Eco-tourism, adventure travel, leisure cruise—for every kind of tourist there’s a travel plan. With the ubiquity of Chabad centers, travelers can just about choose any location on the globe for their summer travels and find a link to Jewish life that adds interest to their visit.
On Summer Travels, Jewish Tourists Pack Chabad Directory
Eco-tourism, adventure travel, leisure cruise—for every kind of tourist there’s a travel plan. With the ubiquity of Chabad centers, travelers can just about choose any location on the globe for their summer travels and find a link to Jewish life that adds interest to their visit.
From Cape Cod, MA to Table Mountain, South Africa, from Sochi, Russia to Porto Alegre, Brazil, Chabad centers field calls from travelers who want to know where they can obtain kosher food, join Shabbat services, or just meet up with members of the local Jewish community.
In this feature, Lubavitch.com looked at three well traveled destinations where our Chabad representatives are leaving the light on to welcome this year’s crop of history buffs, spiritual tourists and nature lovers.
S. Petersburg, Russia
Visitors tend to arrive in this city of haunting beauty, family trees in hand, eager for directions to the centuries old Jewish cemetery. Because of the resurgence of Jewish life in Russia’s cultural capital, Rabbi Chaim Shaul Brook, a Chabad representative who serves as the community’s program director, has developed a repertoire of must-see sites that give a holistic picture of the city’s past and present.
A spin through the Grand Choral Synagogue offers a snapshot of the tides of Jewish fortune in the city. Built in the 1880s, the domed synagogue with soaring interior spaces, became a medical clinic during communist rule.
Returned to the Jewish community and restored in the past ten years, the synagogue has sprung back to life, with services and bar mitzvahs, classes and baby namings, and a kosher restaurant, Le Chaim on premises. Nearby, some 500 children attend Chabad-run schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and a new Jewish Community Center is in the works.
