Montana
Where it's just you and sky.
Helena · Bozeman · Billings · Butte · Whitefish
The Journey
Montana is one of those states that carried a certain novelty and expectation for me. But when we finally got there, those expectations were met and yes, Big Sky Country is really big.
As soon as we touched Montana soil, we were greeted by wide roads stretching through enormous open landscapes, mountains rising in the distance, and bear warning signs that seemed unavoidable. There were moments when the sky seemed to take up more of the view than the land itself.
We spent our first night in Bozeman, which became our base for much of the trip. The charming town and rustic little cafés were lovely, and its proximity to Yellowstone certainly helped.
Early one morning, we headed toward Yellowstone through Gallatin Canyon, surrounded by towering rock walls, rivers, and little waterfalls. Almost as soon as we entered the park, we were greeted by a herd of bison.
But we immediately headed for Old Faithful. Just the name, old and faithful, made it feel like the right first stop.
Sitting with the girls and waiting for the geyser to erupt was one of those moments. Then suddenly it happened. Steam shot into the air, and somehow we felt an eruption inside ourselves too. We felt alive. The girls would talk about that moment for years, and I still look back at those photos whenever I need a little of that feeling again.
The next day, in Helena, we visited the State Capitol, continuing our journey through every capital in America. Walking inside, we were greeted by the beautiful dome. When we reached the governor’s office, the girls immediately noticed an Israeli flag near the entrance and, of course, asked for a photo.
We also visited Billings, Montana’s largest city, where we enjoyed some great vegan food and were glad to find something that somewhat resembled regular American city life. At ZooMontana, seeing bears, tigers, and wolves was exciting, but the girls’ favorite was a little red panda who, for some reason, seemed to be in a particularly good mood that day.
Jewish Montana
Jewish Montana may be one of the most surprising Jewish stories we encountered anywhere in America.
In Helena, we visited Temple Emanu El, the first synagogue built in Montana. While we were standing outside, an older woman passed by with her little white dog. She stopped, saw what we were looking at, and proudly told us, “We finally bought it back!”
She began sharing the local Jewish history with us. Only a few blocks away stood the home of Jacob Feldberg, known as “Helena’s Paul Revere,” a Jewish merchant who organized a bucket brigade and helped save his neighborhood during one of Helena’s great fires.
We also visited the Home of Peace Cemetery, Montana’s oldest active Jewish cemetery, and said a prayer for the people buried there, some of whom had arrived on the Montana frontier in the nineteenth century.
In Butte, we visited the home of Henry Jacobs, the city’s first mayor, who was Jewish. We stopped at Temple B’nai Israel, whose red brick facade and prominent corner tower seemed to transport us into another time. At the cemetery, seeing old Jewish graves and familiar inscriptions in such a distant Montana mining town took us back to Brooklyn for a minute.
Then came Billings and Congregation Beth Aaron, where we learned the remarkable story of Hanukkah 1993. After a rock was thrown through the bedroom window of a Jewish child whose menorah was displayed there, the larger Billings community responded. Thousands of people placed menorahs in their own windows in solidarity.
For those nights of Hanukkah, it almost felt as if all of Billings had become Jewish.
That story stayed with me. Jewish Montana may be tiny, but from Helena to Butte to Billings, we kept finding communities that had planted roots, endured, and contributed far beyond their numbers.
What Stayed With Me
What stayed with me about Montana was the nature, the sky, and the openness.
There are places where nature gives you something beautiful to look at. Montana felt different. The landscape seemed to surround everything we did.
And somehow, surrounded by all that vastness, ordinary American life, vibrant Jewish life, and small communities have been thriving for generations.
Montana left us genuinely wondering whether we still have to live in metro New York and see people every day, or whether we can just exist under the Big Sky, where cows are your daily acquaintances, bison are your reliable friends, and bears are the toxic friends who show up every now and then.
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