For those who have not had the opportunity to drive the roads of South Dakota and see up close the remnants of the old Wild West, it is a genuine treat. Each year, particularly during the summer, millions of tourists from throughout the US will visit SD to see the famous Badlands, Mount Rushmore, the Corn Palace, and many other sites.
For those tourists who are Jewish, however, there are additional points of interest with an even more enhanced appeal.
This famous little western town, Deadwood, best known as the burial place of Wild Bill Hitchcock and Calamity Jane, also has a Jewish past. The story of Deadwood’s Jewish history begins back in the gold rush days in the 1870’s. Many prospectors came to the area to seek their fortunes, among them a few hundred Jews.
During Deadwood’s peak about half of the store fronts were owned or rented by Jews, who were mostly merchants. Today, more than 80 Deadwood Jews are buried on Hebrew Hill, also known as Mount Zion. Our connection to Deadwood began just a short time ago, as we and my brother Rick were traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to Aspen, Colorado for a short pleasure trip. All of us are old “road warriors” and enjoy the open road, so we decided to take a short detour (of a few hundred miles) to take a look at the old Wild West which we had only seen in the movies.
Shortly after we left Cleveland on Sunday morning Jonny happened to mention that he needed to say kaddish for his father, Herb, who had passed away 19 years ago, on the following evening. Knowing that by then we were going to be in the middle of nowhere (or so we thought), Jonny decided to simply have someone back in Ohio say it for him.
We continued our way down the road, heading west, and hoping there would be some way we could put together a minyan and be able to chant the sacred prayer…
Jonny decided to call his dear friend, Rabbi Aryeh Kaltmann, who is the head Chabad shliach in Columbus, Ohio to see if he could assist. Rabbi K, in his typical enthusiastic and jolly Australian accent, didn’t hesitate. “I will take care of this, so don’t you worry. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” Sure enough, after reaching out to his colleague Rabbi Grossman from North Dakota, Rabbi Kaltmann called to inform us that they had rounded up a group to meet us in Deadwood, which would be our destination for the following evening. Jonny would be able to say kaddish after all…
We arrived the next day only a few minutes before the appointed time, knowing only that we were to meet in the hotel lobby. Sure enough at 8 p.m. the minyan-aires started to come in, one by one, two by two. Most of them certainly didn’t appear to be religious, per se, and didn’t even seem to know one other. As each of the men introduced themselves, we learned that many had driven as far as an hour to get to Deadwood. Some were doctors or lawyers, and a few were Israelis who operated various seasonal retail shops in South Dakota resorts.
A few minutes later we all adjourned to a meeting room where we davened Maariv and Jonny was able to say kaddish. He said a few nice words about the type of man his father was, a successful merchant from Cleveland who had a wonderfully charismatic personality and devoted himself to a great deal of kindness for Jews and gentiles alike.
For each and every one of us who were there that evening, all 12 of us, this moment in time was one that none of us will ever forget. We all came from different cities, different countries and different backgrounds. Before that evening we didn’t know each other, but we came together in the spirit of wanting to help a fellow Jew do the special mitzvah of saying kaddish.
When the Lubavitcher Rebbe was alive he actively promoted the concept of ahavat Yisrael, love of a fellow Jew. And as he sent his shluchim to the various points around the globe, each one understood that his mission, among many others, was to reach out to each and every Jew and make him or her feel loved, welcomed and unified. Those of us who were in Deadwood, South Dakota on that very special evening were genuinely unified for the purpose of doing this special mitzvah. Whether we knew it or not, the three Diamonds that trekked some 2,000 miles to share in that moment became a part of the continuing legacy of the Jews of Deadwood.