Mexico Jewish Centers Expect a Wave of Tourists for Chanukah

Chabad Houses in popular vacation destinations in Mexico are getting ready for an extra-large portion of holiday travelers this year with Chanukah falling squarely on winter break. The first of eight candles will be lit on Saturday night, Dec. 24, with the holiday running through Sunday, Jan 1.

Rabbi Benny Hershcovich, co-director of the Chabad Cabo Jewish Center with his wife, Sonia, is expecting crowds to more than double at this year’s celebrations.

“We’re really upping our game; we’re putting out a lot more and doing it all at a larger level because it’s at the end of the year,” he says. They’re expecting 1,000 people Dec. 26 for the “Cabo Chanukah Music Fest” at the Puerto Paraiso port, complete with a menorah-lighting, traditional foods and live music from “The Yiddish Pintels.” Another 700 or more people are expected to attend a Dec. 29 “Chanukah on the Artwalk” event, again featuring a menorah-lighting, food, a raffle and DJ music.

It’s Sonia Hershcovich’s favorite time of the year, when she enjoys the exhilarating environment the winter months bring. “Tons and tons of Jews gather—it’s a beach town, it’s vacation—and there’s such an amazing energy to be in a foreign country and feel proud to be a Jew. It’s really an incredible feeling being part of it.”

On Sunday, she and a group of other women got together to make hundreds of doughnuts for the eight-day holiday. “We had a number of stations: who was frying them, who was filling them with jelly, who was packing them. It was a very organized production.”

Rabbi Mendel Druk, co-director of the Chabad Jewish Center of Cancun, is getting ready to bring Chanukah to the fleets of families headed their way to beat the cold for the last week of the year.

Rabbi Mendel Goldberg, co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of Playa del Carmen, assists a tourist who volunteered to light the menorah in a prior year.

Along with his wife, Rachel, they are preparing for an annual public menorah-lighting (complete with doughnuts and latkes) on Sunday, Dec. 25, and for the first time, a Jewish music festival on the outdoor mall Fashion Harbour at La Isla. Popular Chassidic singer Eli Marcus is scheduled to perform.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to instill Jewish pride by having a Jewish concert in a very popular, prestigious place,” he explains. Between locals, visitors and people who come to Cancun for the winter, they’re hoping to draw a crowd of about 500.

Ahead of the holiday, they ran an event where teenagers made Chanukah candles for the homebound, in addition to a women’s event at an art studio. Over Chanukah itself, they will hold other public menorah-lightings and events, including one at the Ritz-Carlton. As for the people he meets over Chanukah, he says he hopes they have a menorah and light it, but more broadly, that people carry their heritage with them in their journeys. “Judaism doesn’t stop at home or in shul,” he says. “Take G‑d with you wherever you go—bring the light of Yiddishkeit anywhere and everywhere.”

A huge menorah stands in front of the Chabad Jewish Center of Cancun.

‘From Generation to Generation’

While many tourist destinations in Mexico are preparing for unusually large crowds this holiday season, Rabbi Abraham Srugo and his wife, Elisheva, co-directors of Chabad of Guadalajara in Mexico’s second-largest city, are getting ready for a more intimate Chanukah. The community’s approximately 500 Jews usually attend a big public menorah-lighting—complete with the participation of government dignitaries—but this year a more intimate party at the Chabad House is being planned, says Srugo.

“This is vacation time, so nobody works and everyone leaves the city,” he says. “We’ll celebrate with the community members who remain in town.”

Rabbi Mendel Goldberg, who co-directs Chabad Lubavitch of Playa del Carmen with his wife, Chaya, can’t wait to see the crowds come to light the menorah on the main tourist strip a block away from the water, where thousands of people pass by every hour.

The menorah will be put into place in the next day or so, with daily lightings during the holiday at 6:30 p.m. Doughnuts, latkes, dreidels and menorah kits will be on hand as everyone heads home from the beach, he says. They ordered some 15,000 candles to give out for people to light, and are planning to double the usual orders of doughnuts and latkes. “We’re just making it bigger,” he says, keeping in mind the increased number of children who will be present.

Children enjoy a menorah-making workshop at a home-goods store in Cancun.

Visitors come from the United States, Canada, England, France, Norway, South Africa, Australia and beyond. Some return every year—many not expecting to find such substantial Chanukah festivities in such an off-the-beaten-path locale, he notes. “People from all over enjoy seeing the menorah lit. And everybody stops to take a selfie.”

The rabbi also plans to make the rounds visiting the homes of local Jewish residents throughout the holiday for a chance to share personal moments at different parties, big and small.

It’s a wonderful holiday for showing kids how much Judaism means to the adults around them, says Goldberg: “This is the way Judaism is passed on from generation to generation—through this beautiful light.”

A sign by the Puerto Paraiso port publicizes the Dec. 26 “Cabo Chanukah Music Fest.”

The decorative menorah that has been placed for the “Chanukah on the Artwalk” event, which this year takes place on Dec. 29.