Visitors Soak Up Jewish Life at Vacation Spots
About 8 million people a year visit Ocean City, Md., according to Rabbi Noam Shimon Cohen of Chabad Lubavitch Center of Eastern Shore. Many of them come during the summer, returning to vacation homes and condos, or just getting a good dose of the East Coast beaches, which stretch on for miles there.
Over time, folks have also passed along the word that there are services and amenities geared for Jewish visitors, including Torah classes, kosher food and Sabbath services. The rabbi and his wife, Cohava Cohen, are a big part of the reason why.
“Our main focus is to make sure that everybody has a pleasant stay and does not forget about their Judaism,” says the rabbi. “Our goal is to let people feel at home away from home.”
As singles, couples and families set their sights on seasonal destinations, Chabad Houses around the country are preparing for their arrival. Though they welcome guests year-round, some spots get a surge of visitors over these next three months. Chabad offers them a place to pray, feel comfortable and unwind. Most importantly, Chabad centers serve as weigh stations for those interested in making a Jewish connection.
Just ask Rabbi Moshe Wilansky of Chabad Lubavitch of Maine, based in Portland. He is one of many rabbis around the country getting ready for a flurry of soon-to-arrive guests. The tourist season starts at the end of June and runs through Labor Day, he says. In the summer, he and his wife, Chana, welcome five to 10 new guests every Shabbat, who stay at nearby hotels and come to their Chabad House for services and meals, including Sunday-morning breakfast.
“We encourage people who want to travel to reserve early because the hotels get full,” he says.
With Acadia National Park—one of the most traveled parks in America, with its unassuming wilderness by the water, and waves that crash on the rocks—only a few hours away, they get guests headed there and back. Some stock up on provisions for upcoming treks; others are going to visit their kids at Jewish summer camps and come by on the Shabbat of Visiting Day weekend.
For all of the above and then some, he says, Chabad makes itself available for those looking to refuel and experience a meaningful Shabbat.
“I hope people enjoy it, enjoy Chabad, and come back with a good taste of Yiddishkeitand try to treat everybody like Shabbos queens,” he says.
As for Maine being a popular destination, he cites its natural beauty and cooler temperatures, as well as Portland’s small-city feel, as part of the draw.
“Maine has a lot of water, sightseeing,” he says. Of course, he adds, they also have the opportunity to come away with something more. “We give people a real taste of Shabbos.”
A Community That’s Growing
At the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Flagstaff, Ariz., Rabbi Dovie and Chaya Shapiro are busy catering to groups and families headed to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, often listed as one of the natural wonders of the world. Last summer, they had a group of 44 French tourists and more than 20 Israelis, recalls the rabbi.
“Between here and Las Vegas, there are really no other Chabad Houses,” he notes. “So this is the last stop to get kosher food before people go to the Grand Canyon and into northern Arizona.”
Travelers know to look for them, says Shapiro—whether they’re searching for food, a prayer minyan or a Shabbat experience. Most people aren’t expecting what they find, either: “It’s really nice for them to see a community that’s growing out in the middle of Arizona, of all places.”
Continues the rabbi: “They get a good meal, they join us for Friday night at our house, eat a kiddish lunch on Saturday at the shul and hear some words of Torah that are spoken as they wind up the meal. They meet the locals and other visitors; it’s just a really nice experience.”
‘A Feeling of Unity’
Rabbi Zalman and Perla Zaltzman have served as co-directors of Chabad Lubavitch Niagara in Niagara, Ontario, since 2005. They are situated in one of the busiest, most internationally attractive sites in North America, especially during the warm summer months. Israelis visit in droves, many of them secular; Niagara Falls also draws very observant Jews.
This causes a fascinating meeting of minds, “a feeling of unity,” explains the rabbi. “When people sit at our Shabbos table—secular and religious—people who wouldn’t even look at each other in Israel, all of a sudden they come to Niagra Falls, they start speaking, and before you know it, they love each other. They really grow in Yiddishkeit.”
The waterfalls don’t just straddle U.S. and Canadian borders, but the border between the “frum and the less frum—the observant and the less observant,” says Zaltzman. “It’s like culture shock. But spending time together, they get to really see each other. That’s what I take pride in.”
He also takes to heart what the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—encouraged through encounters with fellow Jews, however brief. Zaltzman realizes that when he meets a Jewish man on the street and wraps tefillin with him, that visitor will leave “with a feeling of Ahavas Yisroel [a love of the Jewish people] and want to do something for someone else when he returns home.”
In addition to Shabbat meals, Zaltzman supervises two kosher-food operators (one meat, one dairy), and his Jewish Welcome Center is directly across from a hotel that offers Shabbat keys to avoid using electric ones. Right now, he is working with the city council there to complete an eruv, which he hopes will be up in the next few weeks, before prime traveling season.
And, of course, tourists are welcome to pray at the shul. They can even get passes to area attractions, without having to combat the long lines. “The Niagra Parks recognizes what we do for the community and offers Chabad tickets at discounted rates,” explains the rabbi. “When buying tickets in the shul, people save money while simultaneously supporting the Jewish education of local youth.”
As for meals, he suggests that people sign up in advance for a package that includes Friday-night dinner, breakfast, a full kiddish lunch and Seudah Shlishit, a customary third Shabbat meal.
It all combines with what guests take away with them as they continue on with their journeys, he says.
“We hope when they leave us that their vacation was enhanced by having all of their Jewish needs readily available for them,” says Zaltzman. “But more importantly, we hope that they leave with the strong feeling of selfless love for a fellow Jew—a feeling of Shevet Achim Gam Yachad [people sitting together in unity].”
