Our first island excursion has come to an end, but not before we had the chance to pay six more delightful visits, putting up three more mezuzahs, donning tefillin another seven times and providing folks with a variety of Torah books.
On one of our visits, we met with Aaron, Alex, and Sarin who are all working on a resort project on the island. After a quick prayer in tefillin, affixing a mezuzah to the main office door, and giving some tzedakah, we sat down to talk. Alex told us that they are making plans to have a kosher kitchen and synagogue at the new resort they were working on. He then asked us if we would consider moving to the island to supervise their kosher kitchen. I said that I would need to think twice about that one!
A few stops later, we visited with Stan and Barbara. We sat and discussed Judaism on their back porch – with the most magnificent turquoise ocean view – for about two hours. Looking at His beautiful ocean, sure made it easy to talk about praying and connecting to G‑d!
We later visited with Tony, a Jamaican Jew of English (Ashkenazic) and Portuguese (Sefardic) descent. Tony admitted that he felt like he was "on an island" - not only physically, but Jewishly as well. He warmly welcomed our visit and wished to discuss many topics. He donned tefillin with an inspired interest and was happy to take one of each of the Jewish books we had to offer. Tony also asked us for a special favor: He told us that it would mean a lot to him if when we get to Nassau, Bahamas, we visit his mother's grave in the Jewish cemetery.
After visiting with Tony – an absolutely fascinating fellow – we were off to affix the mezuzah on our friend Oleg's front door. Oleg was very happy that we were in his house and warmly welcomed us in to sit and chat. We affixed the mezuzah and blessed the home with a quick l'chaim! Oleg told us of his Ukrainian-Jewish background and gave us a lift to our hotel.
Off to the Bahamas… Looking forward to posting from there!
