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Historic Community and University of Mary Washington Welcome Long-Awaited Shluchim

Rabbi Heshy and Chani Wolf will be launching Chabad’s northernmost outpost in Fairbanks, just 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s heartland.

The Wolfs will serve the local community of 1,000 or so hardy Jews who call the frigid city home year-round, as well as tourists who visit to enjoy Alaska’s natural beauty and mild summers. The Chabad couple will also serve Jewish students on campus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base.

Jay Ramras, a prominent hotelier, philanthropist and former three-term Alaska State Representative, extended a warm welcome to the Chabad emissaries. Ramras purchased a building that will serve as the new Fairbanks Chabad House, situated on an acre of land just south of Downtown Fairbanks. Ramras is doing so to encourage the Wolfs “To create the foundations of the Fairbanks Jewish community that will last forever,” he said.

While the Wolfs are the city’s first permanent Chabad reps, Fairbanks has a long history of involvement with Chabad. In 1976, fifteen years before Chabad had a permanent presence in Alaska, Rabbi Moshe Feller, director of Chabad of Minnesota—then the northernmost Chabad in the U.S.—dispatched a young Chabad rabbi to visit Fairbanks for Purim.

Chabad centers in Minnesota, Washington State, and Alaska sent visiting rabbis to provide for the community’s Jewish needs. With the opening of a full time Chabad center in Fairbanks, Chabad-Lubavitch has a new northernmost outpost, a fulfillment of the Rebbe’s oft-repeated call to reach Jews wherever they are. 

“Rabbi Heshy and Chani Wolf visited Fairbanks last summer and met many community members while conducting various activities with children and adults throughout their visit,” said Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, regional director of Chabad of Alaska. “They visited again this winter, to get the feel of Alaskan life and the dark and cold winter days of Fairbanks. But they felt the welcome embrace and the warmth of many Fairbanks community members.”

Rabbi Isaac and Chaya Abelsky recently founded Chabad in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Nestled in the Rocky Mountains in northwestern Colorado, the town is famous for its skiing. Unique weather conditions create what skiers call “champagne powder,” particularly dry snow that is ideal for winter sports. More Olympic skiers have originated here than any other town in the United States.

The mountain town of some 13,000 full-time residents has a small Jewish community of several hundred, but those numbers swell during the winter skiing season and the summer hiking season, when visitors and part-time residents from around the world fill the town.  

Much of the Steamboat local community is made up of people who moved here specifically for the outdoor beauty, expecting little in the way of religious life.

“People move here because they’re very engaged with the outdoors,” Irv Edelman, a Steamboat Springs resident told Lubavitch.com. “They move here assuming that if you want something Jewish, they would have to do it on their own.”

Edelman and his family were such people.

They moved to Steamboat from Madison, Wisconsin, and enjoy the beauty and seclusion of the small community—”the smallest I’ve ever lived in,” Edelman says. But while student rabbis regularly visited Steamboat and invited Edelman to join Passover seders and other events, Irv says he wasn’t really interested in what they had to offer. “When I grew up, for some reason there was a sense that Chabad was the ‘other,’” he said. 

But then October 7 happened, and Edelman’s soul was ignited. “In response to October 7 I’ve become more observant; I pray three times a day and put on tefillin each day,” he said. This moment of personal spiritual awakening coincided with the arrival of the Abelskys, who hosted the community for Purim and Passover events and have begun hosting regular services and classes.

“Rabbi Abelsky is a genuinely gracious man,” Edelman said. “We met up and spoke, and it resonated with me.” Edelman took up the Abelskys on their invitation, and they exchanged visits several times. 

“It’s wonderful to have them as a resource for people who want a more observant experience here,” Edelman said. “I’m hoping to participate in Chabad and learn with and from Rabbi Abelsky.”