Community Magazine July 2019

Rabbi David Perets Carries on the Tradition of Hacham Levy as Panama’s Chief Rabbi MACHLA ABRAMOVITZ Chief Rabbi David Perets O n the day when Rabbi David Perets’ plane touched down in the airport in Panama City three years ago, there was excitement in the air. It was a warm day, as is typical of tropical Panama City. Among those awaiting the arrival of the new Chief Rabbi was Mr. David Hanono, the former President, and current Vice President of Shevet Ahim. Shevet Ahim is the largest congregation in Panama City, which oversees all facets of communal Jewish life. Rabbi David Perets, then 39 years old, was arriving in Panama in order to assume the position of Chief Rabbi of Panama. He would be the one guiding the eleven-member Board of Directors of Shevet Ahim, comprised of nine men and two women. Although Rabbi Perets was young, he came with a stellar background, and was brilliant, learned, and was an experienced community leader. He studied in Baltimore's Ner Israel Yeshiva, Jerusalem’s Kol Torah Yeshiva, and Yeshivat Ponevezh in Bnai Brak. He had led his Congregation in Venezuela for seventeen years. The search for Panama’s Chief Rabbi had been long and intense, as the candidate had large shoes to fill. These were the shoes of Panama's dynamic and legendary Chief Rabbi Zion Rajamim Levy, who held the position for 57 years (he passed away in 2008). He had built up a community of only 500 Torah observant Jews to numbers reaching 6,000 – 7,000. Rabbi Avraham Chreim followed Hacham Levy. Rabbi Chreimwas a humble talmid hacham with a beautiful voice, and was Hacham Levy's closest talmid . It was Rabbi Chreim who continued to guide the community in his mentor’s ways up until his premature death in 2015. Jewish Revival in Panama The Board Members well understood what choosing the right Chief Rabbi meant for the future of their community. Today, Panama City boasts about 14,000 Jews, having doubled its population since the Hacham’s passing. The Jewish community is predominantly Sephardic, comprising 95% of the population. A large percentage of the Sephardic community has roots in Syria, and it is unique that a full 85% of community members keep kosher. The past 20 years have seen a revival of Jewish traditions in Panama according to Batia Siebzehner, a researcher at the Liwerant Center for the Study of Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and Their Jewish Communities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She noted, “Twenty years ago, besides the synagogue, you’d have maybe 10, 15 succahs. Today you have 150–200 sukkahs. Each sukkah represents many families.ˮ Moreover, the number of community members who are shomer Shabbat has grown from a small number to hundreds. This revival is a reality that Mr. Hanono is especially proud of. Mr. Hanono, 65, was born and raised in Panama City, and witnessed these changes first-hand. He attributes this religious transformation to Hacham Levy and to the fortitude and foresight of Shevet Ahim, an organization founded in 1933, which Mr. Hanono helped steer over the past fifteen years. “We are the only community in the hemisphere that maintains itself under one umbrella, and under one Chief Rabbi who mentors all the other rabbis. His is the final word,ˮ Mr. Hanono says. Because of Shevet Ahim, when the Panama community grew in size it did not splinter, rather it remained united. “Here we are not considered Syrian, Moroccan, Persian, or Israeli. We are all part of a Shevet Ahim community. At home, each of us sing and pray with a different nusach , and upholds different traditions, but when we pray together, we mold ourselves into one tune, the Yerushalmi one.” What You Can Find in the Community Panama City's Jewish community resides in Punta Pacifica and Punta Paitilla, two regions that are within a five-mile radius of each other. These are exclusive enclaves of towering luxury condominiums perched on the Pacific Ocean. Within walking distance are high-end shops, the Johns Hopkins affiliated hospital, and five-star hotels, including the distinct Trump Ocean Club, as well as the Trump Hotel. 34 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE