Rabbi Noam Shimon Cohen, director of Chabad of Ocean City, Maryland, loves it when Memorial Day ushers in the busy summer season at this coastal resort town.
Visitors from all over the tri-state area reaching all the way through to Canada are likely to contact him with advance plans of everything from a one-day visit to extended stays.
Chabad of Ocean City is a year-around, full-service facility offering regular davening schedules, chagim observance and, of course, kosher food. If you are looking for Ocean City’s main address for kosher food, davening or even the best place to stay, it is at the Chabad.
The best ways to get the complete picture of Ocean City is to go to ChabadOceanCity.com or Ococean.com
From Memorial Day through Labor Day, Ocean City sees its population grow from just over 7,000 year-round residents to in the range of 325,000 per day with more on the weekends. During the summer weeks, it becomes the second-largest Maryland city only to Baltimore. Over eight million people visit Ocean City each year. Ocean City is on a barrier island with about nine miles of oceanfront connected to a bay by an inlet area. There is plenty to do in Ocean City itself, as well as neighboring West Ocean City and nearby Berlin, Md., a Victorian-style town with plenty of shops and charm. Two years ago, Berlin was voted “Coolest Small Town in America” by Budget Travel Magazine.
There’s plenty to do in Ocean City, be it going to the beach, fishing, boating, playing golf, shopping and enjoying the town’s arts center, amusement parks, miniature golf and much, much more.
The Chabad Lubavitch Center of the Eastern Shore is located at 13719 Coastal Highway. Rabbi Cohen can be reached at 1-410-250-7770 or by going to the website.
“We’re the only ones who provide kosher food and religious services,” said Rabbi Cohen.
Rabbi Cohen and his wife, Cohava, have been directing the center there for 20 years.
The center is a gathering place for visitors throughout the year. The center also facilitates the spiritual needs of the Israelis who own businesses in and around the resort.
“Typically, guests will find us online,” said Rabbi Cohen. “Or they will friend us on Facebook. Once our visitors come here, they see how beautiful the shul is, they feel very heimish and comfortable, and usually they end up telling their friends.”
There is also a small Sephardic shul frequented mostly by year-around residents and less by tourists, said Rabbi Cohen. The shul is located on Elm Street in a residential area of West Ocean City. At one time, there was actually a kosher bed-and-breakfast in the same area, but it closed.
Rabbi Cohen added that a new mikvah is in the process of construction “and will open soon,” he said.
Ocean City has many activities sponsored by the town all the way through and past Labor Day.
There are many kosher products on the shelves of the Giant Food Store, located 20 minutes north of Ocean City in Rehoboth Beach, and the Food Lion grocery store, located in Ocean City.
By Phil Jacobs
