Back in 1998 when Rabbi Mendel Zarchi was in a Kollel Institute for Advanced Studies listening to graduates talk about where they might land, someone mentioned a place that had not always been hospitable to Jews: Puerto Rico.
Zarchi was aware of its history—Jews had been prohibited from practicing their religion on the island, which was controlled by Spain and influenced by the Spanish Inquisition for hundreds of years. The numbers didn’t change until the 1950s, when Jews started moving to what had become a U.S. territory.
In 1999, he and his wife, Rachel, decided to take on the challenge and move there, starting the Rohr Chabad Lubavitch Center of Puerto Rico. “The Chabad mission of bringing the Jewish experience to every area in the world presented an especially unique opportunity in a place where people could not historically live an open Jewish life,” says the rabbi.
The emissaries have since faced a host of obstacles—most notably, a local economic collapse—but they will get to see the fruits of their efforts when a new center opens on Sept. 13. “It presents a great opportunity and a resource for the community at large—for those who live here or are visiting—to enhance their Jewish experience, whether spiritual or physical. It’s a place to spend some time,” says Zarchi.
He estimates that about 3,000 Jews live in Puerto Rico.
‘Insights on Religion and History’
Selwyn Rosen, who worked in advertising in New York, says he “took a chance” on Puerto Rico after visiting back in 1967. He received a contract to produce a brochure for Presbyterian Community Hospital and decided to stay on the island because “it was just beautiful.”
“I am a big motorcycle rider; I ride virtually every week. The sun shines, the weather is fantastic, and the Puerto Ricans are very warm and loving people,” says Rosen, 77, who has the relaxed tone of someone who spends plenty of time in the sun.
About 18 years ago, he heard Zarchi speaking on the radio. “I went to yeshivah, but I never got the feeling there that I got through the radio listening to Rabbi Mendel Zarchi,” says Rosen. “He’s given me such insight on our religion and our history.”
At first, residents and tourists started meeting for prayers at the rabbi’s apartment. Then they moved to hotel rooms, an office space, and eventually, a private home in the Isla Verde district, a largely tourist area.
To meet the needs of a diverse population, Zarchi has made a practice of announcing page numbers in Spanish, English and Hebrew during services, notes Rosen. The rabbi attributes that to a mix of locals and visitors; for example, hotel staff members in the area are aware of Chabad and will often direct tourists to the center—those looking for services or a kosher meal.
An Island ‘Oasis’
Zarchi and community members started planning and fundraising for a new facility in 2008. Since then, the Puerto Rican government has slipped into a debt crisis. After corporate tax breaks expired in 2006, companies started to leave the Caribbean island—a development widely reported in the media. The government now is more than $70 billion in debt, and the poverty rate exceeds 40 percent.
“Many of our potential donors had great losses or lost income, and they just couldn’t live up to their previous commitments. And it does take money to build a new center,” acknowledges the rabbi.
A groundbreaking for the new facility took place in December 2013, but construction did not actually begin until a year later. The 11,000 square-foot-building, including the purchase of land, cost $6 million, according to Zarchi. It features a synagogue, kosher dining hall, study room, classrooms and the island’s first mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. That addition alone, he states, makes the center “all the more meaningful and special.”
The interior is white, open and airy—typical of a place that gets plenty of natural light—with rich wood tones.
Amenities also include those for young families, including space for Hebrew school, children’s activities and the annual Gan Israel summer camp.
Chabad’s efforts were helped in part by an influx of Americans who moved to the island because of a new round of incentives approved in 2012 related to tax rates and tax exceptions. Michael Rosenberg, for example, relocated part of his energy investment firm to the island in 2013.
“There are things that one misses,” says Rosenberg, who has lived in California and Texas. “There is no Trader Joe’s, no Whole Foods, but everything is a trade-off.”
Describing himself as living in an “expat ghetto,” Rosenberg acknowledges that he has been mostly insulated from the economic problems. In terms of spirituality, he calls Chabad “an oasis” on what was for him an unfamiliar island. The first time he visited, the rabbi was standing outside, in need of a 10th man for a minyan.
He says Zarchi is a “very inspirational person.” And he’s far from the only one who feels that way.
Richard Cohen started coming to the island specifically because of the rabbi; his wife Rachel, the associate director of the center; and their six children. Cohen’s family business, which deals in workforce management, started operating in Puerto Rico more than 50 years ago. But his visits had largely been for business until he met the Chabad couple.
“We spend winters there because they are there,” says Cohen, 73, who describes himself as Orthodox and lives the rest of the year in Queens, N.Y. “It’s the fact that they have services every day and kosher food available. They are very good hosts and very good friends.”
He has donated to the center and served on the building committee because he wanted it to be “easy for visitors and travelers to go there, to know that it’s available. They can come for services and meals.”
The Zarchis started moving into the center a few months before the grand opening, which will include the presence of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Alejandro Javier García Padilla, and other elected national and local officials.
The rabbi notes that Chabad was able to complete the center because of the generosity of the very diverse Jewish community there. “It’s only through dedication and devotion of so many,” he insists, “that this was able to come to fruition.”
Start a Discussion