As shown at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, and with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score, THE RABBI GOES WEST focuses on one Chabad rabbi, 34-year-old Chaim Bruk, who moved from Brooklyn to unlikely Bozeman, Montana, to bring his brand of Judaism to the American West. Part of his Chabad mission is to place a mezuzah, an encased prayer offering, on the doorpost of every Montana Jew. That’s less than 2,000 families spread across a state fourteen times larger than Israel.
As he travels across this "big sky" landscape, Chaim confronts a terrifying neo-Nazi threat. He also faces objections to his proselytizing from some skeptical Jews and the state’s rabbis, both Reform and Conservative, though they all acknowledge that he is beloved by his congregants.
If you liked the Israeli TV series, Shtisel, this one’s for you!
"In their balanced, thorough, and wry " The Rabbi Goes West " Cambridge filmmakers Gerald Peary and Amy Geller follow Bruk as he pursues [his] mission."
-The Boston Globe
"In just 75 minutes, we learn a great deal about Bruk, Jewish Montana, Chabad and how Chabad interacts with other streams of Judaism. And we have fun doing it."
- Jewish News of Northern California