“The Rabbi Goes West” is a documentary that shines the light on one particular emissary of one particular Jewish orthodox sect, a subset of Hassidic Jews.
The sect is Chabad-Lubavitch, the largest Hassidic sect in the world, which is run out of Crown Heights Brooklyn (not to be confused with the Satmar Hassidic sect run out of Williamsburg Brooklyn.) Yes, it is confusing for the uninformed—who may be most of us. While the Lubavitch Jews who live in and around Crown Heights, Brooklyn are a tight-knit, insular community with strict rules and practices and their own brand of Judaism, they loosen up their rules a bit when it comes to sending the word, and their emissaries, out into the world.
The Rabbi who went west in this film is Bruk (and his wife Chavie), who left Brooklyn to open a Chabad Center in, of all places, Bozeman, Montana, which is in the vicinity of Big Sky, Yellowstone and Helena, Montana. In all of Montana, there were only 2,000 Jews at the time the film was made, and there already existed two organized Jewish Communities in Bozeman and its environs. At the time the documentary was filmed, Bruk and his wife had been in Montana for eight years, and administering a Chabad Center. (There are Chabad centers in over 100 countries worldwide, including one right here in La Floresta, Ajijic.)
Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.