State’s only rabbi supplies matzah for Passover to support Ukraine

Ever since Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz moved to South Dakota in 2017, he has made sure the state’s Jewish community is supplied with matzah for Passover.

He is doing the same this year with a slight difference: Instead of buying the flatbread from a bakery in Israel, he has obtained it from Ukraine, which is in the middle of a battle for freedom.

Matzah, in cracker or bread form, is served during Passover because of the holiday’s prohibition against eating leavened food through its eight-day duration.

“Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays,” Alperowitz said.

“It commemorates our exodus from Egyptian slavery,” he said.

This year, Passover will begin April 15 and end April 22. Matzah flatbreads serve a ceremonial role during the Passover dinner, or Seder. Matzah meal is used in place of flour in other dishes such as dumplings.

Alperowitz is co-director of Chabad of South Dakota, a Jewish organization that offers education, culture, religious and social services to the state’s Jewish community. He is the only rabbi in South Dakota.

He has supplied matzah every spring since he came to Sioux Falls and has seen the demand grow annually. This year, the distribution will run in hundreds of pounds.

“We are delivering these by hand or by mail to every Jewish household across South Dakota,” Alperowitz said. “There are many towns with only one Jewish person. We make sure they have it as well. As the only rabbi in the entire state, I feel I have a responsibility to make sure every Jew can have matzah and celebrate Passover.”

Alperowitz purchased the matzah from Israel in the past because it is the eternal Jewish homeland and a holy place held up in Jews’ prayers every day. This year, it will come from Dnipro, Ukraine.

“Ukraine is home to a large Jewish population, by some estimated as many as 400,000 Jewish people,” Alperowitz said. “Today, they are facing unprecedented war, hunger and a refugee crisis. And if the Midwest is known as America’s breadbasket, Ukraine is Europe’s breadbasket. So I was not surprised to learn that Ukraine also exports some fine matzah.”

Friends of Alperowitz, Aliza and Ruzen Ellberger of Teaneck, New Jersey, make the distribution possible.

A significant historic and spiritual relevance to matzah from Dnipro also exists. Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the rebbe or head of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and global spiritual leader, is widely recognized as the most influent rabbi in modern history, Alperowitz said. His father, the late Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, was chief rabbi in Dnipropetrovsk — the city’s former name — for more than 30 years. He stood up to communist regimes and risked his life to ensure that even under oppression, the matzah baked in Ukraine would be kosher to the highest standards.

“Our statewide campaign to bring matzah to every Jewish home follows an annual campaign originally launched by the rebbe: that every Jew be able to celebrate Passover and have matzah for the holiday,” Alperowitz said.

Each of the boxes distributed contains six matzahs, the prescribed portion for two traditional Seders. The Kabalistic masters teach how matzah is the “bread of faith” that strengthens a Jewish person’s faith in God and reminds them of his protection during the Exodus, Alperowitz said.

“Many people in South Dakota have told me how this is especially meaningful for them,” he said. “Without it, there are simply no options for this matzah in South Dakota. It is not something you can just pick up at a local Hy-Vee or Costco. Authentic kosher matzah also can be expensive, costing $30 per pound before shipping.”