Rabbi Schneur and Bina Druk and their family are enjoying life in Whistler. (photo from Chabad of Whistler)
The Jewish community in Whistler has warmly welcomed Rabbi Schneur and Bina Druk, co-directors of Chabad of Whistler, and their family, who arrived almost a year ago to establish a Chabad centre in the mountain resort town, to serve it and the Sea-to-Sky corridor.
“The response has honestly been incredibly warm,” Rabbi Druk told the Independent. “We’ve met many locals who’ve lived here for decades, seasonal workers spending a winter on the mountain, families who return year after year, second-home owners, and visitors from around the world. Many have told us they never realized how many other Jewish people were here until Chabad opened.
“People are excited to see Jewish life growing in Whistler and to have a place where they can connect with other Jews,” he said.
“One of my favourite parts has been meeting new people throughout the year. Every season brings a different mix of families, visitors, locals and people from all over the world,” said Bina Druk.
“It’s especially meaningful,” she said, “to watch people from different backgrounds and levels of Jewish observance come together and connect, whether it was a Passover seder, Hanukkah celebration, a Purim après-ski event, a Hebrew school program or a Friday night dinner during the ICSC [global trade association] conference…. Those moments remind us that, despite our different backgrounds, we’re one family. That’s what makes the Whistler Jewish community so special.”
With its relatively new community connector model, the Jewish Federation of British Columbia has increased its support of Jewish communities in places like Whistler, and various Metro Vancouver congregations hold programs in the municipality. For its part, Chabad of Whistler offers a Hebrew school, Shabbat services, Jewish Learning Institute and other classes, and kosher catering.
“Here, pretty much only the fruits and vegetables are kosher,” said Rabbi Druk. “So, keeping kosher in Whistler means regular trips to Vancouver and a lot more planning. But that is one of the reasons we are here. We are working on some ideas on how to make kosher food accessible in Whistler. It’ll take lots of effort and creativity to get it done.”
Efforts are also being made to create a dedicated physical space for their activities.
“For now, we rent different venues for Shabbat services, holiday celebrations, classes and community events, and we partner with one of the local schools for Hebrew school,” said the rabbi. “We try to choose a venue as central and accessible as possible. Our long-term plan is to create a permanent Chabad centre in a central, visible location where anyone can easily find a welcoming Jewish home, where any Jewish person can walk in for a Shabbat meal, a class, holiday celebration or just a conversation.”
Bina Druk grew up in Toronto and has spent many years in Jewish education, serving in various positions at Hebrew schools in Toronto and Brooklyn, and teaching in Jewish camps in several cities.
“Her father is the dean of the Chabad yeshiva there, and her mother teaches young children, as well as in the Jewish high school there. She grew up in a home where Jewish education was a focal point,” said her husband. “I grew up in the Detroit area, where my father is also a teacher in the local yeshiva. My mother actually grew up in the Soviet Union, where her family took great risks to remain religious Jews despite all the attempts of the authorities and their secret police to stamp out religion. Her family immigrated to Montreal in 1971 through a series of what could only be described as miracles…. I myself studied in yeshivot in Manchester, Montreal and New Jersey. In 2022, after our marriage, we moved to New York.”
Rabbi Druk described his wife as having “a real passion for helping children develop a strong and joyful Jewish identity. On my end,” he said, “I am thankfully no stranger to outreach. In the Chabad yeshiva system, students spend every Friday visiting local offices and homes, offering [people] … a chance to pause and connect to their Judaism as the week comes to a close.”
Druk has served Jewish communities across the globe, “ranging from Wyoming to Nigeria, as part of the annual ‘roving rabbis’ program, which dispatches rabbinical students to bolster local outreach efforts in small Jewish communities.” And he has served as a temporary chaplain at prisons across the US East Coast.
“Between the two of us and our experiences,” he said, “we knew that we wanted to open a Chabad House somewhere.
There are Chabad centres in more than 100 countries. For the most part, they run independently, he said.
“When a young couple is searching for a location to set up shop, there is no central bureau that finds you a place,” he explained. “There are two ways that a location shidduch [match] would be made. The couple contacts an existing Chabad centre and asks about a specific location under its purview, where they identify a community that has both a real need for Jewish life and the potential to sustain a Jewish centre. In some cases, when a Chabad rabbi feels they need more hands in their existing centre, they might reach out to young couples who are in the process of searching. We went with the first, more common, approach. We researched several locations before finding out about Whistler.”
The couple found out about Whistler from a cousin, who used to take skiing trips there and saw that there was a local Jewish community.
“After some basic research about the location and the community, we paid our first visit to Whistler for Hanukkah of 2024, and we immediately fell in love with it,” said Rabbi Druk. “What has become clear to us is that, besides the local Jewish community, there are many others who have some connection to Whistler…. Another thing is that people are generally happy here. It’s a place where they come to relax and enjoy themselves. We felt Jewish life should be present in a place that people already love and feel very connected to.”
They arrived last September but almost didn’t make it.
“On our way to look at a house we hoped to rent, we were involved in a serious accident on Highway 99. We sustained serious injuries, but nothing life-threatening,” said Druk. “But our baby son, who was only a few months old, initially appeared to have suffered serious head injuries, and the doctors were concerned there might be bleeding in his brain. I remember praying and saying, ‘G-d, we’re coming here to do Your work. Please show us a miracle.’ Thankfully, after another review (and three days in the hospital!), the radiologist determined the initial reading had been mistaken. Our son recovered quickly and, today, thank G-d, he’s doing great. That miracle helped cement the feeling that we were meant to be here.”
Mendel is now 1 year old and the Druks’ daughter Mushka is 3.
“They absolutely love it here,” said their father. “They’re already learning to enjoy the mountains, the trails and the outdoor lifestyle.”
Last month, the outdoors ventured indoors – with a bear paying a visit.
“It was a hot day and we had left the door open to let in some fresh air and cool down the house,” said the rabbi. “I was upstairs preparing for a class, and my wife and children went to the park. When I came downstairs, I saw a mess in the dining room and immediately knew it wasn’t the kids, since they were at the park. I went outside and saw a black bear eating a bag of rice. When I checked the security cameras, I was shocked to see the bear wandering around the house and on the deck. The door to the elevated deck was broken and being repaired at the time, so the bear was able to get onto the deck and enter the house from there. We know that we live in bear country here in Whistler, and we have seen bears nearby before, but we had never experienced anything like this inside our home.
“We are very grateful that the children were not home at the time, thank G-d. We also made sure all the neighbours knew about the bear in case it returned,” he said.
“One of the nicest cultural adjustments has been discovering how active everyone is,” said Rabbi Druk. “Instead of saying, ‘Let’s grab a coffee,’ people say, ‘Let’s go for a hike’ or ‘Let’s meet on the mountain.’ We’ve really come to appreciate that lifestyle, and it’s become one of our favourite parts of living here.”
For more information, visit chabadwhistler.org.