Chabad’s Reminder to Beachgoers

By Tamar Runyan, Chabad.org

Years ago, a young Jewish woman from Argentina decided she needed to take a break from it all. She escaped to the resort town of Punta del Este in Uruguay, and was relaxing on the beach one Friday afternoon when she saw a sign, or rather a banner, from above.

To her it was a welcome interruption: She was not alone.

Up in the sky was an airplane towing a banner that wished her – and any Jew within eyesight of the unfurled sign – a “Good Shabbat from Chabad” as well as the time for candlelighting.

“She came to get away from everything and chill out,” recalled Rochi Shemtov, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Uruguay. “But when she saw the banner, she headed back to the hotel and lit Sabbath candles.”

The woman soon moved to Miami and looked up a local Chabad House. The emissaries on the other end of the line sent her a Sabbath candle-lighting kit, and not much later, she started going to services on a regular basis.

From their base in Montevideo, Shemtov and her husband, Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov, have been using banner towing for 20 years to remind people of the Sabbath and when it begins on Friday evenings during the South American summer months of January and February.

“It is very expensive,” says Shemtov. “But it’s worth it. Stories like that of the woman who moved to Miami give us the strength to continue.”

Over in France, Chabad of Cannes has a similar 10-year-old program pointed at beachgoers on the Riviera.

Once, a pilot had to ditch his banner and land at a nearby airport because of heavy winds. The same day, Rabbi Mendel Matusof got an urgent request for a Torah scroll in the town of Ramatuelle, but there wasn’t enough time to make the drive in time for the approaching Sabbath.

Remembering that the plane was nearby, the rabbi asked the operator if he could transport the holy scroll, a request he was all too happy to oblige.

In Tel Aviv, as well, beachgoers are growing accustomed to an aerial campaign promoting the Sabbath. For the past few weeks, a paraglider has soared up and down the Mediterranean coast on Friday afternoons with a message emblazoned on his chute.

The effort comes as part of a multi-faceted project coordinated by Rabbi Yechezkel Gvirtz and Chabad-Lubavitch of Tel Aviv director Rabbi Yosef Gerlitzky that began with a flyer distribution and parade.

Gvirtz acknowledges that for most people, Sabbath observance can be a long process, but he notes that he’s been seeing more and more tourists showing up for Friday night and Saturday morning services.

“All they have to do is look up and they will see that the Sabbath is coming,” he says. “It speaks directly to them.”