Communication with Chabad in Baja California renewed

Communication with Chabad shluchim (emissaries) in Cabo San Lucas was renewed on Tuesday after the city was slammed by Hurricane Odile, the most powerful hurricane to ever hit Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, on Monday.

The couple, Rabbi Benzion and Sonia Hershcovich, who is nine months pregnant and in early labor, were said to be missing after they did not communicate with relatives between Monday night, shortly after Benzion told his parents they were trying to conserve power by using their mobile phones sparingly, and Tuesday afternoon.

Rabbi Mendel Polichenco, the Chabad rabbi in Tijuana, Mexico, close to the US border, spoke by phone with Rabbi Benny Hershcovich and his 9-month-pregnant wife Sonia on Monday night and ascertained that they and their three children had survived the hurricane unharmed. However, on Tuesday morning, he was unable to reach the Hershcovich family.

“They were in their home when I spoke with them on Monday evening, and they said their home was not damaged,” Polichenco told The Times of Israel.

“Rebbetzin Hershcovich had gone in to early labor, but apparently medical personnel had given her medication to slow it down. But since I have not heard from them since, I don’t know what her situation is now.”

Only later on Tuesday was communication with the couple renewed.

“We didn’t know if the reports were true,” said the rabbi’s brother, Rabbi Zvi Hershcovich, who said his brother had braved the difficult conditions to visit an acquaintance in the hospital as the hurricane raged on.

On Tuesday, it emerged that the couple was hard at work trying to connect their giant freezer, containing kosher meat for the entire region, to a generator. They were also awaiting assistance from the Israeli embassy, which is in the process of sending a yacht to the affected area.

Meanwhile, Polichenco was trying to obtain and ready a truck to be driven from Tijuana to the Chabad houses in Cabo and La Paz to deliver much-needed supplies such as food, water, flood abatement equipment, and electrical generators.

“We need a 4×4 because the roads are really hard to pass,” the rabbi said, hoping to be able to depart on the 20-hour drive by Tuesday evening.

A post on the Chabad website COL Live also stated that the security situation in Baja California is “tenuous with rampant looting occurring.”

In addition, Polichenco is trying to arrange for a plane to fly in to evacuate stranded Jewish community members and fly them across the Gulf of California to Mazatlan.

Yifa Yaakov contributed to this report.