People come here for fun in the sun and the salty waves of the Atlantic. What they do not expect is to find two guys with tefillin, mezuzot, Shabbat candles, and a quick word of Torah at the tip of their tongues. We spend a lot of time out and about meeting vacationers as well as the local vendors here—many of whom are Israelis.
The other day, we were talking to an Israeli friend of ours when we noticed a man staring at us. Never ones to be shy, we approached him and soon became fast friends. He told us that although he is not Jewish, his wife's family (with whom he is vacationing) is Jewish.
A little while later, his teenage son ambled over. He was curious about the tefillin we were carrying and was thrilled when we offered to help him put them on, for the first time in his life. You can imagine how shocked his mother and grandfather were when they came back to discover their son wearing a kipa and tefillin. Grandpa's eyes misted over as he remembered how his grandfather used to help him don tefillin at his bar mitzvah so many years back!
We gave them the contact info of their local Chabad center and we parted ways…
