Hurricane Milton disrupts Yom Kippur plans for Jews in Florida

WINTER PARK, Florida — Many Jews worldwide will mark Yom Kippur in fasting and prayer at their synagogues this weekend.

But for the faithful in Florida, destructive Hurricane Milton has disrupted plans for observing the Day of Atonement — the holiest day of the year in the Jewish faith — that begins Friday evening and caps off the High Holy Days that began with Rosh Hashana on Oct. 2.

Across the storm-threatened areas, rabbis and their congregants spent part of the Days of Awe — the span between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur — protecting their homes and synagogues as Milton churned off the coast, spiraling into a Category 5 storm. Many — though not all — evacuated, heeding the voluntary and mandatory orders, and found safekeeping for their synagogues' Torah scrolls and themselves.

Milton hit Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 cyclone, with damaging winds, heavy rains and tornadoes. By Thursday, the storm has moved eastward into the Atlantic Ocean.

Why this Chabad rabbi decided against evacuating before the storm

Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz evacuated most of his family ahead of the storm, but chose to ride it out with his son, also a rabbi, at Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida near Fort Myers. The center is hosting people displaced by the storm, including doctors, first responders and elderly who cannot evacuate.

It's important to be ''with the people and for the people,'' and provide emotional and spiritual support, he said as the storm approached.

Near midnight Thursday, the Chabad center and the rest of the neighborhood lost power, said Minkowicz, making them among the millions without it. The center was spared from the storm surge, but homes and other buildings in the area were not, he said.

''Our pressing need is for Power so that we can help our community & hold Yom Kippur services,'' Minkowicz told The Associated Press via email Thursday. ''We're praying for this to be resolved asap.''

The center planned to host Yom Kippur observances regardless of the storm. He said it was similar two years ago, when the holy day followed the major hurricane, Ian.

''Yom Kippur is a day that you open up your soul to God and you totally connect with God,'' Minkowicz said. ''When you go through a hurricane, anything materialistic is not important. They're already in that zone where they're totally focused on God.''

Congregation Beth Am in the Tampa Bay area also lost power and plans to hold Yom Kippur services online, said Rabbi Jason Rosenberg of the Reform synagogue.

''It's important to keep perspective. Having a service online is not what anybody wants, but it could've been a lot worse,'' he said. ''This feels like a blessing.''

The storm underscored one of Yom Kippur's annual reflections.

An implicit question, he said before Milton's landfall, is ''If this was going to be your last year on earth, how would you want to act differently? ... When you've got a historical storm, a potentially life-threatening and life-altering storm bearing down on you, that message is really present.''

Milton disrupts Yom Kippur and Oct. 7 commemoration

Like most of her congregants, Rabbi Nicole Luna had evacuated after helping secure Temple Beth El in Fort Myers, and entrusting several Torah scrolls to congregants should the threatened surge devastate the synagogue.

While the congregation braved Hurricanes Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022, Milton's timing hit especially hard, having already forced the postponement of community-wide commemoration of Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The war that followed is ongoing.

''It just feels like too much for our hearts to carry right now,'' Luna said from Miami ahead of the storm. ''It's all very heavy.''

After the storm passed through, Luna told her congregation that their synagogue had emerged undamaged, though it lost power.

She announced plans for a service via Zoom on Friday evening, and in-person services on Saturday.

''We hope by Saturday more traffic lights will be restored but please only come if you can safely navigate the roads,'' she said in her message.

Luna said she was grateful for the ''big outpouring of support'' she received from fellow rabbis across the East Coast of Florida, who were opening their temples for the holidays to evacuees and have emphasized they can come as they are since few grabbed ''holiday-appropriate clothing'' in the rush to escape Milton's fury.

The Chabad of Southwest Broward near Fort Lauderdale is hosting several evacuees from areas most affected by the storm, ranging from a mother with her newborn to an elderly couple, said director Rabbi Pinny Andrusier. They are invited to spend Yom Kippur with the Cooper City-based group, including sharing kosher meals before and after the day of fasting.

''We were spared, thank God,'' Andrusier said of the storm. ''We've been able to open up our doors'' for those in the hurricane zone.

For the first time in its history, barrier island synagogue skips holding Yom Kippur services

Hundreds of Jewish families on Longboat Key, a barrier island off Sarasota Bay, won't be able to observe Yom Kippur in their synagogue for the very first time in their 45-year history, said Shepard Englander, CEO of The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee.

Access to the island, specifically the John Ringling Causeway, was closed ahead of the storm. The congregation decided it wasn't worth risking Milton's might for Day of Atonement services. They had celebrated Rosh Hashana in their building despite a number of nearby homes being damaged by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall last month.

Englander said he and his family evacuated from their home on a riverbank outside Sarasota and were hunkered down at a friend's home inland. From there, he was trying to make sure community members from Longboat Key and other temples that won't have services can say their prayers and break their daylong Yom Kippur fast at a newly constructed conference center in Sarasota with food items like blintzes, bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Ahead of the storm, people were scattered in the region at emergency shelters or staying with family or friends, Englander said

''It's in difficult times that you really understand the power of community," he said. "And this is a caring, tight-knit, generous Jewish community.''

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Dell'Orto reported from Minneapolis and Meyer from Nashville, Tennessee. Peter Smith and Jessie Wardarski in Pittsburgh and Deepa Bharath in Los Angeles.

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