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He Held the Door Shut Against Hurricane Melissa. Then He Opened It to Thousands.
Chabad Jamaica Rabbi Yaakov Raskin leads a multifaceted emergency response after devastating Hurricane Melissa, including expanding mental health services with funding from Direct Relief.
Rabbi Yaakov Raskin in Westmoreland, Jamaica, distributing food and medical relief packages to those hardest hit by the hurricane. (Photo courtesy of Rivkin Media)
Rabbi Yaakov Raskin braced his body against a blown-out door, pressing a mattress into the frame as wind and water forced their way inside his home, where his wife and children also steeled themselves to the elements. Outside, Hurricane Melissa wreaked havoc throughout Jamaica as one of the most powerful Caribbean storms in recorded history.
As he was pressing his body against the mattress, Raskin recited Psalm 124: “If not for Hashem standing with us… the waters would have washed us away.”
The following morning, Raskin and his wife, Mushkee, emerged to find their home, which also functions as a community center, heavily damaged. Their car was flooded, and the yard was strewn with debris. Even as they surveyed the damage, they immediately began playing a role they had spent over a decade preparing for, serving as a nexus of the island’s disaster response.
A Global Movement with a Local Mission
Raskin is a third-generation emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi), Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The Rebbe, as he is widely known, served as the seventh head of the Chabad Lubavitch movement and was a generational leader of Jews around the world, many of whom engage with Chabad through emissary-run Chabad Houses and institutions, which today number about 6,000 globally and provide a range of religious and community services.
Though some Chabad Houses serve hundreds or thousands of Jews, which takes up much of their time, Raskin arrived in Jamaica in 2014 with a more modest mandate. Though once home to over 22,000 Jews, there were only a handful living on the island in 2014, in addition to tourists. But, Raskin said, he was guided by the Rebbe’s directive that emissaries should be present for even one member of the Jewish community, and that their presence carries responsibility not just for Jews, but for the broader community.
“We are one stop for everything Jewish, spreading acts of goodness and kindness to all humanity,” Raskin said.
Rabbi Raskin with Sherine Montaque-Johnson, a medical social worker from Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea, Hanover. Montaque-Johnson was hired by Chabad of Jamaica to conduct mental health outreach, post-storm. (Photo courtesy of Chabad of Jamaica)
Before the storm, that mission took shape in familiar ways, from hosting Jewish religious services and community events to charitable efforts serving all those in need, including back-to-school drives, food distribution, and increasing access to potable water. The work was steady but limited by resources. Each Chabad House is financially independent.
Then Hurricane Melissa hit.
Supporting Health and Healing in the Aftermath
Across large parts of southern and southwestern Jamaica, nearly every building was affected. The electrical grid was down and would be for weeks. Roads were impassable. Quickly assessing the situation, Raskin and his team pivoted from survival only hours earlier to response.
Having learned lessons and created a network from their response to Hurricane Beryl in 2024, Chabad of Jamaica was able to spring into action. They also knew that, even as they were responding to immediate needs, long-term support, especially for less visible challenges, would also be a necessity.
About six months after Melissa, Chabad continues to put those lessons into practice, supported by a Direct Relief grant funding a mobile mental health initiative that will expand access to care through local providers.
“Our focus is on the children. Children are our future. Thanks to Direct Relief, we’re going to be able to help our local brethren who got so brutally hit and traumatized from the hurricane with sustained relief on a regular basis,” Raskin said.
Rabbi Raskin delivers aid following Hurricane Melissa (Photo courtesy of Chabad)
Initially, after the storm, Chabad’s relief work was focused on reaching as many impacted people as possible. Leaning on Chabad’s global network of supporters and religious school students, and owing to a shared commitment to helping those in need, about a dozen volunteers fanned out across affected areas, ultimately reaching roughly 14,000 people over a two-week period with meals, water, clothing, and basic supplies.
Further increasing their reach, they partnered with organizations like World Central Kitchen to convert their Kosher restaurant into a distribution point for food, Wi-Fi access, and phone charging.
This early response was possible thanks to Chabad of Jamaica’s ability to successfully receive two 40-foot shipping containers. In addition, Hatzolah Air, a donor-funded emergency air transport service, sent jets filled with everything from baby formula to medical equipment. Chabad of Jamaica received two additional private planes donated by Chabad Cayman Islands, which delivered generators and tarps. They have brought in five shipping containers to date.
“We started sprinting after the storm passed, responding as best as we could to what people needed. After a few weeks, we began to think about how best to create sustainable programs, based on what we were seeing,” he said.
“What kind of damage doesn’t show up in photos or news coverage but lingers the longest? The things that affect daily life, like good sleep, heat, and stress. If someone can’t sleep at night because it’s too hot, that can quickly become a mental health issue,” Raskin said.
That realization led to a broader approach, one that blended material aid with psychological support. Raskin began focusing on items that could restore a sense of normalcy, like wheelchairs, walkers, personal fans, children’s toys, and bicycles. Some items were donated, and others were purchased by Chabad of Jamaica at a substantial discount, which was possible due to his network and a shared goal to help Jamaica recover.
During their outreach throughout the response, Chabad of Jamaica noticed a need for access to mental health care, which is often shortchanged in the aftermath of a storm. Understanding the transportation barriers facing many residents in his region, Raskin decided to respond with mobile mental health care.
“The past few years, the world has changed in taking mental health seriously. People understand how it affects people. This is something, right away, you see. If a person loses their job, they can’t function. And people are still jobless even today due to the storm,” he said. “We are helping people physically with their homes, material aid… but what will be with their mental health? We had to act.”
Keeping the Door Open
The charitable work of Chabad of Jamaica, which is referred to as Tzedakah, or Justice, and in Judaism, takes on many forms. A longstanding initiative is called the ARK program (Acts of Routine Kindness), which was started by a Johannesburg Chabad rabbi in 2014. Participants give away Noah’s Ark-shaped charity boxes and encourage people to contribute daily, even in small amounts, and then give to anyone in need. Chabad’s work with the ARK Program was recognized last month in a proclamation from Sir Patrick Linton Allen, governor-general of Jamaica, that declared March 29, 2026, as Education and Sharing Day.
As a result of their beliefs and role as community centers, Chabad Houses have previously responded to disasters around the world, including after the tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and terror attacks around the world.
Rabbi Raskin embraces a community member who had been unreachable for three days after the hurricane and then walked into the Chabad Center safe. (Rivkin Media)
“It’s a part of our mission, to spread acts of goodness and kindness to all of humanity. We believe with one more good deed you can tip the scale and bring salvation to the world,” he said. “We’re always running after Mitzvahs (biblical commandments), especially after disasters,” he said, and referenced a well-known passage from the Torah, which states, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Chabad originated from the town of Lubavitch, meaning village of love. It’s our fundamental belief. You can’t love Hashem if you don’t love his people,” Raskin said.
On the night of the storm, Raskin used all of his strength, physical and spiritual, to keep a door closed against the hurricane winds and rain.
In the months since, he has gone back to focusing on what brought him and his wife to Jamaica over a decade ago – keeping the door open to people in need, whether that’s a mental health appointment, a fan to sleep through the night, or a fresh-baked Challah for Shabbat.
“We’re here for anyone who comes through the door, to make the world a better and kinder place,” Raskin said.
Direct Relief has provided more than $3.9 million in medical support to Jamaica since Hurricane Melissa made landfall.
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