continued from page 20

where they go or where 
they live, we as Jews are all 
the same, and we are all 
connected.” 
A MICHIGAN ROAD TRIP
The rabbis’ travels included 
road trips from Muskegon 
to Benton Harbor to South 
Haven. Highlights of the 
travels included singing 
Chanukah songs with a man 
in his 80s living in a senior 
residence and helping him put 
on tefillin for the first time. 
 In Cadillac, they visited the 
public library asking if there 
was a collection of Jewish 
books, only to learn the 
librarian herself was Jewish. 
After speaking with her for 
a spell, they left her a pair 
of Shabbat candlesticks and 
candles, plus a Jewish book to 
be donated to the library. 
Other times, they would 
follow their GPS app on their 
phone to get directions to 
an address in Cadillac to a 
person’s home whom they 
heard might be Jewish, only 
to wind up at a home a few 
doors down and learn that 
another Jewish man, who had 
intermarried and for years had 
not made any connections 
with Judaism, lived there. 

The unexpected visits by 
the young men gave the man 
the opportunity to reflect 
and think about his Jewish 
heritage. In the end, they were 
welcomed into the home, 
where they helped the man 
put on tefillin and affixed a 
mezuzah to the door. 
“The family invited us 
inside and we had a wonderful 
conversation with them,” 
Shemtov said. “That mezuzah 
represents bringing Hashem 
and Yiddishkeit (Judaism) into 
one’s home. So now we know, 
in the middle of Cadillac, 
there stands a home that has a 
mezuzah.” 
In Houghton, they 
happened upon a young 
woman working in a local 
co-op store who identified as 
Jewish and was thinking about 
how she wished she lived 
closer to other Jews as the 
High Holidays approached. 
After talking with her for a 
while, they also left her with a 
pair of Shabbat candlesticks. 
Shemtov described arriving 
in Muskegon, a town with one 
Reform temple where only a 
few Jews live in a county with 
under 200,000 people. 
“We got to town, and we 

didn’t have any information, 
no contacts, nothing,” 
Shemtov recalled. “Online, we 
found information about an 
exhibit at a museum on the 
Jewish history of Muskegon, 
only to find out that this was 
an exhibit that closed a few 
years ago. We just walked the 
streets and asked the people 
who passed by. 
“Eventually, someone told 
us that they knew a man who 
was Jewish who worked at the 
Muskegon Science Center. 
And another who knew a 
Jewish woman who worked 
in a local store. Another man 
walking by with his dog told 
us about someone else in 
town who was Jewish. And 
that’s how it goes, and by the 

end of that day, we had met 
about five Jewish people.” 
Shemtov said contrary to 
news headlines of increased 
acts of hate toward Jews, none 
of them sensed any hostility 
toward them. The young 
rabbis said the non-Jews they 
encountered were welcoming, 
helpful and almost apologetic 
if they didn’t know other 
Jewish people. 
To the non-Jews they 
met, they offered a secular, 
nonsectarian version of a 
tzedakah box. Shaped like 
Noah’s ark, the project, also 
the inspiration of Schneerson’s 
legacy, is called Acts of 
Random Kindness (ARK). 
The ARKs can be used to 
collect money to give to 

Rabbi Mendel Slonim 
(left) and Rabbi 
Yisroel Shemtov 
help a man put on 
tefillin in Mackinaw 
City.

Another Jewish home was 
established in Marquette.

In Cadillac, this 
man put on tefillin 
for the first time.
OUR COMMUNITY

22 | SEPTEMBER 28 • 2023 
J
N