What Will Be With the Jews of Small Communities?

"A rabbi recently said to me," the Rebbe, of righteous memory, told me in a 1972 audience, "that the only solution for Jews in small communities in England, is for them to move to Israel. There is no other way with only ten to twenty Jewish families in these communities and no synagogue. There is no possibility to keep Shabbat. One cannot buy kosher food and so one eats non-kosher food. This rabbi said to me, 'There is no hope for these people; they must go to Israel or they will assimilate.'"

"The answer [to this problem] is a wandering rabbi," the Rebbe said, "a wandering ritual slaughterer and a wandering certified circumciser who will go from town to town."

I asked if I should mention this problem to United Kingdom's Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits.

The Rebbe said, "By all means."

The Rebbe then continued and said that, "when [Rabbi Jakobovits] was here, we discussed the question of a wandering rabbi, but now I consider a wandering ritual slaughterer as even more important. Unlike the slaughterer, a sermon can be printed if necessary and sent. It is not as good as the sermon being delivered in person, but at least it will help."

From Where Will the Rabbis Come?

In a 1975 audience the Rebbe asked me, "I have received many letters about the problem in England, that when the elderly rabbis will retire in five years, there will be no rabbis to replace them. So who will provide the rabbis for the synagogues in England?"

The Rebbe asked: "Do the young rabbis not want to serve in the synagogues?"

I responded that because of the attitude of many lay leaders in control of the synagogues, young men of real integrity cannot live under their conditions.

Today the problem was mostly solved by the appointment of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis in many United Synagogues in the United Kingdom.