The Frozen Chosen – Part 1

 

At the same time, Alaska was preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary as a state, and Governor Sarah Palin was in the running to become the country’s first woman vice president. It was a time filled with anticipation: Alaskans looking forward to the prosperity that will come with the building of a planned natural-gas pipeline, and synagogue leaders looking forward to a growth in both membership and finances.

 

Today, Alaska has between 3,000 and 6,000 Jews, about half of whom live in Anchorage. (The lower figure reflects a 1995 study; the higher one is the estimate of the local Chabad.)The Reform Beth Sholom (907-338-1836; http://www.frozenchosen.org/) is about to renovate and enlarge its premises so it can increase the number of classrooms and accommodate the hundreds of worshipers who attend High Holiday services. Congregation Shomrei Ohr – Chabad in Anchorage (907-279-1200; http://www.chabad.org/ )– is also expanding as they plan to move from midtown to a nearby $5-million campus that will include a synagogue, community center, religious school and museum…even a new mikve.

 

Like most Alaskans, nearly all the Jews in Anchorage hail from the Lower 48. A diverse group, they are bound together as a community not only by dreams of adventure and freedom but also by the vastness of the state and their distance from family and old friends. Distance from the Lower 48 also means that religious lines are not as clearly drawn as they might be elsewhere. This is, after all, Alaska, where sheer size (more than twice that of Texas), 100,000 glaciers, innumerable lakes and whales, bears, moose, sea otters, bald eagles and puffins shred any prior assumptions, even about its Jews. “Eclectic is much too mild a word to describe members of Beth Sholom”, says Executive Director Robin Dern.