Chabad Reopens in Costa Rican Beach Town

Tamarindo itself is not big — but its beaches are the reason 22% of Costa Rica’s tourists visit the town, especially surfers and vacationers, among them a steady year-round flow of Jewish travelers from the United States, Israel, and Europe. The international airport at Liberia is just over an hour up the coast.

By Rabbi Yaakov and Naomi Rubinstein’s count there are more than 100 Jewish families living in Tamarindo and the towns around it year-round. Israelis, Americans, Canadians, Europeans, many living in gated residential complexes within a half-hour’s drive. There are a lot of children. Most came looking for the same thing: a place to raise a family where life moves a little slower than where they came from.

“Life here is very laid back,” Naomi Rubinstein said. “It’s not like other countries. That’s why people come here.”

What they have not had is a place to gather. For years, Jewish life in Tamarindo amounted to Facebook and WhatsApp groups, with rabbis flying in for the holidays. “There was never a permanent Jewish presence here,” Naomi said. The community itself is close-knit and invested — made up of people who want to be together year-round, not only on the holidays, she explained.

That changed before the High Holidays this year, when the Rubinsteins opened a Chabad house in Tamarindo — for the second time. They had opened the town’s first in 2023 and ran it for two years, building a Hebrew school, a kosher catering operation, and events that drew hundreds. But Naomi’s mother’s passing brought them back to Israel. Her father serves in a high-operation army unit and her younger siblings were at home, so they stayed with them through the war. They returned to Costa Rica in September.

Many came through over the High Holidays, most of them local, including families who had moved to the area while the Rubinsteins were away. A large sukkah went up for Sukkot, and in October the community gathered to mark October 7th.

Chabad runs out of a rented house while the search is on for a permanent building — somewhere large enough for the whole community to gather at once.

“I didn’t think we could restart slowly,” Naomi said. “There are so many people here that have been waiting for something like this.”