Chabad Lubavitch of Mexico

Chabad-Lubavitch in Mexico: Jabad Lubavitch México, directed by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Mayzlesh, with 16 listed centres from Mexico City to Tijuana and the Caribbean resorts

Chabad Lubavitch of Mexico
Type	Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch)
Founded	1993 (Tijuana centre; earlier Chabad emissary work in Mexico City is undated in the sources used)
Headquarters	Mexico City
Location	Calderón de la Barca 339, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, Ciudad de México, CP 11550
Area served	Mexico
Key people	Yosef Yitzchak Mayzlesh (director), Mendel Mayzlesh (Mexico City)
Website	https://www.chabadofmexico.com

Chabad Lubavitch of Mexico (Jabad Lubavitch México) is the Chabad-Lubavitch network in Mexico. It is directed by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Mayzlesh, and its Mexico City centre is at Calderón de la Barca 339, Polanco. Chabad's world headquarters lists 16 Chabad institutions in Mexico. Several of them are in tourist resorts on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts and serve Jewish visitors, including young Israeli backpackers. In 2026 the Cozumel centre's retreats for Israeli soldiers drew criticism in the Mexican media and on Al Jazeera.

History

Rabbi Chaim Swued, an Argentine-born graduate of the central Lubavitch yeshiva in Brooklyn, was sent to Mexico City by Menachem Mendel Schneerson after his marriage. Known locally as "Chacham Swued", he served as rabbi of Congregation Bais Yosef and did outreach work in the city's Sephardic community until his death in April 2009. A family member told COLlive that he had faced jealousy and opposition in the community and had several times asked Schneerson for permission to leave, without success.

According to the Jewish Journal, Rabbi Mendel Polichenco, a native of Buenos Aires, opened the Tijuana Chabad in 1993 in a building on Avenida 16 de Septiembre that the local Jewish community had built in 1965. From 1997 to 2004 he ran a small Jewish day school there; he later arranged daily transport for Tijuana children to Jewish schools in San Diego, and he also runs a Chabad centre in Chula Vista, California.

In July 2007 Rabbi Mendel Druk and his wife Rachel opened a Chabad house in Cancún for the city's roughly 200 Jews and its Jewish tourists. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that it was sponsored by the philanthropist Sami Rohr. In August 2018 Chabad opened its first Tomchei Tmimim yeshiva in Mexico, under Rabbi Mendel Mayzlesh. It had nine students from abroad, who would complete their rabbinical studies in New York.

Organisation and key people

Pulse News Mexico described Rabbi Yossef Mayzlesh as director of Chabad in Mexico in 2018. Chabad's world headquarters lists Rabbi Mendel Mayzlesh and Devorah Leah Mayzlesh at Chabad Lubavitch Mexico City, and Rabbi Yosef Y. Mayzlesh, Tova Mayzlesh and Rabbi Sholom Dov Ber Mayzlesh at Chabad of Bosques, Avenida de los Bosques 50, Estado de México.

Institutions

Chabad's world headquarters lists the following centres:

• Chabad Lubavitch Mexico City, Calderón de la Barca 339, Polanco, Mexico City, CP 11550 (Rabbi Mendel Mayzlesh).
• Chabad of Bosques, Avenida de los Bosques 50, Estado de México, CP 53950 (Rabbi Yosef Y. Mayzlesh).
• Chabad Jewish Center of Cancun, Plaza Kukulcán, Boulevard Kukulcán km 13, Cancún, Quintana Roo (Rabbi Mendel Druk), with CTeen Cancún and a mikveh.
• Chabad of Cozumel, 5a Avenida Sur, Cozumel, Quintana Roo (Rabbi Dudi Caplin).
• Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center of Playa del Carmen, 10 Avenida Norte, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo (Rabbi Mendel Goldberg).
• Chabad of Tulum, Avenida Kukulkán 57, Tulum, Quintana Roo (Rabbi Netanel Binyamini).
• Chabad Baja California, Tijuana (Rabbi Mendel Polichenco).
• Cabo Jewish Center, Camino de la Plaza 135, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur (Rabbi Benzion Hershcovich).
• Jewish La Paz – Beth Yonah Chabad, José María Morelos y Pavón 589, La Paz, Baja California Sur (Rabbi Yosef Gutierrez).
• Chabad of Puerto Vallarta, Francisco Medina Ascencio 1951, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (Rabbi Shneur Hecht).
• Chabad of Lake Chapala, Ajijic, Jalisco.
• Chabad of San Miguel de Allende, Independencia 7, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato (Rabbi Daniel Huebner).
• Chabad of Chiapas, Ignacio Allende 7, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas (Rabbi Oren Raz).
• Jabad Monterrey, Nicaragua 109, Monterrey, Nuevo León (Rabbi Shneor Zalmen Srugo).

Rabbi Mendel Druk told Arutz Sheva in 2023 that the Cancún centre's visitors were mainly holidaymakers and honeymooners, along with many young Israeli backpackers travelling through Latin America.

Registered entities

The Mexican register of religious associations kept by the Secretaría de Gobernación could not be reached from Powerbase's research environment; its open-data files did not load. No entity with "Jabad", "Chabad" or "Lubavitch" in its name, and none at the Calderón de la Barca or Bosques addresses, appears in the SAT's 2026 directory of authorised donee organisations (donatarias autorizadas), published as Annex 14 of the Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal on 9 January 2026. The legal entities behind Chabad in Mexico are therefore not established here.

Funding

The Cancún Chabad house was opened with sponsorship from Sami Rohr. Rabbi Mendel Polichenco told the Jewish Journal in 2014 that he raised most of the roughly $25,000 a year needed to transport Tijuana children to schools in San Diego from philanthropists in Mexico and California.

Controversies

In May 2026 the regional news site Caribe Peninsular reported, from a piece by Isaac Rosales of Astillero Informa, claims by the human-rights journalist Georgina Zerega that in February 2025 Chabad and a Panamanian group had organised an eight-day "healing" retreat in Cozumel for members of the Israel Defense Forces, including veterans of the war in Gaza. Zerega said that some participants might have been involved in operations internationally identified as possible war crimes, and she questioned their being hosted in Latin American resorts. Anash.org reported that a Spanish-language Al Jazeera segment had covered the Cozumel programme critically. Rabbi Dudi Caplin of Chabad of Cozumel called the coverage a deliberate distortion and said that the programme for soldiers with combat trauma would continue. He said he had personally supported more than 50 soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that several thousand Israelis had visited the centre since 7 October 2023.

Politics and Israel links

Chabad organises an annual public Hanukkah candle-lighting at the Ángel de la Independencia in Mexico City. At the December 2019 ceremony, as reported by Enlace Judío, Mandy Mazlish, son of Rabbi Yosef Mayzlesh, thanked the head of the city government, Claudia Sheinbaum, for permission to hold the event, and a representative of the Ukrainian embassy addressed the gathering. Several of Chabad's resort centres serve Israeli tourists, and the Cozumel centre runs recovery programmes for Israeli soldiers.

See also

• Chabad-Lubavitch movement
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mexico
• Chabad Lubavitch of Caribbean
• Chabad Lubavitch of Guatemala
• Chabad Lubavitch of Argentina