A sweet new year in a Mexican party town, with Hezbollah a few hours away

PLAYA, Mexico — The rabbi stopped the singing in the middle and offered a toast to the 10 volunteers who were taking turns guarding the Chabad House. Some 250 people burst into applause, and then returned to their special Rosh Hashanah meal.

Playa is located on Mexico’s eastern coast. While it caters to tourists, the massive buildings and resorts of Cancun are a full hour or more north of its shores. The town attracts Israelis all year round, and both its official Chabad House and its unofficial Chabad House (run by the splinter Chabad sect that attributes messianic qualities to the late Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson) were a magnet for backpackers, vacationing students and honeymooners on Sunday, the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Each of the centers hosted some 250 Israeli and Jewish guests for the first dinner of the new Jewish year.

Like many other Jewish sites throughout the world, the houses were guarded by armed (Mexican) soldiers. The fact that a gang of Hezbollah operatives, allegedly planning an attack in Playa, had been arrested only a few hours’ drive away a week earlier was noted. Guests were asked not to gather or cluster outside once the meal was done.

But the local guards weren’t the only ones with an eye open. At the official Chabad House, Alon, a former officer in an elite IDF unit, gathered a group of former soldiers from various units to bolster security. He said it was the obvious thing to do. Not that he didn’t trust the Mexicans, but “better safe than sorry.”

During the feast, the former combat soldiers took positions at the entrance to, and the balcony of, the house. The rabbi’s toast to them was loudly cheered by the diners.

But Rosh Hashanah in Playa wasn’t all about Israeli ex-soldiers. A Jewish student from England seated at one of the long tables was in town for his friend’s bachelor party. “My mother was happy when I told her I’d be celebrating the holiday,” he said with a smile, as he waited for the pomegranate seeds to be passed his way.

Three Jewish families who live in town year-round sat at the center table with Rabbi Mendel, the Chabad emissary, who kept getting up to check on the other tables. Dozens of round challahs had been baked by his wife, Chaya, for the occasion. Working in her kitchen, she cooked and provided for all the guests.

Our disparate bunch, plainly enjoying the social gathering, cheerfully participated in the traditional customs. Everyone dipped apple in honey and wished for a sweet new year. Tequila and vodka got a new year’s toast too.

Monday morning saw two processions — one from each center — walk to the beach for Tashlich, the traditional ceremony of “throwing” one’s sins into the sea.

All day long, black-hatted rabbis walked around this party town, ram’s horns in hand, trying to ensure every Jew in Playa heard the shofar. You could see the bemusement on the faces of the bikini-clad European tourists, as they watched boys place hands on heads and girls drape shawls before a bearded man blew the shofar.

While most of those at the holiday meal the previous night had not met before, Monday saw many of them greeting each other all over town: secular, traditional and religious; Israelis fresh out of the army and some who have been working in Mexico for years; followers of both Chabad disciplines; those who heard the shofar in shul, and those who heard it by the pool.