Shopping at Trader Joe's in Bellingham recently, I ran into two young men who I could tell from their wardrobe were ultra-Orthodox Jews. We chatted briefly and they told me that a rabbi from Brooklyn was headed this way to start a Chabad in Skagit County.

A Chabad is a congregation organized by members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty that was founded in 1775 by Rabbi Shneur Zalman in Lithuania. Chabad is a worldwide Hasidic movement known for its outreach activities. It is a system of religious philosophy that teaches understanding and recognition of the creator through the applic...