Summer in the Heartland

Our bags are packed, we’re ready to go. Some of us to Eretz Yisrael; others to the Carribean, Europe, the Far East, even the Jersey Shore.

There will be “staycations” in the Five Towns (nothing wrong with that!) or Long Beach, the Hamptons, the North Shore. Depending on our disposition, we might enjoy a few days in the Big Apple, where there’s far more than a vacation week’s worth of things to see and do.

Or we might try something out of the ordinary — and visit the American Heartland.

It’s easy for us New Yorkers to be dismissive of those who live in simpler American venues, and to believe we have nothing in common with those in the “red states” or, more broadly, in “Middle America.”

That region is surprisingly rich in Jewish history and small Jewish communities continue to exist, if not exactly prosper, beyond places like Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and Minneapolis.

On each of my several trips to the Midwest, I explored what’s out there Judaically.

On a visit to Des Moines, Iowa, a few years ago, I walked several miles in a snow storm to end up as the tenth man at two Shabbat minyanim (first at the city’s established Orthodox shul, then at a Chabad House across the street). I spent that afternoon with a frum family which had moved to Des Moines both for economic opportunity and to be near their Rav who had come from Florida; they were home schooling their several children.

I won’t recommend Des Moines over Jerusalem, but if you’re looking for something different travelwise, you could do a lot worse than Iowa. Shabbat Shalom,

Ed Weintrob