The Family Behind the Candles
Two people, one open door, and a mission from the Rebbe: no Jew in these mountains is ever alone.
From the Rebbe's Army, to the Eastern Sierra
Chabad has a simple, radical idea that the Rebbe planted in thousands of couples: go where the Jews are — all of them, anywhere — and love them without conditions. Zalman and Yasmin Notik took that idea to one of the most beautiful and most remote corners of California.
Mammoth Lakes had world-class skiing, endless trails, and thousands of Jewish visitors a year — but no Shabbos candles, no minyan, no challah, no address for a Jew who needed one. Since 2019, the Notiks' home has been that address: Shabbat dinners where strangers become family, holidays celebrated out loud in the snow, kosher food hauled up the mountain, a Hebrew school growing in the pines, and a phone that gets answered.
What's next? A permanent home for it all — and Mammoth's first mikvah .
The House Rules
- Every Jew, No ConditionsObservant, secular, searching, skeptical — the seat is yours because you're Jewish. That's the whole entry requirement.
- A Home, Not an InstitutionYou don't attend our programs — you come over. Dinner's at ours. The kids will show you where the couch is.
- The Mountains Are Part of ItAwe is a Jewish emotion. Some people find it in shul; here it's waiting at the top of every lift.
- “Every single Jew is a lamplighter — and every soul is a candle waiting to be lit.”
Moments That Made Us
Come Meet Us
The fastest way to understand what this is — is a Friday night at the table.
