After years without rabbi, South Dakota is about to get one
None
SIOUX FALLS -- South Dakota's small, tight-knit Jewish community has made do without a rabbi for several years, but the state's status as the only one with no rabbi will change this winter when a family arrives from New York to open a Jewish community center.
Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz and his wife will open a Chabad House in Sioux Falls that will offer religious education, worship services and other programs. Alperowitz will also travel across the sparsely populated prairie state to reach as many Jews -- observant and nonobservant -- as possible.
Alperowitz says the Chabad House will host social and cultural activities for children and adults.
Estimates show about 400 Jews live in South Dakota -- less than a tenth of 1 percent of the state's population.
