ORANJESTAD – Rabbi Baruch Zeilicovich of the Beth Israel Aruba synagogue relates on what he experienced in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico he went to perform his mission in community work, prior to going to the United States to Fort Worth Texas in 1994.
In Puerto Rico, he worked with the Governor and Senator of the island where he developed an extensive program for the schools on the subject of violence on television. The program is still widely used to this day. In addition, a video in which children and young people are seen looking at the television observing lots of violence on display and how this impacted society and the communities later on. The objective of this video was to minimize the impact of violence on television. In doing so, we achieved the rating of “rate the rates programs” geared towards children younger than 13 years of age.
“Subsequently I went to Ferland New Jersey, where I remained for 10 years. There I worked in a large inter-confessional group of churches. In doing so, I received recognition for that work. Thereafter I was approached by the Latin American Seminar of Rabbis as they were organizing a ceremony of Ordaining Rabbis. In other words, 4 persons obtained the title of Rabbi and at the same ceremony the Seminary awarded three Honorary Doctorate titles to three Rabbis, of which I was one.”
Rabbi Baruch Zeilicovich has been serving the Aruban community for three years now and has one year left to complete his time here. He has been coming to Aruba since 1990, in view of the fact that he owns a time share on the island. After coming to Aruba consecutively for 15 years, the Ministry of Tourism of Aruba gave him recognition as they do all others who come consecutively every year. His family received the certificate of “Friends of Aruba.” In other words, for Rabbi Zeilicovich, Aruba is his second home, he expressed.
Once he has served his time in Aruba as Rabbi, he has to make a decision. Either he returns to the United States where his children and grandchildren reside, or maybe he moves to Israel, which is also an option.
He has yet to decide. One thing is sure, and that is that we will not do without returning to Aruba since we have three weeks of time share which we are not going to let go lost. Remember, Aruba is not just an island, it is a part of “Paradise,” Rabbi Zeilicovich reiterated.
