Montego Bay, Jamaica – Jamaica is now the ninth Caribbean island that is home to a permanent Chabad emissary couple.
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Jamaica’s first permanent Chabad couple – Rabbi Yaakov and Mushkee Raskin – have been married for just over one year and have relocated to Montego Bay in time for the High Holidays, according to Chabad.org (http://bit.ly/1uLhqz0).
Rabbi Yaakov Raskin, a 24-year-old Montreal native, is the grandson of Rabbi Leibel Raskin, who also put temporary roots in Jamaica in 1957.
Over the decades, Jamaica was served by successive groups of “Roving Rabbis” who visited the island, mostly during the summer months or for Jewish holidays.
“After a series of false starts, we found a place that is right up the hill from the major resorts,” says Mrs. Raskin, 22, from Brooklyn, N.Y. “And best of all, it’s right next door to a Jewish family we met. We already had them, along with Debbie and Michael [Flacks] over as our first Shabbat guests—something we hope will become a regular occurrence.”
With their new home secured and their household belongings in transit, the Raskins are concentrating on the High Holidays, taking reservations and drumming up interest for services and meals for tourists and locals alike. So far, they have made contact with about 70 Jewish households, and the numbers are climbing steadily.
“Sure, there are fewer Jews here than where we grew up,” the rabbi reflects, “but that just means that we treasure each and every individual, and do our best to make every relationship as rich and meaningful as possible.”
While most of the Jewish residents live in Kingston, a new highway connecting Kingston to Montego Bay will allow the Raskins to travel to Kingston every week for Torah classes, children’s programs and other Jewish services.
Information taken from Chabad.org.
Hmmm, will they have ganja on yom tov?
Yea Mon!
All we be needin, is to set up Chabad house in Haiti…and don’t be hatin
It really nice that people are doing the rebbe work all around the world lots of success there
Why are yidden in places like Jamaica in the first place? There is no mikvah on the Island and very hard to find a butcher with Chassideshe hashgacha.
I suppose that is one reason to send embassy couples to places like that, to provide some minimal sort of Jewish community to these historic places. (How do you get a sweet assignment like Jamaica? )
That is a pretty nice assignment. Yeah, mon!!
Ahhhh now I can go visit and have a really High Holiday!
After the Expulsion from Spain, there was a large Jamaican Jewish community.
Most of the religiously observant Jews of Jamaica left the Island for more active Jewish communities.
Today, approximately 424,000 Jamaicans are descendants of Jewish (Sephardic) immigrants to Jamaica from Portugal and Spain according to Jewish community archives, gravestones and DNA testing.
Most are not halachically Jewish, but approximate 20,000 Jamaicans identify as Jewish and their synagogue, Shaare Shalom was led by members of the Henriques family.
There were also Syrian Sephardic Jews in Jamaica because of the textile manufacturing. I know a kosher butcher in Miami used to regularly ship meat there. They also had a mikveh but I do not know the details.
Plenty of Jews go there on vacation. Can you imagine how many will be encouraged to forgo a treif meal, daven betzibur, etc.