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By Bayla Sheva Brenner

ord is spreading among observant friend’s farm nearby. Glatt kosher meat Raised on a sheep farm outside of vacationers about a unique and chalav Yisrael cheese are sent regu- Detroit, Devorah, actually known as WMontana couple offering kosher larly to their home from Postville, Iowa, Patricia McCormick for most of her life, food and hospitality amid the via overnight mail. To satisfy their need was a born truth-seeker. At the age of towering mountains and open valleys of for a sense of community, the Snyders seven, she asked her Sunday school America’s northern plains. More and teacher why Christians go to church on more frum hikers have enjoyed the Sunday if the Bible says the Seventh day amenities at Gavriel and Devorah is actually Saturday. She was told that Snyder’s self-built homestead in the At times, the Snyders they are commemorating the resurrec- small town of Kila—open year round to travel five-and-a-half tion of the messiah. Not satisfied, she frum travelers. “Anytime we can the hours to the closest protested, “But God said...” and was outside Orthodox community to come promptly told not to question the visit, it’s a highlight [for us],” says Orthodox shul, which is teaching. Gavriel. in Calgary. “I cherish As she grew older, Devorah, who The tranquil town of Kila, sur- the opportunity to had been baptized at a Lutheran rounded by Montana’s lush countryside, church, had more questions. It dis- is located some seventeen miles from daven with a minyan,” turbed her to find verses in the King Kalispell, the closest city. With 800 says Gavriel. James version of the Old Testament in Montana, the Snyders are perhaps with footnotes that read: “The meaning the only Orthodox Jews in the state. of this Hebrew phrase is unclear.” Despite this, they enjoy a rich, if not Devorah asked her pastor why they did- rustic, religious life. On Shabbat, they occasionally escape their spiritual isola- n’t ask Jewish rabbis for the exact defini- eat homemade (in the truest sense of tion and travel five-and-a-half hours to tion. “He told me that if they don’t the word) challah—Devorah actually the closest Orthodox shul, which is in accept our messiah, nothing they have grinds the grain, making her own flour. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “I cherish the to say is of any interest to us.” His They obtain chalav Yisrael milk by opportunity to daven with a minyan,” answer only increased her discomfort. supervising the milking of the goats at a says Gavriel, whose homestead was Devorah met and married Gavriel recently featured in a travel article in (Robert) Snyder, with whom she not Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the Kashrus Magazine. only shared a strong Lutheran back- OU Communications and Marketing So, how did this Orthodox couple ground, but also a deep disillusionment Department. find their way to remote Kila, Montana? with the church.

28 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5766/2006 UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:38 AM Page 29

They moved to Texas and found serious look at . Jersey-based adult education and out- other frustrated church-goers and a That summer, a few Chabad reach organization. Gavriel reveled in Bible teacher with whom they could yeshivah students came through the weekly classes and expressed relate. The teacher admitted that he did- Montana to reach out to Jewish tourists an interest in converting to Judaism. n’t know exactly what truth looked like, and local residents. The couple eagerly The rabbi discouraged him, telling him but he knew that God “wasn’t within placed themselves on the Chabad mail- there was no need to convert, that he twenty-five miles of the church,” and ing list to receive a weekly parashah was in a good spiritual place and should told them if they kept seeking Him by newsletter. “It became our lifeline,” says simply continue following the Noahide reading the Bible, they would find what Devorah. “We started learning like Laws. But Gavriel couldn’t let it rest. “It they were looking for. Shortly thereafter, crazy. The Torah gave me answers to all wasn’t a matter of ‘if’; it was a matter of their mentor died, and the group fell of my questions.” The Snyders also ‘when,’” says Gavriel. “It was something apart. scoured the Internet for information I knew I had to do. I would do whatev- In 1989, the Snyders left Texas about Judaism. er it took and go where I needed to go for the quiet of the Montana country- to accomplish this.” side. Ironically, it was there, hundreds Gavriel received an offer of miles away from observant Jewish to work full-time for the busi- life, that the Snyders’ journey to ness, and the Snyders moved to Yiddishkeit began. Their neighbor and Yardley and began attending business partner, Jack Berger,* who the local Chabad shul. Once was born Jewish but raised again, they voiced their growing Episcopalian, invited the Snyders to desire to become Jews, and once join his (non-Jewish) wife and him again they were told that they on a trip to the Holy Land to meet were only required to follow the potential clients. Noahide Laws. But the Snyders “We [also] did the tourist insisted that they “just had to thing,” says Devorah. “At the [convert]. We just couldn’t stop Western Wall, I was in [total] awe there,” says Devorah. “We had to … almost afraid to touch it.” have it all.” Touring Jerusalem’s Old City, the foursome stopped at a Judaica Mazal Tov Gavriel and Devorah! shop run by two brothers who A beit din in the Crown struck up an intense hour-long con- Heights section of Brooklyn sent versation with them. “They seemed “It was the most electrifying day I had ever experi- the determined couple four pages of to spend more time talking to people enced,” says Devorah Snyder (pictured here with questions, covering all that they need- her husband, Gavriel) of her post-conversion wed- about Judaism than they [did] selling ed to know before undergoing con- ding. “At the age of sixty, I was a Jewish kallah!” things,” muses Devorah. When they version. The Snyders returned twelve were about to leave, Jack told the pages of answers. “I felt like I had engaging proprietors that he would like Their search led them to an online [gotten] my PhD!” says Devorah. “It to pray for them. The proprietors ami- Jewish bookstore, where they ordered was the end of a fifty-year search for the ably declined the offer. Gavriel was curi- ArtScroll siddurim. truth.” For his Jewish name, Robert ous as to why they didn’t want Jack to Devorah and Gavriel both felt an chose Gavriel, a derivative of his English pray for them. “They told us in a lov- intensifying draw toward Judaism. name, based on the late Lubavitcher ing, but firm way: ‘Because you worship “What touched me was the fact that to ’s teaching that the name one a different God than we do,’” relates substantiate something [in Judaism], receives at birth is linked to that person’s Devorah. They then began explaining one goes back to the oldest source, essence. Devorah chose her name the difference between the God of the rather than the newest revelation,” says because while learning Torah she was Torah and the God of the Christian Devorah. “There’s no foundation in touched by the devotion of Rivkah’s Bible. “That was a turning point for us. [Christianity’s] ‘Easy Believism’—where handmaid. “[Devorah] accompanied We knew then that we had to get out of one doesn’t have to do anything except Rivkah when she left home to marry Christianity.” believe in the messiah.” Yitzchak,” says Devorah. “She stayed The two couples returned to the When Gavriel and Jack went to with them and served the fledgling States and conducted an intensive Yardley, Pennsylvania, for a few months Jewish family until she died in Yaakov’s search into the roots of Christianity. on business, they began studying with a camp. I [also] wanted to be part of and Their findings compelled them to take a rabbi from Project Gesher, a New to serve the Jewish people.” * Name has been changed. Summer 5766/2006 JEWISH ACTION 29 UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:38 AM Page 30

Y OUR OU MEMBERSHIP: Not only will you benefit; th

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In the spring of 2001, the Snyders traveled to Crown Heights to complete their ritual conversion, and returned to Yardley to get married under the laws of Moses and Israel. “It was the most electrifying day I had ever experi- enced,” says Devorah. “At the age of sixty, I was a Jewish kallah!” After the horrific attack on 9/11, the business went under and the Snyders moved back to their Montana home, increasing the area’s sparse Jewish population by two. Although their two grown children and extended family initially expressed dismay at the couple’s dramatic turnabout, they are now reconciled to the fact that the Snyders have embraced Judaism. “This past Chanukah, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law both sent us Chanukah cards,” says Devorah. “There’s been an acceptance.”

Frum hikers enjoy the amenities at the Snyders’ self-built home- stead in Kila, Montana. The Snyders—perhaps the only Orthodox Jews in Montana—have glatt kosher meat delivered via overnight mail.

The Snyders keep their Yiddishkeit strong through constant study; they own a growing library of sefarim, Torah tapes and articles they print out from Torah web sites. “That’s one of the joys of being a Jew,” says Gavriel. “You never run out of things to study. There’s always some- thing to learn.” Devorah still views her journey as an unfolding adventure. “The same drive and pull that led me to Judaism keeps me in it and [keeps me] careful about [not eating] bugs in lettuce, [checking for] kosher symbols [on food packages] and checking with the rabbi [when ques- tions arise],” she says. “To live Torah and trust in Hashem—I wouldn’t want to be any other place.” The Snyders are grateful to have finally “made it home” as they delight in making other Jewish travelers feel welcome at their heimish homestead in the mountains of Montana. JA

32 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5766/2006 UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:39 AM Page 33

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