Chabad Flood Leaves its Mark

Phyllis Steinberg – Jewish Journal

When the flood warning was issued on Thursday evening, Dec. 17 in South Florida, there was a Hanukkah party taking place at the Chaya Aydel Seminary for women and girls at the Broward Chai Center in Hallandale.

Thirty girls were attending the party. Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus, spiritual leader of Congregation Levi-Yitzchok Lubavitch was working in his adjacent office at the Broward Chai Center.

“I received a call from the sheriff’s department at 8 p.m. telling me that the city of Hallandale Beach was under a flood warning,” Tennenhaus said. “The sheriff’s department they told me that everyone in our Center should stay there until further notice as there could be downed power lines.”

The storm continued and entered the center flooding the synagogue offices, preschool and mikvah at the Center.

“The girls were stranded until 1:30 a.m., but in the meantime they rescued our holy prayer books which were on the bottom shelves of the synagogue as water poured in the synagogue from the parking lot,” Tennenhaus said.

The Torah scrolls were also rescued, but there was extensive water damage to the synagogue and the pre-school.

The girls were rescued by Commander Michael Calderin in two shifts.

“We walked across the parking lot with water up to our waists,” Tennenhaus said.

Menorahs were lit at 2 a.m. Friday morning by those evacuated from the Broward Chai Center.

“There is a terrible smell and we will have to relocate our offices and the pre-school for our 70 children,” Tennenhaus said. “Fortunately, the girl’s dormitory at the Chaya Aydel Seminary was not damaged. We were just at the worst area for flooding in the beach area during the storm.”

However, the girls were stranded in their dormitories.

Friday morning, Rabbi Yossi Lebovits, principal of the Seminary, said he drove to the dormitory and waded through the water with a 15-passenger van and brought the girls lunch.

“Then, we decided since the girls were stranded in their dormitories we would put them up in a local hotel so that they could celebrate the last night of Hanukkah and the Sabbath properly,” Lebovits said. “Rabbi Tennenhaus invited the girls to his home for dinner on Friday night.”

Hinda Levine, a student at the Seminary, said she had never experienced a flood like that before.

“I am from Philadelphia and we have snow storms, but nothing like this flood,” Levine said. “The water came in through the bathroom walls and ceiling and when we opened the door to the shul, the water came rushing in. “We noticed that prayer books on the lower shelves were in danger of getting ruined, so we moved them higher. We also moved the furniture and put things higher up on tables. It was quite an experience. We all stayed there until the early morning hours when we were rescued by the sheriff’s department.”

Levine said that three older women were at the Hanukkah party and the girls along with the sheriff made sure that the older women got home safely.

“We helped the older women through the parking lot covered by several inches of water and into the van,” Levine said.

Endi Tennenhaus, the pre-school director at the Broward Chai Center, said she received a call from the girls at the Hanukkah party on Thursday night that water was seeping into the pre-school.

“We had three inches of water in the pre-school and had to throw away a lot of the toys and the walls were all soaked and had to be removed,” said Endi Tennenhaus. “We will have a crew working day and night during the holiday vacation putting in new dry wall and try to get the school back in shape so the children in the school can come back after the holidays on Jan. 4. We’re just not sure when the work will be completed. The floor had to be ripped up also.”

Rabbi Tennenhaus said that the Broward Chai Center had flood insurance, but not all of the contents will be covered.

“We have flood insurance but not all of the contents will be covered and our insurance also does not cover re-location while the damage is being fixed,” Tennenhaus said.” “We are collecting money in a fund to pay for the repairs not covered by insurance and relocation of the school.”

In the meantime, a new problem has come to the attention of the rabbi.

“About a dozen families are displaced and had to move out of their homes because of flooding and mold,” Tennenhaus said. “We are trying to find places for them to stay right now and trying to clean up this mess,” Tennenhaus said.