A Young Hasidic Rabbi Plies his Faith in the Caribbean Playground of Cancun

CANCUN, Mexico — When Orlando businessman Eytan Tayer visits this glitzy Caribbean resort two or three times a year, he sometimes feels he has left his Judaism behind.

“I was always looking for something,” he says — a place to observe the Sabbath, or to find kosher food.

No more. The next time Tayer, 37, heads for the Yucatan to check on his clothing stores, he’ll have the benefit of a resident rabbi. Mendel Druk, a young emissary of the Hasidic sect known as Chabad-Lubavitch, and his wife, Rachel, have set up shop in the Mexican playground.

It would be hard to find a more incongruous posting for a pious rabbi than Cancun. Druk’s Brooklyn, N.Y.-based community is the Jewish version of evangelicals, except that their mission field is focused on wayward, traveling and scattered Jews.

In addition to traditional congregations such as those in Maitland, Daytona Beach and South Orlando, the Lubavitchers literally troll the world for Jews who are separated from their faith.

Tech-savvy but rooted in the 18th century, the bearded rabbis dress like the Amish and — when the spirit moves them — pray with the fervor of Pentecostals. The Hasidim are Judaism’s original men in black.

“Our dress code doesn’t exactly fit into Cancun,” Druk admits.

He wears Chabad’s distinctive dark slacks, white shirt and black, broad-brimmed fedora, which he says serves as both a neon sign and a magnet for other Jews. But in deference to the climate, Druk eschews a tie and buttoned collar, as well as the sect’s dark wool, serge or gabardine suit jackets.

Chabad emissaries require “a doctorate degree in dedication and devotion,” says Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, head of the organization’s educational arm, with a chuckle. “This applies to the men and women equally.”

For the Druks, the match with Cancun was an arranged marriage, much like their own. After a preliminary site visit, Kotlarsky says, “They were immediately drawn to the people there, as were community members to them. Both sides wanted it; it was a natural fit.”

Kotlarsky oversees the 4,000 Chabad families worldwide.

“The entire process is elective; no one is ever told to go anywhere,” he says. “The very process that a couple goes through — looking for the right place, pairing with a community looking for its best match, ensures that the right couples are posted to the most appropriate destinations and that they have the inner strength to contend with the unique challenges they know they will face.”

Despite the resort environment, Druk is no beach-combing, barefoot rabbi. He doesn’t try to dispense advice and spiritual counseling amid barely dressed sun worshipers.

“We have to be careful to make our honest judgment not to compromise our Torah standards,” he says. “Believe me — they don’t want me on the beach.”

For the same reason, Druk prefers to do his spiritual cruising near the hotel check-in counter, rather than around the pool.

“I go to the lobby,” he says. “A fool I’m not.”

‘Tourists find you’

With their only advertising a Web site (jewishcancun.com) and word of mouth, the Druks’ condo and ad hoc worship center at the foot of CancunCancun’s hotel zone is already drawing wandering Jews.

“Tourists find you whenever they need you,” says Rachel, 23.

From 15 people the first week they arrived last fall, their free, Friday evening meals and services now draw two to three times that many, requiring an imminent move to a new, larger location. Vacationing students often hear about the center and just walk up and knock on the door. Some weeks, Rachel bakes 40 loaves of challah bread for Sabbath guests.

“The only kosher bakery is in this house,” says Mendel, 25, proudly. “We’re partners in this endeavor.”

And their ministry is not confined to Cancun, where they provide pastoral care, sometimes on an emergency basis. Both the rabbi and his wife give classes and conduct services for small communities of Jews on Isla Mujeres, Cozumel and in Playa del Carmen.

Druk, who is still learning Spanish, admits that in many ways he is a kind of gefilte fish out of water in this promised land of pleasure seekers. But the Detroit native — and veteran of relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Southeast Asia after the 2002 tsunami — is undaunted.

One of the challenges is finding food his family can eat, products that adhere to Judaism’s dietary laws. But even here, God seems to work in mysterious ways.

Big box food retailers in Cancun City — where the Druks shop for kosher packaged food, including salami and hot dogs from Mexico City — are also a productive mission field.

“Costco is a good place to meet Jews,” Mendel says.

The couple has helped, sometimes on short notice, at weddings, bar mitzvahs and anniversary celebrations at hotels. Once, in addition to her challahs, Rachel baked a large cake for the festivities. At another, they loaned the group their Torah scroll.

Last fall, when he rented a meeting room at the Cancun Hilton, Druk prepared for 150 worshippers for the Jewish High Holidays. More than 500 showed up, requiring him to rent a second hall, with an overflow in the corridors.

“You’d never expect Cancun would be a destination for experiencing Rosh Hashana,” he says.

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, arrives early this year — at sundown Dec. 4 — and finishes well before the Christmas tourist rush. But for any visitors wishing to observe the holiday while vacationing in the Yucatn, including those on cruise ships, Druk will have 500 celebration kits — candles, lightweight menorahs and blessing booklets.

For the holiday, Druk also plans to raise the Jewish profile by lighting a large, metal menorah in one of the tonier shopping centers in the hotel zone. And, he has built a wooden menorah to mount atop his car for the holiday.

Return visits

At home in Central Florida, Tayer sometimes attends services at Chabad of South Orlando, an outreach center near Universal Studios Orlando that also welcomes Jewish tourists.

When he travels for business in places like Miami and Las Vegas, he seeks out Chabad centers.

And now, when he returns to Cancun, Tayer will have another place to worship. He has promised Druk he will start visiting the Chabad center and predicts many others will, too: “If people know about the center, they will go there.”