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And the only state without a Chabad is…

Some 4,200 Chabad rabbis from more than 80 countries are gathering this weekend in New York for the annual conference of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries.
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November 21, 2014

Some 4,200 Chabad rabbis from more than 80 countries are gathering this weekend in New York for the annual conference of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries.

In the year since they all last got together to attend workshops, listen to keynote lectures from the likes of former “>class picture” — a “Where’s Waldo of rabbis,” according to a Chabad release — the Jewish outreach organization they represent has put down roots in five new countries and one new state, Mississippi. That brings the number of American states with a permanent Chabad presence to 49.

Which had JTA staffers wondering: Which state is the holdout?

West Virginia? Chabad opened in Morgantown back in 2007

Idaho? They’ve been in Boise for more than a decade.

Montana? Wyoming? Alaska? None of the above.

North Dakota? Well, now you’re getting warmer (or, really, colder).

It’s South Dakota.

So why is the home of Mount Rushmore the sole Chabad-less state in America? Simply put: math. One of the least populous states in the nation — some 844,000 people live there — South Dakota has just 345 Jews, according to the “>Synagogue of the Hills in Rapid City, near the “Old West” town of Deadwood, traces its roots back to the gold rush era, though it was established at its current location in 1957. Some 350 miles to the east, in Sioux Falls, is “>cross-country bike ride organized by the Jewish environmental group Hazon.

It’s been decades since any of these three South Dakota congregations have been large enough to support a full-time rabbi. Already, by the early 1980s, the state’s lone rabbi “>New Voices and the 

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