Major damage to Chabad House in Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa has dealt significant damage to the Chabad House in Montego Bay, Jamaica, though Rabbi Yaakov and Mushkee Raskin, who created the Chabad of Jamaica in 2014, and their children are reportedly safe and sheltered in a windowless room.

In a post on Instagram on Tuesday, the couple said that they had secured their Torah scroll and were holed up in the room with the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath, which is “fully sealed.”

He added that water was coming into the synagogue and asked followers to pray for the family.

The hurricane touched down in Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon with winds of up to 185 miles per hour, more than 40 inches of rain and storm surges that caused massive destruction across the island.

The Chabad Jewish Center of Puerto Rico stated that “as we write this, our colleague is physically holding bed frames and mattresses against the remaining openings to keep the howling windows from bursting in” and that “his wife and children are huddled safely in the bathroom—the only room without windows.”

“Our hurricane-proof doors buckled under the force of Hurricane Melissa,” the couple in Jamaica posted on social media with a video of shattered windows.

“Devastation across the island is vast. Windows and doors blown out. One of the children’s bedrooms is gone, and the home is flooded,” Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesman, stated on Tuesday night. “Family is safe in a windowless room.”

He added that another Jewish family visiting Jamaica is safe, “but it’s not yet safe for Rabbi Raskin to bring them over.”