The Barbers welcome you to Paradise

SUZANNE BELLING

PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED 

Pictured: Rabbi Laima Barber lighting the Chanukah candles in a giant chanukiah on the beach in Mauritius, last Chanukah.

“There are Jews everywhere,” she says, “and wherever they are there is a Chabad to cater for all their Jewish needs.

“We serve the Jews of Mauritius and also Reunion where many French Jews live. Our home is open for every festival and we have services and all the celebrations there.

“I organise all meals and my husband takes care of all the services and life cycle events; we even flew out a mohel for a brit milah just a few months ago. All of our activities are held in partnership with the Island Hebrew Congregation, under the presidency of Owen Griffiths. We have a Torah donated by former Mauritian resident Geoff Geffroy and it is kept in an air-conditioned environment all the time because of the intense humidity on the island.

“My husband studies with the men every day while I have social contact and joint cooking and baking sessions with the women. Our children Sara (4) and Sima (2½) are home schooled and we give schoolchildren lessons in chinuch (Jewish education) and Hebrew, as there are no Jewish schools in Mauritius.”

Mushkie manages to cope with the minimal kashrut facilities, by importing meat and dairy products, using freshly-caught fish, fresh fruit and vegetables and kosher bottled and canned produce from South Africa and France.

She caters for kosher visitors to the island’s hotels, saying: “We are expecting many with the summer holidays upon us,” She does all the catering for Shabbat, Purim, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah and the chagim following the Yamim Noraim. Chanukah is a special highlight, with a giant chanukiah on the water’s edge.

“The shul in our living room is packed for the chagim and we manage to have a minyan and services once a month on Shabbat, which is followed by everyone pitching in to rearrange the furniture and quickly transforming the space into a wonderful sit-down Shabbat meal for the community.

“For Pesach and Purim, we usually have about 60 people, increasing to 70 on Rosh Hashanah and the High Holy Days. We have been blessed to always have a minyan throughout Yom Kippur.”

Mushkie attended Torah Academy Girls’ High School in Johannesburg after which she studied at a seminary in Safed, Israel for a year, followed by another year in Long Island, New York. She then worked for Chabad in Beijing and Chabad in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran Chabad summer camps in cities throughout the United States, meeting her husband in 2010 back in Johannesburg.

Rabbi Barber was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Rabbi Yitzchok and Rochi Barber, and obtained his smicha in Pretoria at the Chabad Yeshiva, after attending yeshivot in New York and Israel. Post-smicha he worked at Chabad headquarters in New York, travelling as a rabbi to Greece and the Caribbean in the summers.

After their marriage in Johannesburg in 2011, the couple lived in New York for a year, with the rabbi continuing his studies at the Chabad Kollel.

“It was in 2012 when we had the idea of going to Mauritius, and we moved there just before Lag B’Omer in 2012.”

Before their move to the island, the couple went to Taiwan where they organised a seder for the Jewish community there.

In Mauritius “we are located between the east and the north. Distances are long – my husband spends between two to four hours travelling in the car every weekday visiting members of the community. For those living on the other side of the island, it’s a long way to travel for a piece of gefilte fish!” Mushkie said.

“We have everything we need, including the ocean for a mikveh, though we are currently working on our newest project, building a mikveh in Paradise.”

* Chabad Mauritius contact www.facebook.com/JewishMauritius