Chabad in action, a year after Hurricane Melissa

On Oct. 28, Jamaica marked one year since Hurricane Melissa struck our island. To commemorate the anniversary, a 62-foot statue, “Together We Rise,” was erected along Montego Bay’s Hip Strip.

Two forearms rise out of the ground, their skin carved with the grain of tree bark. At the top, two hands clasp, one gripping the other’s wrist the way a rescuer grips someone pulled from the water. Small human figures climb both arms, each reaching back to pull up the person below.

Near the base, says the artist, Scheed Cole, are people fighting to survive the storm. Higher up, a construction worker and a man carrying bananas signify Jamaica going back to work and back to the land.

From the clasped hands, a slender trunk opens into branches. Cole calls it a tree of life and gave it 14 leaves, one for each parish, each modeled on a healing plant.

I thought of a verse Jews sing every Sabbath as the Torah scroll is returned to the ark: “It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it” (Proverbs 3:18). Cole has given that verse a shape: a tree growing out of people holding on to one another.

It is a fitting tribute to the days after the storm, when neighbors helped neighbors and strangers opened their doors.

A year later, Melissa’s effects are still felt — in infrastructure not yet fully restored, in a tourism industry still recovering, in western parishes permanently transformed.

But the effects that will last longest live in people’s hearts and minds. We all remember the terror of those five hours. The toll on children’s mental and emotional health will be felt for a long time.

Many parents still struggle to send their children to school as they rebuild homes and livelihoods.

That is why Chabad of Jamaica has begun a youth mental health program. We visit children in vulnerable communities to bring hope and reassurance, along with supplies, books, toys and snacks.

“It is always a great and warm feeling seeing how happy the children are and how excited they are when they see us,” said Coleen Lawson-Tayler, one of our social workers.

Amid the despair many still feel, I turn to the Torah. Jewish tradition teaches that each week’s portion speaks to the moment we are living through.

Earlier this month, we read about Noah and the flood, whose waters did not subside for an entire year. Last Shabbat, in Lech Lecha, we read that G-d told Abraham, at 75: “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). He was uprooted and sent on a journey with no named destination.

Melissa did something similar to us. Overnight, the Jamaica we knew was gone. Abraham walked forward with faith, and so did many people I met in the months after the storm.

Still, doubts are normal. People from all walks of life have asked me where G-d was during Melissa. I will not pretend to explain why tragedy occurs.

But Jewish sages teach that when things don’t make sense, the question can run in the other direction. After Adam eats from the tree of knowledge, G-d asks him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Later, G-d asks Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain replies, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, was once asked by a Russian official why an all-knowing G-d would need to ask Adam where he was. The rabbi answered that G-d asks this of every person in every generation: Where are you in the world, and what have you done with the days you were given?

When life seems bleak, that question reminds us that we are not powerless. Disaster may come upon us, but we are not allowed to throw up our hands. In the end, we are indeed our brother’s keeper.

That is the question before every Jamaican this week: A year after the storm, do we know where our neighbors are, and are we still looking out for them?

Let Oct. 28 be more than a day of remembrance; let it be a call to action. Much work remains; each of us can help, whether checking in on a friend or donating time to help rebuild.

Last October, the storm wreaked havoc on our island. This year, we are called to continue the kindness we witnessed in those early days.

Rabbi Yaakov Raskin has served as the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Jamaica since 2014.