‘Roving Rabbis’ Hit Santa Fe

By David Salazar – Santa Fe New Mexican

Armed with the braided egg bread called challah, the sacred parchments known as mezuzahs and their faith, three roving rabbis have hit the city with one mission: Meet as many Jews as possible in their three weeks here.
The trio of rabbinical students are part of an international summer program for rabbis-in-training. They have been in town since July 30. Mendi Cohen and Yudi Gurevitch, both 20, are heading into their seventh year of rabbinical school. Santa Fe native Mendel Levertov, 17, is entering his fifth year of schooling.

The roving rabbi program is officially called the Rabbinical Student Visitation Program, and is run through the educational branch of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch. The program allows prospective rabbis to travel throughout the U.S. and around the world talking to Jews, whether they’re involved in the local Jewish community or not.

With rabbinical school taking eight years from start to finish, Cohen, Gurevitch and Levertov began their studies early in their teen years. For them, it’s a calling and a way of keeping their faith alive.

Cohen said if you believe in your faith, “You want to make sure it continues going. One of the ways to do it is to become a rabbi and keep the spirit going.”

For Levertov — whose father, Berel Levertov, is a rabbi at the Chabad Jewish Center of Santa Fe — becoming a rabbi is about bringing a smaller Jewish community together. “I grew up over here, and my father’s a full-time rabbi here, in a place where Judaism is not so strong. So I wanted to offer the same thing,” Mendel Levertov said.

“What we’re doing and what Chabad does around the world is, we’re going out and meeting Jewish people,” Cohen said. “Some people might not be so involved in Judaism, so we go meet with them and bring Judaism to their doorstep.”

Gurevitch said part of what they do, in addition to visiting patients at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, is talk to people around town or visit Jewish homes to talk with residents and offer mezuzahs in decorative cases that people can attach to their door frames.

Members of Santa Fe’s Jewish community who are visited by the roving rabbis say the young men are helping them strengthen their ties to their faith.

“They’re an enormously important part of Judaism and part of our community because they’re reaching out,” said Steven Weiner, who owns Cartwright’s Plumbing, Heating & Cooling. “These guys are out there in the community, and they touch people and they bring Judaism back into somebody’s heart.”

Rabbi Berel Levertov, who’s hosted roving rabbis for years, said the outreach part of Chabad is what he feels is an important aspect of keeping the faith alive in Santa Fe’s Jewish community.

“The idea of the Chabad is that everybody has a spark, a divine spark within them,” he said. “It’s about fanning the flames.

“Some people, they didn’t have a good experience [with religion]. They’re not sure about it. … But it’s all about education and awareness. And a good challah always helps.”

For more information about the roving rabbis, visit rovingrabbis.com. To contact the visiting Santa Fe students, call 347-446-8797 or email [email protected].