced up to five years in prison. He had already been kicked out of school. He said he had spent months in his room, in his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about his mistake.

22:55 Speaker 5 And I was just absolutely sick.

22:58 Speaker 2 Hansen's future did not look promising at that time, but Rabbi Mintz had something better in mind. He spoke at Hansen's sentencing hearing in December of 2023.

23:09 Speaker 1 I said, "Listen, as Jews, we believe in the concept of teshuvah, of returning." What does teshuvah mean? Where a person returns to their true self. Our true self is the spark of God within us. Well, this young man, he used his mind, his words, and his actions to promote hate in the world. This young man clearly made horrible choices, but could we responsibly stand behind all of our values as Jews and give this individual an opportunity to return?

23:42 Speaker 2 Mintz laid out a plan and presented it before the court. Hansen would attend four study sessions about antisemitism with him, take a full guided tour of the local Holocaust Museum, and share his story with county commissioners and all heads of the educational system to promote kindness on their respective platforms, and also to help run Project Ark, a kindness initiative that features, among other things, stations around the county that encourage people to take small, yellow, Noah's Ark-shaped charity boxes and to do acts of kindness.

24:18 Speaker 1 And of course, he agreed.

24:21 Speaker 2 The court agreed as well. Cooper Hansen is now serving a suspended sentence, working towards his own rehabilitation.

24:28 Speaker 5 The hope is that then I can take this transformation into the rest of my life, an example of love as opposed to this example of hate.

24:36 Speaker 1 So now he's in the middle of his journey. It hasn't yet finished, yet he's making amazing, amazing strides forward, and God willing, he's gonna get to that place where it's obvious to everyone involved that this young man has completely transformed his life.

24:54 Speaker 2 The Mintzes now raise seven children and run more programs than ever, including several Torah study groups, a men's club, and a sisterhood. Two years ago, Rabbi Mendel and Rebbetzin Rivke Ehrenreich arrived to run all youth programming. There's even a Sunshiners group for seniors. Jeremy Lefkovitz isn't old to be a member, but he's been lobbying the group to lower the age of eligibility.

25:20 Speaker 4 Because they have all the fun.

25:21 Speaker 2 Chabad of Forsyth is also nearing the successful completion of a $6.7 million campaign to fund all the amenities of a beautiful new Jewish campus.

25:33 Speaker 4 And so we are looking forward to being complete in November with the building of a beautiful sanctuary, lobby, offices, an outdoor social plaza, a beautiful youth and education center, playground, a fully developed parking lot with over, um, 80 parking spaces, a beautiful social hall and kosher kitchen, and mikvah for men and for women.

25:54 Speaker 6 A daily chapel, a library study hall, and two guest suites.

25:59 Speaker 2 Once the building is finished, they'll also offer preschool and summer camps, which had been put on temporary hold.

26:06 Speaker 4 We are actively seeding a vibrant, permanent Jewish future.

26:15 Speaker 2 When Mintz says we, he means his family of course, but also northern Georgia's army of committed ambassadors. He's grateful for what they've accomplished together.

26:26 Speaker 4 You can live in Forsyth County, Georgia, and you can have every Jewish thing you need so that you can live a meaningful and enriched Jewish experience for you and your family.

26:38 Speaker 6 There's nothing we can't do anymore.

26:42 Speaker 2 Chaish and Levi Mintz attribute their success to the vision of the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the transformation of the entire world.

26:50 Speaker 4 The Rebbe taught all of us that every single Jew, man, woman, and child, should see themselves as a ambassador of building Jewish life, of rectifying the world.

27:05 Speaker 6 And now, you know, seeing what's being built here and the amount of people coming through and seeing how active it is, you know, people want it.

27:13 Speaker 4 When every Jew is inspired for personal Jewish ambassadorship, it's actually a goal that is very feasible.

27:24 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@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.