Amid Ian’s Wounds, Jews See Healing, Renewal in Yom Kippur

Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz supervises the pantry inside the Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Even though a destructive hurricane tore through his community just days earlier, nothing was going to stop Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz from holding prayer services Tuesday night for the start of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Throughout a southwest Florida devastated by Hurricane Ian, Jews planned to hold worship services for Yom Kippur, a day in which they fast for 24 hours and ask forgiveness for the wrongs they have committed during the year, although many were doing so with plans drastically modified by the storm.

At Minkowicz’s synagogue, the religiously traditional Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, members planned a community dinner before fasting was to start at sunset Tuesday, with the help of caterers from South Florida, on the other side of the state. Some buildings on the 5-acre (2-hectare) campus were flooded. But the main building, where 50 or so people sheltered during the hurricane, was comparatively unscathed because of its higher elevation.

Power returned Sunday night, and the campus had turned into a community center of sorts, with food trucks and a food pantry. A large tent was erected in the parking lot where members of the synagogue — or anyone from the community — could stop by for a meal.

“The most important thing we have is to make Hashem happy,” Minkowicz said. “If He is happy, everything works out.”

The Fort Myers metro area has around 7,500 Jews, and the Naples area further south has an additional 7,500, according to estimates published in the 2020 American Jewish Year Book. Compared with other parts of the state, the Jewish community in southwest Florida is relatively new, with the oldest congregation formed only in 1954 with 22 families.

Reporting by AP

Mitchell Gottlieb arrives with supplies from Miami Beach for Chabad Lubavitch, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz supervises the pantry inside the Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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