CHABAD HOUSE IN THE JUNGLE

It’s hard to believe but in the heart of the jungle in Bolivia, a young couple, Yehoshua (“Shuki”) and Chana Gur, have opened a Chabad house which is visited by thousands of Israelis every month. They farbreng, are exposed to Torah, Chassidus and the Rebbe.* In a village that can be reached only by a small plane which lands on the grass, they are getting ready to inaugurate a new mikva building.

The tropical town of Rurrenabaque is located in the heart of the jungles of Bolivia and is considered an especially popular tourist attraction for Israeli backpackers who come en masse to this area. The peaceful atmosphere, the warm weather and the proximity to the river, the Pampas, and the jungles, make staying in the village an attractive choice, first in importance in the country after the capital city La Paz.

“Every year, about 50,000 tourists visit the village, out of which, according to official estimates, there are about 35,000 Israelis. We can assume that out of the 15,000 others there is a high likelihood of additional Jews so that during the summer season we are busy all day and even into the night sometimes,” says shliach, R’ Shuki Gur.

Many tourists who visit the village go from there on dangerous adventures in the jungles, the river and the Pampas, which is a plain of wide open grasslands, where they get up close to crocodiles, anacondas, and piranhas. Nearly all Pampas trips depart from the riverside town of Rurrenabaque, which is reachable from the capital city of La Paz by either a three-day boat ride down a river, a 20 hour bus ride down one of the most dangerous roads in the world (in dry weather), or by way of a short 40 minute flight on a 19-seater aircraft with an open cockpit that navigates through narrow mountain passes and lands on a grass runway.

“We feel that the tourists here are more open to listening and we try to take full advantage of that opportunity. After six years of outreach we can say that about fifty tourists began their t’shuva process with us and are religious in every respect, some of them Chabad Chassidim. There is hardly a tourist who has come here who hasn’t visited us.”

Rurrenabaque is the point of departure for the national park called Madidi. The park is immense and within the rain forests there is wildlife of all kinds; unusual birds, snakes, tarantulas, leopards, as well as bugs and mosquitoes whose sting is asymptomatic but dangerous.

“Every year we deal with many cases in which tourists are injured or become sick. Medicine in the village is primitive and thanks to our involvement, we have saved lives.”

In the Chabad house there are t’fillos and daily meals, with larger meals on Shabbos and Yom Tov. There are shiurim, Mivtza T’fillin every morning at the departure points for treks, and writing to the Rebbe. R’ Gur is presently completing the first mikva in Bolivia.

“In Bolivia there is not a single mikva. The nearest mikva is in Argentina, a three day drive and plane ride.”

MAKING HISTORY IN RURRENABAQUE

R’ Gur came to Rurrenabaque as a bachur:

“I was in Delhi for a long time, helping Shmuel Scharf. Then I wanted to find a place where there is no Chabad house and that’s how I came to Bolivia. The shliach in the capital city was R’ Yotam Klein. I consulted with him and he recommended Rurrenabaque.”

R’ Shneur Rotem, his chavrusa from 770, went along with him.

“He was working with Israelis on the Upper West Side of New York but the shlichus was petering out because Israelis were leaving the area, and when I suggested that he join me, he wrote to the Rebbe. The answer was to a shliach in the west of Chicago who asked the Rebbe, since the number of talmidim was diminishing and he was moving to a new area of the city, whether to start something new or join something already in existence. The Rebbe said to open something new. He saw this as a clear answer and joined me.

“When we arrived at the village, we discovered that it is built like a sort of clearing in the jungle with 400 kilometers of forest on every side and no civilization. We landed on the grass in a 19-seater plane. There wasn’t much time to acclimate and we just got right down to work. We soon realized that English would do us no good and we had to learn Spanish.”

The bachurim arrived a month before Pesach. During the first month, they started the Chabad house in a welcoming place on the river bank. Every day they had shiurim and supper, in the course of which tourists were told about the Besuras Ha’Geula and the identity of the Goel through experiential learning. They also helped the tourists write to the Rebbe.

One of the miracles they had in the beginning had to do with the arrival of matzos. Two days before Pesach they were told that the shipment that was supposed to come from Argentina was delayed and apparently would not make it in time. Shuki managed to make contact with Mrs. Nakash of Miami. She wrote a letter to the Rebbe and received instructions to take care of shmura matza for the shluchim for Pesach. She immediately bought a plane ticket for her Bolivian neighbor and asked him to take matza in his luggage. The matza arrived within a day and it was just enough for all the participants at the seder.

Shuki returned to Eretz Yisroel where he married and together with his wife, continued the shlichus and expanded it. Tens of thousands of tourists have passed through the Chabad house and their mailbox is full of thank you letters to the couple who reminded them of their homes and roots. 

A SURPRISE GUEST

As with every Chabad house, especially those operating in faraway places, the shluchim clearly see the workings of divine providence. R’ Gur has many examples and he chose a special story that happened just last year:

“We were in Eretz Yisroel, awaiting the birth of our daughter. Since the Rebbe wrote us that the doctors say a child should not be taken out of the country for a year, we sent a couple to replace us. At some point, they had to leave for a few days and they announced the closing of the Chabad house until their return.

“They flew to the capital and from there they had to go to Argentina. While on route, the shliach’s cell phone began to ring. On the line was a Bolivian Jew who told him that his father, who lives in Rurrenabaque, was on his deathbed and the doctors said it was a matter of hours. ‘Who will take care of the funeral?’ he asked the shliach. The shliach asked him to call back in a few minutes. In the meantime, he wrote to the Rebbe and asked whether to return to Rurrenabaque or to continue to Argentina and return to the village a week later as they had originally planned.

“The letter that the shliach opened to was astonishing. The Rebbe wrote: “About the funeral ceremony which took place on Tuesday…” and the Rebbe explained the significance of the number three. That day was Wednesday and the shliach understood from this answer that there would be nothing for him to do until the next Tuesday which is when they planned to return in any case. 

“When the man called back, the shliach kept pushing him off with various excuses. Each time, the man was more insistent and said his father was going to die any minute, but the shliach remained calm and said that if the Rebbe said the funeral would be on Tuesday, there was nothing to worry about and he would be back in Rurrenabaque in time.

“Two days later, Erev Shabbos, the man said the doctors gave his father five minutes… But, of course, they were wrong. Everything turned out to be just as the Rebbe wrote. On Sunday, the shliach and his wife made the return trip, arriving in the village Monday night. The man died a few hours later and the funeral was held on Tuesday. Since, in the village, there had never been a Jewish community and he was the only Jew who lived there on a regular basis, it was the first Jewish funeral in the history of Rurrenabaque.

“During the funeral another instance of divine providence was apparent. The man was a Holocaust survivor and I knew him well. His name was Zev Zimmerman. He made aliya from Russia and worked as an engineer for many years for the Solel Boneh Company. One day, he was fired in a heavy-handed manner and was replaced by an Arab. He was a big patriot and was terribly insulted by this and left the country. He wanted to go as far away as possible and so he went to Bolivia and once there, to Rurrenabaque. We had many discussions together. He was a warm Yid.

“When he died, the young shliach had many halachic questions since he had never done a tahara or burial before. He was guided in everything by R’ Yitzchok Isaac Landau of Tzfas. R’ Landau said that it was preferable that two religious Jews do the tahara. The big question was, where would the shliach find another religious Jew in this isolated town?

“We asked whether he could be helped by an irreligious Jew, but R’ Landau insisted that they find someone religious. The shliach felt helpless. This was a distant village! He decided to go to the makeshift airport where a few flights landed every day with only nineteen passengers on each flight. He pleaded that Hashem send him a kippa-wearing tourist who could help him.

“The first plane landed and some tourists came off wearing earrings and with long hair. They were followed by a distinguished Jew with a white beard. The shliach could not believe his eyes. He thought he was hallucinating. The man was from B’nei Brak and had come because his grandson had told him of the wonders of nature in Bolivia and he decided to go experience them for himself.

“The shliach told him about the bind he was in and the man was happy to help him. It turned out that the tourist had some cantorial expertise and he led the entire funeral with pomp and ceremony. The two of them, the shliach and the man from B’nei Brak, were amazed by the hashgacha pratis that took place before their eyes. What was the likelihood that on that particular day, a religious man from B’nei Brak would get off the plane in Rurrenabaque at the end of the world?”

Speaking of hashgacha pratis, one cannot help but be impressed by the miracles that take place every year at the seder, when the supplies arrive at the last moment, each time. It makes no difference how many months in advance the shluchim prepare.

“This year, for example, we gathered the tourists an hour before Yom Tov so pictures could be taken and the women could light candles. I brought the tourists into the hall and we still had no wine, which I went to get from the airport at the last minute, despite having started arranging things months before.

“In general, without the help of R’ Itzik Kupchik and his wife, in the capital city, it is unlikely we would be able to manage in this distant place. We are really dependent on the shipments they send us; they are like oxygen for breathing.”

SOUL STORIES

This interview took place when it was late morning in Rurrenabaque.

“We spend a few hours every morning in which we get ourselves organized and plan the Chabad house activities. At eight in the morning, after davening, we go to where the tourists gather before going on treks in the jungle. We put t’fillin on with them and bless them to return in peace and health, and we invite them for supper that takes place every evening at 6:30 at the Chabad house. From two in the afternoon we start preparing for the meal. In Rurrenabaque there are no kosher products and every cookie and roll is made by us.

“When we finish the meal, we usually have a Tanya class that can go on for hours. That is the daily schedule, but not a day passes without unusual events or interesting guests who change our plans.”

With a Chabad house like this, it is hard to do any follow-up, as the visitors come and go at a rapid pace. In order to keep in touch, the shluchim started a guest book where tourists can write their impressions of the Chabad house and include their email address. These addresses are added to a database of thousands of tourists who regularly receive divrei Torah and news from the Chabad house.

“This way, we can continue making a spiritual impact on the tourists. Dozens of young people made significant strides thanks to their visit to the Chabad house. Some of them even have become Chabad Chassidim and one of them is now on shlichus!”

R’ Gur picked one of numerous interesting stories to tell us, this one about a girl who came to the Chabad house with zero knowledge of mitzvos:

“When she walked in, she asked that we not throw stones at her. At first I thought she was joking, but later, when she became a steady guest, I realized that it was more or less the only thing she knew about Judaism and religious people, that they throw stones on Shabbos.

“At the Shabbos meal, in addition to divrei Torah and a Chassidic story, we suggest that every tourist make at least one commitment and keep it. This girl wanted to make a commitment but did not know what to pick. Her next stop was going to be Bariloche, Argentina. When she walked into the Chabad house, she saw the shliach having a lively discussion with a religious guy about kashrus. The guy maintained that you can eat pas and chalav akum and there is no need to be extreme, while the shliach explained how important the kashrus of food is and how we should not be cutting corners when it comes to halacha. She listened to this and decided this would be her commitment. She remained another two weeks in Bariloche and learned the halachos of kashrus with Rabbanit Azai.

“A few weeks later, I got an email from her which said she had a problem. On a trip with other Israelis, it was Shabbos and she was hungry, so she took out her pot and planned on cooking rice. One tourist, who used to be religious, told her she couldn’t keep kashrus while desecrating Shabbos. He offered her food that had been made before Shabbos, but she said his food wasn’t kosher enough for her, so she continued preparing food for herself. She wanted to know whether she did the right thing…

“After consulting with mashpiim, we wrote her that both kashrus and Shabbos are G-d’s mitzvos and neither one could be ignored, but it was preferable for her to stick to her commitment at any cost. In that merit she would come to do more mitzvos. This was better than trying to grab everything and end up with nothing. 

“Throughout her trip she continued to be particular about kashrus and when she returned to Eretz Yisroel she began taking more of an interest in Torah until she became fully religious.”

R’ Gur shared another special story with us:

“In order to keep in touch, we ask the tourists to write down their secular birthday and we check what the corresponding Jewish date is. On their birthday, we send them a bracha and a special message. We did so with a fellow from Yavneh. Every week, there are several dozen people to whom we send birthday wishes and he was one of them.

“He wrote back, ‘You should know that thanks to you, I put t’fillin on every morning.’ I asked him how this came to be and he told me an amazing story. He has a friend in Eretz Yisroel who begged him every morning to put on t’fillin and it got on his nerves. He decided, as a result, that throughout his trip he would not go into Chabad houses so he would not be asked to put on t’fillin. But when he came to Rurrenabaque, his friends pulled him to the Chabad house. He decided that if he would be asked to put on t’fillin, he would walk out. But if they didn’t ask, he would commit to putting on t’fillin every morning.

“He said that he walked in and was not asked to roll up his sleeve. He left the Chabad house and decided to keep the promise he made to himself. Over time, he made other big steps in the right direction and he is now close with the shluchim in the city where he lives. What he doesn’t know is that he walked into the Chabad house on Friday night when t’fillin are not put on.”

LAST MINUTE RESCUE

The Chabad house in Rurrenabaque is not only a place to turn to for spiritual matters. Tourists who seek information about the area as well as tourists who are injured or sick, turn to the Chabad house for help.

“The medical system in Bolivia in general, and this village in particular, is very primitive. If someone needs urgent medical intervention, his chances of survival are low. Flights leave the village only during the day and there are only four flights. Another way to reach the village is by driving about twenty hours via Bolivia’s Death Road which is the world’s most dangerous road.”

R’ Gur shared with us an incredible story that happened a few months ago.

“A tourist came to our Chabad house with a big swelling on his leg. He had come back from a trip into the jungle and was suffering greatly. It was ten o’clock at night and the first flight out of the village for the capital was at six in the morning, and that was only for someone who had bought a ticket already. The office that sold tickets was open only until nine, so the only thing I could suggest was that he go with me to the local doctor, whom we knew, so he could check the leg.

“The doctor gave a quick look and said it was a swelling that would go down and he would have to put up with the pain for another few days. We left and I could see that the guy was at the end of his rope. What the doctor said had not been reassuring to me and I called an Israeli doctor who was in La Paz. I told her about the situation and the fellow spoke to her himself. She said he should come to her clinic as soon as possible.

“When I understood that this was urgent, I woke up whoever had to be woken up from the airport. There was one more seat left on the six o’clock flight and one on the nine o’clock flight which his friend would be on. In the meantime, the guy and his good friend stayed at the Chabad house and we tried to cheer them up. We wrote to the Rebbe and asked for a bracha.

“The answer was to someone who was descended from the holy Ohr HaChayim and the Rebbe blessed him with many brachos. It was most astonishing to learn that this fellow was a descendant of the Ohr HaChayim! In another letter, the Rebbe wrote to someone who told the Rebbe he had visited a doctor and these were the only words I understood since the letter was written in Yiddish. We concluded that the fellow would leave and I would ask the shliach, R’ Kupchik, to translate the letter and then I would tell him what the Rebbe wrote.

“At six o’clock he boarded the plane feeling weak and in pain. When his friend arrived in La Paz two hours later he found him in the operating room. A vein in his foot had burst and if he had not been treated, he could have died. When he spoke to me after the operation and thanked me for what we did for him, I already had the content of the letter that he had opened to from the Rebbe.

“The Rebbe wrote to someone who went to a doctor who misdiagnosed him and said he should not be angry at him, because a doctor is merely a human being who can make a mistake while Hashem is the healer of all flesh and does wonders.”

MIKVA AND JAIL AND THE SURPRISING CONNECTION BETWEEN THEM

Building a mikva costs tens of thousands of dollars. But in a village like Rurrenabaque it is that much harder, because there are no contractors who know how to do work like this. In addition to the money, you need to find someone suitable and the supervision has to be exacting and constant.

R’ Gur has already gone through all of the attending travails and after many months of hard work, the Chabad house is about to inaugurate the first mikva in the country. The story behind the building of the mikva is no less astonishing an example of miraculous providence.

“One day of Chanuka two years ago I flew to London to raise money. I very much wanted to fundraise for a mikva, but I knew that even if I managed to raise a large amount it would end up going toward the high costs of running the Chabad house. That day, I stood on line at the entrance to the home of a wealthy person and next to me on line was someone who asked me what I was collecting for. I told him about the Chabad house and said there was not a single mikva in the country, which made living there very hard. My dream was to build a mikva, I told him.

“His eyes lit up and he gave me his business card and said he loves projects like these. He was willing to introduce me to rich friends of his and he would do all he could so we would have the money we needed for the mikva. The next day we stood together in the house of another rich man, a personal friend of his. He told his friend about the arrest of the three bachurim in Japan and said that the father of one of the boys asked for a bracha from a very prominent rabbi in B’nei Brak that they be freed. The rabbi said that if they built a mikva in Japan, he promised that the three would be freed.

“In collaboration with one of the shluchim in Japan, R’ Sudakevich, the money was raised by the three families and the mikva began to be built. What the rabbi said, came true. As they placed the cornerstone, the first bachur was freed. In the middle of construction, the second bachur was freed, and on 20 Teves the construction was completed. Sure enough, a short while later, the third bachur was also freed. The man told his wealthy friend that there was a wealthy religious man from New York who was in prison in Bolivia (Yanky Ostreicher) because of corrupt government figures. 

“‘Let’s do the same thing,’ he said, as I listened. ‘Let’s build a mikva there and he will be freed.’ The wealthy man asked me how much money I needed and began calling friends to join him. Within an hour he had eight friends who were willing to join him and he promised to continue raising funds. 

“When I returned to Bolivia I immediately got to work on the construction. A week and a half later, the media reported that eight senior government people, including a senior judge, had been arrested and accused of a plan to rob and extort an American. Still, Ostreicher was not released.

“Then I flew to Eretz Yisroel and met with R’ Posen of Modiin, a big expert in mikvaos, who gave me his advice and guidance. That day, Ostreicher was released from jail and put under house arrest. He was under house arrest for a year and all that time I was busy fundraising for the mikva. At the beginning of the tourist season this year I decided that even though I did not have all the money, there was no reason for further delay and I bought tickets for Bolivia. The day we arranged our tickets, the media reported that somehow, Ostreicher had gotten out of Bolivia and back to the United States.

“The pouring of the cement for the mikva is already completed, and now, what remains to be done is to bring the supervising rabbi and place the ceramic tiles.”

PUBLICIZING MOSHIACH

It was superfluous asking the shluchim in Rurrenabaque about the topic of Moshiach since the walls of the Chabad house scream out “Moshiach.” But I asked them anyway.

“When we first started here, we established two principles, first, that nobody would come here without hearing about the Igros Kodesh and second, spreading the Besuras Ha’Geula straight, no p’shetlach. People accept it matter-of-factly, like other mitzvos. For someone who grew up without Torah and mitzvos, washing netilas yadayim or putting on t’fillin are in the same category of things he doesn’t understand.

“In general, Israelis like being told the truth straight out, even if it doesn’t sound realistic. What is the truth of Lubavitch? What did the Rebbe scream about from the moment he accepted the nesius? About Moshiach! Every aspect of shlichus needs to be permeated with this, and in my six years here on shlichus I’ve seen that people accept it.

“Every Motzaei Shabbos tourists come to the Chabad house just to write to the Rebbe and they see miracles. People change their plans and make good hachlatos because of writing to the Rebbe. We see how the inyan of Moshiach gets people to make real changes in their lives for the better.”

BOLIVIA AND ITS PEOPLE

The Bolivian government supports Iran and other countries which hate Israel. It, along with Venezuela, belongs to the coalition of countries which work against the US and western countries, including Israel.

“Most of the population is Indian and I don’t think the simple man on the street knows what a Jew is and that there is a Jewish nation,” says R’ Gur. “They are mostly Christian but they are also idol worshipers who believe in spirits and demons. In La Paz there is a square called Israel. After the attack on the Marmara ship, the president of Bolivia changed the name of the square to Palestine. But since then they have changed it back to its original name.”

As in other countries in South America, R’ Gur works with locals too.

“People in Bolivia watch a lot of television and now and then we pay prominent TV stations to publicize the Rebbe’s message about Geula and the importance of observing the Seven Noachide Laws.”

R’ Gur describes the locals as very simple people who struggle to get by day by day.

“Every year before Pesach, along with R’ Kupchik in La Paz, we prepare a lot of wine for Pesach. We buy grapes and make the wine ourselves. The problem is that in Bolivia there are no stores and no organized supply of fruits and vegetables. There is a market and what they cut in the field yesterday is sold today. The man who sold tomatoes yesterday, sells grapes today and cleaning supplies tomorrow.

“The first year we looked for grapes and after a few days of shortages the grapes arrived. I wanted all of them. The seller looked at me angrily and refused. ‘Why,’ I asked. She explained that if she sold it all, she would have nothing to do the rest of the day and would be bored. At first I was taken aback by what she said but after I recovered, I suggested that she come and help out at the Chabad house. She immediately agreed. We bought all the grapes and from noon until late evening, she helped out at the Chabad house without asking for remuneration.”

R’ Gur told me about many locals who speak fluent Hebrew.

“During our first days in the village, the ones who helped us a lot were the local Hebrew speaking people who picked up the language after many years of working with Israeli tourists. People here are generally nice and willing to help. We’ve gotten stuck, more than once, and suddenly a local Hebrew speaking person came along who helped us. After this happened a few times, our jaws stopped dropping.

“It seems as though Hashem made them pick up Hebrew just to be of help to us, as the Rambam says at the end of Yad HaChazaka about the nations of the world preparing the way for Moshiach.”