Rabbi Zalman and Raizy Mendelsohn arrived in Wyoming Thursday to open the first Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish center in the state.

The couple, who alone with their newborn daughter moved to the mountainous state's tourist-friendly Jackson Hole valley, are Wyoming's only full-time Jewish spiritual leaders.

The Mendelsohns' have been coordinating Jewish outreach there since their appointment as emissaries late last year. Zalman Mendelsohn developed connections with local Jewish community members over the past couple of years during visits to the state as part of the summer visitation program coordinated by Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch.

For his part, the rabbi says that making regular trips across the state's sprawling 97,818 square miles to reach its more isolated Jewish residents is the highlight of his responsibilities.

"The way the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, educated us," he says, "we know that even one person along provides endless opportunities to inspire."

A grant from the Rohr Family Foundation, secured by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, made the Mendelsohns' move possible.