An Idyllic Place to Live, And Now, To Grow Spiritually

An isolated island, the ole reliable plot device that carries whole novels – think, Robinson Crusoe – and entire TV series like Lost and Gilligan’s Island, is a reality that dramatically shapes the community building efforts of Chabad Centre of Vancouver Island, Canada.

North of Seattle, a mass of stunning land ten hours to drive end to end, Vancouver Island (pop. 723,000) is no forgotten smudge on the atlas, but with the watery divide that renders it accessible from mainland Canada by creeping ferry or air alone, it might as well be.

Three year ago, when Rabbi Meir and Chani Kaplan first arrived in Victoria, the island’s capital city, they spent the ferry ride over soaking in the region’s lush forest vistas and famous, by Canadian standards, warm weather. They couldn’t understand why most passengers rode in the windowless carport below, ignoring the majesty. Now they see the forty-minute ride with its hour-long pre-board wait, sixty dollar charge for a car and two occupants, with hours spent driving to the terminal and their desired location, for what it is – a nuisance with idiosyncratic benefits.

When forty-something Vancouver Island resident Narcis Kellow was growing up, the island’s natural beauty and laidback lifestyle were said to attract “the newlywed and the nearly dead.” Some of those honeymooners returned to raise families in a setting where hiking opportunities are plentiful, salmon return to spawn and there’s always a sparkling seacoast to paint or sketch. Artists, academics, government officials set the tone for the area. “People are not running after the dollar here,” said Rabbi Kaplan. “They are more into growing intellectually and socially. They don’t have their Blackberry ringing when you are trying to talk to them. This may explain why consistent crowds of 20 and 30 adults sign up for Chabad’s Jewish Learning Institute courses each semester; a number that would satisfy much larger communities. April and David Katz were so impressed with the first sessions they took with Rabbi Kaplan, they signed up for the latest course “The Kabbalah of Character.”  “It’s been an extremely informative, stimulating experience,” said David, a retired psychologist. “It’s been an incredible journey. I look forward to class every single time.” Beyond the syllabus, however, the Kaplans are the attraction. They “brought a new vibrancy to Victoria. They are full of energy, excitement, and are very open and warm and not critical."

Openness and acceptance, characteristics engrained in Chabad representatives, are vital for anyone who wishes to make contact with Vancouver Island’s closet Jews. Many Jewish residents relocated there to escape oppressive family ties, haunting Holocaust memories, disappointments with more major Jewish communities. The local Conservative synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El, built after the gold rush in 1863, counts 210 families and individuals on its membership rolls.

Chabad’s mailings find their way to 800 families, but Chani Kaplan suspects the actual number is somewhere in the thousands. Narcis Kellow, a daughter of Israelis who moved to the island for the peace and quiet, heartily agrees. Kellow’s practice of speaking Hebrew to her daughters, Amelia, 5, and Shayna, 3, pulls fellow Jews right out of the woodwork. Whether at the park, community rec center, or while giving a near stranger a ride home, Kellow capitalizes on the random member-of-the-tribe sightings and patches them through to Chani Kaplan sure they will receive a warm welcome. “You can always call the Kaplans or knock on their door, and they won’t turn you away.” The experience is far removed from Kellow’s youth on the island when rabbis affiliated with other temples came and went. “I don’t remember any of their names,” she said. By enrolling her daughter in the Chabad Hebrew Preschool, sending her to winter and summer camp, Kellow’s providing an opportunity for her children to have what she did not. “Growing up, I never had a rabbi I could turn to. My daughter is growing up here with a rabbi she knows as her own, and when the time comes, her rabbi will perform the marriage,” said Kellow.

Long before little Amelia and Shayna hit those milestones, Chabad will have made many more strides. Its preschool, once located in the Kaplans’ basement, has grown into a cheerful, spacious educational center with 19 students. Parents are clamoring for Chabad to expand to a full kindergarten. For the past year and a half, kosher meat, cheese, and snacks have been available, through Rabbi Kaplan’s coaxing, at Aubergine, a specialty foods market. Challahs, baked by a friend of Chabad, Elisheva Milotay, are sold there as well. Jewish college students from the University of Victoria share Shabbat dinner with the Kaplans each month, and communal Friday night dinners are held at the Kaplan home just as often. One of the Jewish moms Kellow met by chance now brings her daughter to Chani’s weekly Bat Mitzvah Club. Sunday morning Tefillin Club, holiday celebrations, one to one Torah study opportunities, all are part of Chabad’s embrace of their singular island location.

“No matter how far you drive here, you won’t reach a bigger Jewish community,” said Rabbi Kaplan. “We know we need to be the address for anything Jewish – books, questions, weddings, funerals. Big or small. We want to be a center where Judaism will be something alive, up to date, something to be excited about and proud of.”