Imagine packing up your entire life and moving almost 6,000 miles to a city you have seen once. You have committed to this move for the rest of your life. You are going without a guaranteed paycheck. Your closest family is at least a plane ride away.
This is exactly what Rabbi Shmulik and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Greenberg did when they moved to Wichita, Kansas, in August. They arrived with the three young children in tow, and a fourth arrived shortly after the move to a city the Greenbergs had never heard of just a few months before.
The Greenbergs opened the first Chabad Center in Wichita this August, just in time for Rosh Hashanah. Chabad Centers cater to the needs of the Jewish community in the area such as performing a bris, teaching classes about Judaism, hosting Shabbat meals and running summer camps. According to Chabad.org, “When you leave a typical Chabad class, you don’t go away with just knowledge, you go away with a whole new way of knowing, a new pair of eyes.”
Besides Chabad, Wichita has two congregations —one Conservative and one Reform — and the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation. With the addition of Chabad of Wichita, the 50 largest cities in the United States each have their own Chabad Centers.
Like all Chabads, Chabad of Wichita is an independent entity. According to Rabbi Mendy Wineberg, program director of Chabad House Center of Kansas City, in keeping with the system set up by the Rebbe, each region is overseen by a regional director. Rabbi Sholom Wineberg is the regional director for the states of Kansas and Missouri, so both Rabbi Mendy and Rabbi Sholom assisted in matching the Greenbergs with Wichita and provide support and guidance as Rabbi Greenberg gets established.
“We are excited to have found such a wonderful family as the Greenbergs. Both Rabbi and Mrs. Greenberg grew up on shlichus, watching and helping their parents in their respective communities. As such, they are extremely well suited to the task at hand and I have no doubt that the entire Wichita community will benefit from their presence,” Rabbi Mendy Wineberg said.
Rabbi Greenberg is from El Paso, Texas. Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Greenberg is from Costa Rica. They married five years ago, around the same time that Rabbi Greenberg finished his rabbinical studies.
The Greenbergs have dedicated their lives to serving the Jewish community and Rabbi Greenberg said their goal is to assist the Jewish population in any way possible and to enhance the community.
“We’re honored to be a part of such an important mission,” Rabbi Greenberg said.
The Greenberg’s had other location options for opening their Chabad Center. They chose Wichita over Cuba and New Zealand because something about their visit just clicked.
“Quite a few local people have been requesting for Chabad to come for quite a while now. We’re lucky enough to come to a place where people are actively seeking us out. We really felt like we came to a community of people who were waiting for us. We came to a home. It felt like we’ve been here for years,” Rabbi Greenberg said.
The young rabbi believes there is a Jewish Renaissance in Wichita and they are meeting Jews everywhere they go.
“There’s an enormous amount of unaffiliated Jews here,” the rabbi said, noting that the push to bring young entrepreneurs to Wichita is bringing Jews there.
There is no official Jewish population of Wichita according to its Federation, but it is thought to be less than 1,000. Approximately 250 families are affiliated with the two congregations. In the short time the Greenbergs have been in Wichita, he said they already met approximately 50 unaffiliated Jews.
Among those who welcome Chabad’s presence in Wichita are Yosef and Noelle Murray. They have lived in Wichita almost four years and couldn’t believe the biggest city in Kansas did not have a Chabad Center. They decided to make it their mission to help bring Chabad to Wichita. Did they say how they made it their mission?
“To have a Chabad come to Wichita means that we can connect with other Jews and experience Judaism with joy and pride,” Noelle Murray said.
Before Chabad of Wichita opened some Jewish families like the Murrays, who were looking for a more traditional approach to Judaism, had to travel great distances to celebrate holidays and connect with other like-minded Jews.
“It is so important to us that we no longer feel that we are on a spiritual island and we have all the experiences Chabad brings here in our own town. We are looking forward to Chabad helping other Jews connect with their Jewish heritage and with other Jews and to learn more not just about the traditions, but why they are important,” Murray explained.
Before the Greenbergs settled in Wichita, Rabbi Wineberg said some members of the Wichita Jewish community traveled to Kansas City for holidays and events.
“I also have had a weekly class with a couple of families that we do over the computer. Now that Rabbi Greenberg is in Wichita, he is meeting the contacts and setting up classes and events there which will benefit the entire community,” Rabbi Wineberg said.
Chabad at KU also welcome’s the Greenbergs presence in Wichita.
“As the nearest Chabad House to the Greenbergs, we are so excited to welcome our new ‘neighbor.’ They are an incredible power couple and a wonderful family who will contribute so much to the existing Wichita Jewish community. Over the years we often had Jewish people from the central Kansas region who would reach out to us for support and we are so glad that they now have someone local to serve their needs,” said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of Chabad at KU.
So far, the Greenbergs have hosted High Holiday services and taught classes on the High Holidays, put up mezuzahs, convinced a few men to start putting on tefillin every day, helped make kosher food more accessible and have been meeting with Jews in the area.
The first major program Chabad of Wichita hopes to host is a Hanukkah craft workshop at Home Depot. In the near future the Greenbergs hope to start a variety of adult education classes, a beginners Hebrew class and a Torah studies class on the Parsha. Classes are available to anyone in the community. The future also includes plans to open a Jewish preschool.
In addition Rabbi Greenberg said Chabad of Wichita is “always open for one-on-one classes.”
This isn’t the first time that the rabbi and rebbetzen have worked together to improve the lives of children. They spent the past two years helping run an orphanage — Mispacha, which is Hebrew for family — in Odessa, Ukraine. The Greenbergs were tasked with fundraising, specifically outside of the Ukraine. They also arranged trips for people planning to volunteer at the orphanage.
Chronicle Editor Barbara Bayer contributed to this story.