Three Little Birds

It's been two weeks since Hurricane Dean left surprisingly little damage in Jamaica, a place filled with shoddily constructed housing and tenuous infrastructure. A few days after the storm, Paul Rockower wrote an essay for The Jerusalem Post about Jamaica's "small, vibrant Jewish community" of 250-300.

Despite the community's microscopic size--down from a one-time high of 5,000-6,000--Rockower reports that 20 people were at the island's only synagogue, Sha'are Shalom, on Shabbat when he visited. The sounds of the synagogue's pipe organ filled the room, and the floors were carpeted with white sand. The community's spiritual leader, Stephen Henriques told Rockower how intermarriage was common but that "nearly all children from those unions were raised as Jews."

I've always found it interesting how the Jewish establishment in the U.S. makes a stink about intermarriage, while far smaller Jewish communities--such as Jamaica and Nicaragua--accept it as a fact of life, and move on. Better to keep up the important business of living a rich Jewish life and building Jewish community, and whoever wants to participate does so. Even a few days before Hurricane Dean, when water was thigh-deep in the streets of Kingston, nearly 10 percent of Jamaica's Jewish population came out for services.

As Bob Marley sang, "Every little thing's gonna be alright."