By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—While attending a recent pageant sponsored by WIZO, in which his wife Ana is active, Tijuana businessman José Galicot told me how moved he had been by a display at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial in Jerusalem.  Lights represented each of the European cities, towns, and villages where Jews had lived prior to World War II. "Suddenly these lights go out in the Holocaust," he shuddered..

He said that he was pleased to learn, while on business in Cabo San Lucas, where he has real estate interests,  that there were a number of fellow Jews who occasionally would get together for social purposes and to co-celebrate a Jewish holiday. What if such an unstructured group were presented with the possibility of having a rabbi?  Would they form a Jewish congregation?  Could a Jewish light be illuminated at the bottom of the Baja California peninsula?

Galicot persuaded Rabbi Mendel Polichenco, an Argentine-trained Chabad rabbi who now officiates at the Centro Social Israelita in Tijuana, to fly with him to Cabo San Lucas, which is 1,059 land miles from Tijuana or a 3 hour 20 minute trip by air, including a connection in Guadalajara.  Because of the time zone change, one lands 4 hours 20 minutes after takeoff—important to remember if one does not want to fly over Shabbat.

After placing advertisements in Cabo San Lucas newspapers about conducting Shabbat services in a local hotel, they waited on Friday evening, March 31, to see how many people they might attract.  Eventually, between 30 and 40 persons arrived, perhaps 20 of them young Israelis working in the diamond industry that caters to the many hotel guests and cruise ship passengers who visit here every week.

During brief services, Galicot said he could tell by the Israelis' body language that they were quite suspicious of the affair.  Here was a Lubavitcher rabbi—a haredi—leading Shabbat and, for the most part, they were quite secular.  Nevertheless, even as they sat with arms folded over their chests, there was no denying that they were curious. 

At the oneg, Rabbi Polichenco asked all the attendees to introduce themselves and "I suggested that we sing Hatikvah.  The Israelis hesitated, but they stood up, and as we sang, they became very emotional because they had just completed service in the Army," Galicot related.

"Then Rabbi Polichenco opened this box, into which he had packed kosher food for everyone, and they went very emotional."  It was a touch of home half way across the world.

Galicot told members of the group that if it was their desire, he would pay for Rabbi Polichenco to conduct a Pesach seder (two weeks later) and thereafter to visit their community on the last weekend of every month.  The offer was accepted enthusiastically, and a small board was appointed.  

With three major groupings of Jews in the Cabo San Lucas area, Itzik Nachim became coordinator among the Israelis; David Greenberg, owner of two Senor Greenberg restaurants (combination Jewish delicatessen and upscale Mexican cafés), likewise became liaison for the Americans, and Sergio Adler became el jefe for the Mexicans and a few Argentines.

Galicot, himself, spent Pesach in Puerto Vallarta, where he had previously made a commitment, but he kept in touch by cell phone to see how many people would show up at the seder.  "They said 25, but a half hour later it was 45, and later 80, and then 120," he said, relishing the build-up.  "They had 120 people for Pesach, and it was beautiful!"   At the end of April, Galicot visited the community again, and it was decided that the association should sponsor Hebrew classes for the Mexicans and Americans, and Spanish classes for the Israelis and Americans.

"So we lit a small light, a new community," he said.

Rosie Veinbergs, who was sitting near us at the WIZO pageant, said among Mexican Jews in Cabo San Lucas, the new congregation was a prayer answered.  One of her friends had lived a long time in Mexico City, where there is an extensive Jewish community, and had felt isolated since moving to Cabo San Lucas.  Another friend  had grown up in Cabo.  Both, she reported, are  "very happy to have a community!"

Greenberg, reached by telephone in Cabo San Lucas, said that for identification purposes the Jews are calling their new meeting place in the Puerto Paraiso shopping center the Baja Jewish Community Center or Centro Israelita de Baja California.  However, they may eventually give their congregation a Hebrew name.  Obtaining a Torah is a high priority, said Greenberg.

He said Shabbat attendance has averaged between 30 and 40 persons. The swollen attendance over the Pesach holiday included many vacationers, he noted.

Greenberg, who has sisters, nieces and nephews in Los Angeles, said he and his wife are glad a community is forming in which to raise their six-month-old son.  "It will make a difference," he said.  "It is important when you are on the outskirts of the Jewish world."

Besides being a place for prayer and classes, the storefront community center will also be a location for Jews of all ages to gather socially and to enjoy each other's company. There is a small kosher barbecue kept at the center for grilling kosher foods that are available in packages from a nearby Costco.  

Creating a place for the Jewish youth of Cabo is important to the organizers.. A ping pong table became one of the first acquisitions of the tiny Jewish community center at the end of the Baja peninsula.