On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Asher Federman and two young rabbis set out on foot, armed with a shofar, to blow the ram’s horn for the Jews of St. Thomas. They visited local Jewish community members at their homes—people whose lives had been struck by storm once again, this time by Hurricane Maria, which followed on the heels of Irma. When they reached the damaged and barricaded Ritz-Carlton resort, they asked the U.S. Marines stationed out front if any of their fellow troops were Jewish.
“Yes,” replied one Marine, “two of us are!”
“He told me that one Marine, Noah, had been telling the group about the Jewish new year the night before,” says Federman, co-director, with his wife, Henya, of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Virgin Islands. “When these two Jewish Marines came down, they were shocked. They couldn’t believe their eyes.”
A few of the Marines at the Ritz were from Puerto Rico, which had been hit hard just days earlier, and they had yet to hear news of their friends and family. The rabbi led a prayer for the safety of their loved ones, and then asked Noah, the Jewish Marine, to recite the blessings on the shofar. Then, amid the incongruous surroundings of a devastated Ritz, Federman blew 30 blasts.
The Virgin Islands are going through an unprecedented crisis. Having been battered by Hurricane Irma’s winds, Maria brought torrential floodwaters.
“Whatever the first storm didn’t do, Maria came and finished off,” says Jewish community member Liza Margolis, a Los Angeles native who has lived on St. Thomas for two decades.
Since Irma, Federman, who established Chabad on St. Thomas back in 2006, has been arranging aid to the island, and says he’s still distributing items needed for salvaging, such as tarps.
“Some of the damage can look minor on the outside, but there’s significant structural damage,” he reports. “Add on top of that all the rain and water.”
Prior to Maria, much of the aid reaching the Virgin Islands originated in Puerto Rico, but since that island was also pommeled on Sept. 20, such assistance has ended. Approximately 1,400 kosher MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) that had been destined for St. Thomas and were stuck in San Juan, Puerto Rico, were redirected to Chabad of Puerto Rico’s relief efforts there.
‘A Tight-Knit Group’
On Tuesday, a container of aid, food and vital supplies arrived from Houston via Miami. The items are being distributed island-wide with the help of volunteers, the island’s Health and Human Services Department, and the U.S. military. Working with the Family Resource Center, Chabad has been able to bring aid to women with children, and through the Sea View Nursing Home, to the elderly. On Wednesday, volunteers packed 250 packages of supplies to be delivered to emergency aid workers stationed throughout the island, and by now, thousands of meals have been distributed.
In the aftermath of Irma, basics such as food and water had quickly dried up, but the situation has since improved. Stores are slowly stocking up, making it easier for people to obtain what they need. Nevertheless, challenges abound. Margolis says that everything must be purchased in cash, yet only a handful of ATMs are operating on the island. The other day she went to fill up her car with gas, but the station was empty. Her local post office, where she got her mail, was destroyed. Now, she and her neighbors wait in line at makeshift tables set up in the parking lot of a nearby post office, where they must bring an ID and endure other headaches just to pick up their mail.
Simple day-to-day chores that most take for granted isn’t so simple anymore. All this, of course, is not to say there aren’t those who still desperately need help.
For Margolis, among the most difficult things to face has been seeing friends and neighbors leave. Some have children who need to be in school; others have lost their homes and must regroup on the U.S. mainland. Yet many, including some 100 members of the island’s Jewish community, remain.
“The Jewish community has been the best part of this whole story,” she says. “The sense of community here is amazing. We’ve always been a tight-knit group, but this just showed how much of a family we all are.”
Chabad a Distribution Point
Jewish Virgin Islanders see themselves very much a part of the broader island population, attested to by the aid reaching Chabad and the Jewish community, and being delivered to all.
“Rabbi Asher has been doing an amazing job serving as a distribution point for everyone,” says Margolis by phone. “I’m actually waiting at Chabad’s distribution [point] to pick up diapers and food for a family near me that needs help right now.”
With Yom Kippur approaching and Sukkot around the corner, Federman has, in addition to the relief work, been planning services and holiday festivities. He has reached out to the local government for curfew passes for the Jewish community so they can attend Kol Nidre services on Friday evening, and this week an NGO delivered a lulav and etrog to St. Thomas for Sukkot.
Margolis sees the resonance between the High Holidays and her island’s ordeal: “There’s definitely a sense now of rebirth and renewal. You can see the trees are starting to bloom again. It’s certainly an interesting way to bring in the new year.”
To assist in the effort, donate to Chabad of the Virgin Islands.
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