RAPID CITY, S.D. — The first Jews to settle in what is now South Dakota established themselves in Deadwood during the Gold Rush more than 150 years ago, finding a niche selling hardware, groceries, dry goods and more. By 1920, the state was home to some 1,300 Jews.
That community has dwindled to an estimated 390 people — less than a tenth of 1 percent of South Dakota’s population. No state has fewer. It’s a small, but tightly knit flock that makes do without a permanent rabbi and worries too few children are coming along to sustain it.
“Nobody wants to be the last one to turn the lights out,” said Steve Benn, a neonatal doctor who serves as lay leader at Synagogue of the Hills in Rapid City. He orchestrates bar mitzvah ceremonies, performs ritual circumcisions and conducts funeral services.
The reasons for the decline vary. Some members stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in western South Dakota transferred elsewhere and took their families, some doctors working on Indian reservations were eventually reassigned and other Jews simply left in search of better opportunities in more populous areas.
“Anybody that has moved here or moved away … it’s always been professionally driven as opposed to other reasons,” Benn said of the Rapid City congregation, noting it’s not because of any feeling of isolation.