And then there was one.
After its members fled Europe during World War II to set up a new headquarters in Brooklyn, one of the central missions of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism has been to send emissaries
to convince Jews to become more observant.
Last week, they reached their 49th state — as Rabbi Akiva Hall and his wife, Hannah, took up permanent residence in Mississippi to serve the state’s 1,500 Jews.
That leaves one last state: South Dakota.
“The Jews of South Dakota are very much on our mind — even a single individual, even half of a world away, is significant and worth engaging,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the group’s educational arm.
“There’s hardly a Jewish infrastructure there — there isn’t even a rabbi there, so people are excited when they meet one,” said Rabbi Yosef Sharfstein, who made the three-week trip out west last year, and will do so again this month. “There’s a yearning to learn and take advantage of the Jewish resources we bring along.”
One big adjustment is the state’s lack of kosher food. “I have to load up my SUV with frozen falafel, pizza, canned food — and I brought a mini-kosher kitchen, with a George Foreman oven that we carry around with us,” said Sharfstein, 23.