Welcome to Frontier Judaism!
DIY: Growing Up Jewish in Rural Idaho Before We Had a Rabbi.
We moved to rural Canyon County in 1972. Our children, Teddy and Tommy were the only Jewish kids in their school. Often I was the first Jewish mother included in the friendship circles of my small rural community. People were often curious in a friendly way. I did a lot of reading to answer their questions as well as my own.
In 1979, as we began to think about Teddy’s Bar Mitzvah, I inquired but was unable to find either a tutor or a class. Bob (my husband) mentioned this situation to one of his patients at the Nampa Community Health Clinic (now Terry Reilly), Father Herbert Merzbach. Father Merzbach came to Idaho in 1955 to serve as the Chaplain at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Nampa. He told Bob that he grew up in a Jewish family in Berlin where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He was still fluent in Hebrew as well as numerous other languages. Hearing our dilemma, Father Merzbach graciously offered to be Teddy’s Bar Mitzvah tutor. We were very appreciative and grateful for his generous offer and Teddy was eager and ready to get started.
In 1979, as we began to think about Teddy’s Bar Mitzvah, I inquired but was unable to find either a tutor or a class. Bob (my husband) mentioned this situation to one of his patients at the Nampa Community Health Clinic (now Terry Reilly), Father Herbert Merzbach. Father Merzbach came to Idaho in 1955 to serve as the Chaplain at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Nampa. He told Bob that he grew up in a Jewish family in Berlin where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He was still fluent in Hebrew as well as numerous other languages. Hearing our dilemma, Father Merzbach graciously offered to be Teddy’s Bar Mitzvah tutor. We were very appreciative and grateful for his generous offer and Teddy was eager and ready to get started.
Our plans changed only when, through the grapevine, I learned that Dan Stern was offering to start a weekly Hebrew School class for a small group of pre-teens. Every Sunday morning at 10am the kids (Teddy and Tommy, Becky and Francie Stern, Meg Littman, Richard Kinslinger, Robbie Tell) gathered with Dan in the Sanctuary to learn about Judaism.
Teddy was the first of the group to prepare, in private classes with Dan Stern, for a Bar Mitzvah. After one of the tutoring sessions Teddy announced that Mr. Stern said he needed to get a tallis for his Bar Mitzvah, a new suit, and also a new pair of cowboy boots. And two years later Tommy announced the same message from Mr. Stern except that miraculously he needed a new pair of Adidas. Bob and I were at first mystified, then amused, as we realized that Teddy and Tommy each chose to translate Dan’s message about “new shoes” in their own way.
Aside from following Dan’s dress code, we were on our own for the celebration. The parents were unanimous about our desire to create an “Idaho-style” celebration. Teddy happily agreed to design his own invitation—a photo of him wearing his kippah, his new suit, and his new cowboy boots, and standing with his horse, Snip, while holding a poster giving the date, time, and place of the Bar Mitzvah.
The actual Bar Mitzvah took place on Friday night at Temple Beth Israel.
On Saturday afternoon we held a reception at our home, an old farmhouse on 11 acres. Teddy cleared out a patch in his alfalfa field where he set up a volleyball court. For additional entertainment he offered rides on his John Deere tractor. The menu was an assortment of six pies and several different flavors of ice cream.
Preparing for the Bar Mitzvah, we saw the twinkle in Dan Stern’s eye every Sunday morning as he coached the kids. In spite of the challenges, he made the process fun and enjoyable. Dan was leading a small group of families doing what we could to raise our children in the Jewish tradition on the “frontier.”
