S.7 #1 | Chabad of Cozumel

Happy New Year 2026! In this fun episode, I tell you all about my family's visit to the Chabad of Cozumel in Mexico. We headed there for Shabbat and, let me tell you, it was a Friday night to remember! 

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Chabad of Cozumel - http://chabadcozumel.com/

To see my videos and photos from Cozumel, please head to Instagram or TikTok @lovetohealpodcast

Transcript

For winter break this year, my family decided to go somewhere warm, namely Mexico. Now, every time we travel, we include in our itinerary at least a visit to the synagogue, but preferably attendance to a service or celebration of Shabbat or holiday. So, when we booked our Cozumel vacation, one of the first things I did was to see if there was a nearby Chabad center, and…to no surprise, there was! - just a short taxi drive to the downtown of Cozumel. Since I knew we were going to be there over Shabbat, I went on Chabad’s website and reserved  spots for dinner and prayer service for my family: we were five plus my eldest daughter’s 2 friends. The cost of dinner was very reasonable - 45 for adults and 25 for children. The day of, I told my husband I wanted to check out Chabad before Shabbat began so that, one - we knew exactly where to go for services and not be in a rush trying to find it in an unfamiliar city - oftentimes I’ve noticed that Chabads are somewhat hidden, like speakeasies :)  and two - going before sunset, I could take pictures and videos of the space for my social media. And that is what we did! Since we were staying in an all-inclusive resort on the beach, and we wanted to see the city anyway, we decided to rent a car, which would be a little cheaper than taking taxis each time, especially since we were 7 altogether making it tough to find large taxis. 

We got to downtown Cozumel around 4pm and immediately went to search for Chabad. And boy am I glad we did! Because it was not that easy to find it! Even with google maps in hand, we still had to ask several locals how to get there. Chabad of Cozumel is actually located inside a Kosher restaurant called Alma, which in Spanish means soul. Walking by the 2-story plaza where the restaurant was supposedly located, we saw a cafe of sorts on the wall of which was written Kosher, so I knew we were close but at this hour the cafe was closed so we couldn’t ask anyone about Chabad. I ended up asking a local that was standing outside of a store across from this cafe, and thankfully he was familiar with the restaurant Alma. He explained that we needed to go to the second floor of the plaza and pointed in the direction of the stairs. Now this plaza is not your typical American shopping plaza, it’s a historical square around which was built this shopping center, preserving the Spanish colonial feel, exhibiting a gorgeous open-air courtyard and well - you know the one used to gather water. On the first floor are dozens of tiny souvenir shops boasting Mexican handiwork, while on the second floor are offices and restaurants. If you have Instagram or TikTok, make sure to find the video of us looking for Chabad, because you will see exactly what I am talking about! 

Once we entered the courtyard, we could see tons of multicolor paper banners hanging all around.  These colorful, intricate paper banners  are called papel picado, which means "punched paper"; it's a traditional folk art where artisans use chisels to cut elaborate designs (like flowers, birds, skeletons, or religious figures) into stacks of tissue paper to create festive decorations. Through the banners, though, peeked a huge bronze menorah on the second floor, which of course served as a clue that we were on the right track to finding Chabad! We finally located the stairs, which by the way were painted to resemble a rainbow, and each step was embellished with inspirational words about love, faith and kindness, which I think is more of Christian take, but I thought it fit Chabad’s philosophy just as well. When we reached the second floor, across the court yard, I spotted a huge banner with a photo of the Rebbe. At this point, it couldn’t be more obvious that we were almost there! We continued to walk the balcony and spotted a sort of security check point if you will - a little metal podium with a sign on it that said “security” in English and some other words in Hebrew. To our surprise, after having been searched and asked to present our passports at the entrance to some synagogues in Europe, no one was there to ask  or check anything. We simply approached the gorgeous double doors with colorful glass and of course a mezuzah on the doorpost and walked right in. 

Inside, we saw a fairly small open space: on one side there were some tables and chairs, so we  assumed that was the restaurant. In the middle of the space there was a pool table, and ping pong table and some couches against one of the walls, and then on the other side, there was a space for prayer, with a small Torah ark. There was one man eating who, after he was done chewing, got up and asked us if we were there for the restaurant. He was Israeli but spoke some English. We told him we were there for Shabbat dinner, so he went out on the back balcony and called in Hebrew to another young man. This young Israeli came out with a big smile to greet us and welcome us. He was wearing a kipah and the four-cornered undershirt with tzitzit (fringes) and black pants. I asked him if he was the rabbi and he replied that no, the rabbi would be there later for evening services. He explained in his broken English that we should come back closer to 6pm for services and dinner, which wouldn’t start until around 8pm.  We asked how many people they expected that night, and the man said around 100. We were very surprised because the space was so small, but he proceeded to say that on holidays like Pesach, they’ve had 600 people, which just seemed impossible! Later when I checked out their website, I understood that this Chabad was a popular destination for many, hosting 150,000 guests in one year. Amazing, right?

Since we had a couple free hours, we went to walk around the city and then came back at 6pm. When we got back, the space was completely revamped. There were now long, long rows of tables covered with velvet tablecloths and set up for dinner with beautiful plates, silverware and glasses. Prayer service was already in progress with many men seated in the men’s section, and a few women behind the separation/partition. We could now tell who the rabbi was. He was a handsome, charismatic Israeli who spoke Hebrew and a little bit of English.  Some women were busy with their young children, while others sat and chatted.  Some were obvious tourists, while others seemed to be Cozumel residents. From what I gathered, as of 2025, there are only a handful of Jewish families residing in Cozumel, the rest are visitors.  Most guests were dressed modestly, while others - not at all. Some women were wearing pants, and later on, there were a couple men dressed in wife beaters and flip flops. All men did wear kipas, though and looked like they knew what they were doing. Halfway through the service, the men began to sing and dance as if it were someone’s wedding. No joke! What a riot! I had never seen anything like it at Friday night service. Most men were not only signing, they were banging on tables and chairs to create a party atmosphere. At one point I saw the men do a conga line! It was a sight to see. While the women could not participate, I mean we could have made our dance circle, but were too shy I think, we did have a blast watching the men pour their hearts out through song and dance. 

When it was time for dinner, we finally went up and introduced ourselves to rabbi Caplin. He welcomed us to Chabad, asked us a few questions and expressed his gratitude for joining them for Shabbat dinner. We took our seats at one of the rows of tables, introducing ourselves to our neighbors. Some were from England, others - from France, others - from Israel. There were tons of kids of all ages that played with my kids. Thankfully, many of them spoke enough English to play hide and seek and games of that sort. The rabbi started out by making a speech, a fairly long one, and it was all in Hebrew. I could only catch a few words that I was familiar with, so I recounted the gist of the speech to my husband, which I thought had something to do with staying positive during politically tough times - namely, Israel’s war with Gaza, and not stopping our practice of Judaism. Then, he asked everyone to fill their cups with wine and say Kiddush. After this, it was time for hand washing, which took a while because there were only a couple of sinks and over a hundred guests. Once everyone was back at the tables,  it was time for challah. By this time, my kids were starving, so they devoured the delicious freshly-baked bread. As the evening progressed, we were served dozens of mouth-watering dishes to which there seemed to not be an end. For the appetizer course, the local Mexican waiters brought out varying salads, such as our favorite egg salad, baba ganoush, hummus, a variety of pickled vegetables and slaws. A fish course followed. Then the soup! My son had been waiting for soup for over a week now, having grown tired of the resort food. He was hoping for matzaball soup but they served chicken soup, which was so good that he finished one bowl in no time and was asking for seconds.  Then came the chicken course. Then the meat. Everything was served on beautiful plates or on wooden boards, as if we were in a Michelin star restaurant. Between each course, the rabbi would get up in the middle of the room and make toasts. The waiters came around each time with shots of tequila and ouzo and soon enough everyone was joining the rabbi in song. Some songs we recognized but others - we did not. There was a paper prayer book on the table with prayers and shabbat songs but we found it a bit tricky to follow along, so we just sat back and enjoyed observing. 

Since we had started quite late and it was already almost 10pm, my kids were getting sleepy and cranky, so unfortunately we did not stay for dessert. We were the first ones to leave, and I’m sure the shenanigans continued into the wee hours of the night. We went to say goodbye and thank you to the rabbi, and then I made a small faux pas. I asked where the tzedaka was so we could donate money, and the rabbi smilingly explained that no money transactions could be made on shabbat. I was so embarrassed! Of course I knew this! But it completely slipped my mind. So in a couple of days we made sure to make a donation online to the Chabad of Cozumel for their hospitality and to help them reach their goal of constructing a brand new, huge Chabad to be named “the Jewel of the Caribbean". During shabbat we saw a large poster on one of the walls, outlining the 7million dollar project, and it looked tremendous. Maybe one day we will travel there once it’s built. For now, we were very happy with the humble space we visited because, after all, it’s not about the space, it’s about the people and the tradition. Next time you’re in Mexico, stop by this Chabad. It doesn’t have to be for shabbat. They constantly have events, prayer services, mikvah and classes. If you go to their website, you will see countless photos of tourists learning how to put on tefillin, getting married on the beach, or enjoying kosher food. For havdalah, you’ll see rabbi Caplin play guitar and sing. If you know some Hebrew, it will be a big plus, but even if you don’t I guarantee you will still enjoy yourself.

I’ve only been to 2 Chabads overseas so far, but I have a feeling this is going to become a travel tradition for my husband and me. God willing, we will visit a Chabad or two in Columbia come spring. 

Thank you so much for listening, and if you’ve been to unique or exotic Chabad locations, please reach out to me! I’d love to hear your experience.