Page 7 - HOH

A8 LOCAL
Monday 29 SepteMber 2025
Wherever he may go to after Aruba, he will always continue to return to Aruba

“Aruba is not just an island, it is paradise”

ORANJESTAD – Rabbi Baruch Zeilicovich of es. In doing so, I received recognition for that
the Beth Israel Aruba synagogue relates on work. Thereafter I was approached by the
what he experienced in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Latin American Seminar of Rabbis as they
Rico he went to perform his mission in com- were organizing a ceremony of Ordaining
munity work, prior to going to the United Rabbis. In other words, 4 persons obtained
States to Fort Worth Texas in 1994. the title of Rabbi and at the same ceremony
the Seminary awarded three Honorary Doc-
In Puerto Rico, he worked with the Governor torate titles to three Rabbis, of which I was
and Senator of the island where he devel- one.”
oped an extensive program for the schools
on the subject of violence on television. The Rabbi Baruch Zeilicovich has been serving the
program is still widely used to this day. In ad- Aruban community for three years now and
dition, a video in which children and young has one year left to complete his time here.
people are seen looking at the television ob- He has been coming to Aruba since 1990, in
serving lots of violence on display and how view of the fact that he owns a time share on
this impacted society and the communities the island. After coming to Aruba consecu-
later on. The objective of this video was to tively for 15 years, the Ministry of Tourism of
minimize the impact of violence on television. Aruba gave him recognition as they do all
In doing so, we achieved the rating of “rate others who come consecutively every year.
the rates programs” geared towards children His family received the certificate of “Friends
younger than 13 years of age. of Aruba.” In other words, for Rabbi Zeilicov-
ich, Aruba is his second home, he expressed.
“Subsequently I went to Ferland New Jersey,
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 chil-
dren 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 return-
ing 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.q

where I remained for 10 years. There I worked
in a large inter-confessional group of church-