Thursday, January 31, 2008

243. Why "no longer" The Northernmost Jew?

Someone asked me why I changed the title of this blog from "The Northernmost Jew" to "(no longer) The Northernmost Jew". Well, it's because I moved south. All the way to Anchorage.

To be fair, I never was really the northernmost. I met a Jewish man who lives in Kotzebue. And I know there is a family in Barrow, the northernmost city on the North American continent. I'm not sure how many are in northern Siberia.

The northernmost Jewish community that I know of is in Fairbanks, north of Anchorage but south of Deering. (The community was founded in 1904, the same year as Stuyvesant HS and the NYC subway system.)

The most northern place where anyone lives is Alert, one of the islands north of Canada. If I ever get to alert, I'll let you know. If anyone knows of a Jew who lives in alert, let me know. (I think Alert has a population of 5.)

Lattutude (locations listed N-S)
the North Pole (the real one, not the town) 90.00
Alert (Nunavet, Canada) 82.47
Barrow (Alaska) 71.30
Kotzebue 66.90
the Arctic Circle 66.56
Deering 66.08
Fairbanks 64.83
Anchorage 61.19
New York City 40.72
Jerusalem 31.78
the Equator 0.00

Comments:
Very interesting! Thanks for this.

So, what can you tell us about the Alaska Caucus? It was on Shabes, right? But I guess Motzei shabes is around 1:00PM or something like that, so it is not an issue?

How did it go?
 
So, then, if it wasn't a problem because Shabbos ends so early, then it wasn't on Shabbos.

Duh
 
Sorry folks. There are lots of Jews in the Canadian Arctic. I lived in Cambridge Bay for two years Lat. 69.17 and as I traveled around there were lots of Jewish teachers, nurses and employees of the community or the Government. There are a few Jews who have married Inuit or Dene people and have stayed there.
There are only military or military contractor in Alert. You only count if you have your family with you. There was a Jewish guy in Resolute for a while 75 deg. lat.
We even had a brit in Yellowknife and kids who studies their Bar Mitzvah over the phone (pre-internet days).
 
Ray Mala was an Eskimo who became Alaska's most prolific screen actor in the 1940's. He was born in Candle, Alaska, just a stones throw from Deering.
Rumor has it that he hid his Jewish roots from the Hollywood crowd.
 
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