Jews Find Other Jews in Chiang Mai

Yaniv Koren does not consider himself religious. The 22-year-old Israeli eats non-Kosher food. He drives on the weekly holiday Shabbat. He does not wear a yamalka. Yet when he leaves his home in Haifa and travels abroad, he goes out of his way to find a little Judaism. In Chiang Mai, he visits Chabad, a place of worship and relaxation for Jews on Chang Klan Road.

“I come to Chabad because it is like home,” Yaniv said. He can eat kosher and Israeli-style food in their restaurant, pray in their synagogue, use their Internet for free, and celebrate the holidays.

“You feel like you can trust them [the Jews who run the center],” he continued. “If you need something, if you’re stuck, if you lose your money –”

“All the Israeli people say, ‘Come to Chabad!'” interrupted his friend and travelling companion, 23-year-old Roee Tzabari, also from Haifa.

Yaniv and Roee are backpackers, on holiday after finishing their service in the Israeli army. 100,000 Israelis visit Thailand each year and, according to the Chiang Mai Tourist Police, about 25,000 travel north to Chiang Mai.

Many of the backpackers visit the Chabad community centres in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Koh Sumui. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement – a branch of the orthodox Hasidism – began 250 years ago in Russia. It now disseminates Jewish families around the world to find and serve other Jews, often trying to bring less observant Jews back into the fold. Today it boasts 4,000 full-time emissary families directing over 3,000 institutions around the globe. According to its website, www.chabad.org, there are Chabads everywhere from Puerto Rico to Argentina, from Kyrgyzstan to Nepal. If you go to the site’s ‘Chabad-Lubavitch Global Directory,’ you can find a centre near you. The mission of the website, like the movement, is to “unite Jews worldwide, empower them with knowledge of their 3,300 year-old tradition, and foster within them a deeper connection to Judaism’s rituals and faith.”

The Israelis in Chiang Mai did not mention their religion’s history and beliefs. They said they go to Chabad to meet other Israelis, learn about each other’s trip in Thailand and exchange itineraries and information on treks, shopping, restaurants, bars, and clubs. (The ones in Chiang Mai prefer Bubbles.)

Yaniv came to Thailand for the beautiful islands and relaxing atmosphere. Aviad Efrat, 23 and also from Haifa, came to experience a different lifestyle.

“A lot of Israelis want to travel east,” he said, “because it is another culture…and you can travel on elephants here.”

“The real truth,” said Roee, “is it’s very cheap.”

Israelis also find Thailand to be relatively safe and welcoming. In Muslim countries, they may face harassment due to either their religion or the tensions sparked by the war in Israel.

The young backpackers took me to Red Brick Guest House, a private guesthouse where they were staying. Roee pointed to the others in the guesthouse’s outdoor lounge and said: “Jewish. Jewish. Jewish. Everybody here is Jewish.”

The Thai tourist guide who works at Red Brick Guest House, Toni, said 95 percent of the tourists they receive are Israeli. They attract 800 tourists a month during high season and 300-500 during low season. Toni, therefore, speaks a little Hebrew. The sign at the entrance to the guesthouse uses Hebrew, and shops in the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar sell souvenirs with Hebrew writing on them.

Each Chabad in Thailand has a different rabbi. Rabbi Nechemya Wilhelm, 32, is based in Bangkok. He was raised Lubavitch and moved to Thailand 10 years ago with his wife and two-month-old baby. He now has six children. During a recent visit to Chiang Mai, he said he moved to Thailand because he wants “to help Jews wherever they are.” He described each Chabad centre as: “a welcome place, where you can eat, pray, and find anything you need.” Rabbi Wilhelm leads Shabbat services in Bangkok every Friday night for 300 to 400 people.

The Chabad House of Chiang Mai is run by Rabbi Moshe Hadad, also an Israeli and Lubavitch. Despite the tropical heat, both rabbis wear the traditional Hasidic garb: yamaka, white long-sleeve button down shirt, black pants, cotton strings called tzitzis running off their undershirts. A dark, thick beard barely two-inches long covers Rabbi Hadad’s young face and gentle smile that reveals a set of braces. Rabbi Hadad is only 24. He moved to Chiang Mai six months ago with his wife and baby.

Rabbi Hadad said the small synagogue in the Chabad House of Chiang Mai attracts an average of 100 Jews every Shabbat, the Jewish holiday that begins each Friday evening. They partake in the service and then eat a Shabbat meal together. In addition to the tourists, he serves the 20 to 30 Jews living in Chiang Mai.

“Every Jew who comes to Chiang Mai should know he has a home away from home,” he said.

Rabbi Hadad said he does not find it difficult to strictly observe Jewish law in a community with so few Orthodox Jews. Though there is no Hebrew day school here, the rabbi’s wife, Elisheva, leads classes on Sundays during which she teaches the Jewish children stories from the Torah. Following Jewish dietary law, the rabbi and his family can eat in two places – at the Chabad restaurant and at home. They get their chicken from a rabbi in Bangkok. He is a shochet, a rabbi authorised to prepare the chicken according to Kosher guidelines. For beef, a rabbi flies in from Israel once every three months. Rabbi Hadad and his wife are building a mikva, a building where according to Jewish law a woman must bathe herself after her menstruation cycle to purify her body. For now, his wife Elisheva travels to Bangkok once a month to use the mikva there.

Rabbi Hadad shrugged off the monthly trips to Bangkok’s mikva as if they were as easy as a stroll in the park. “In Russia,” he said, “women would travel 12 hours!”

The Chabad serves not only Israeli tourists and the handful of Israeli residents, but also Jews living here for a short time. According to one, the people and atmosphere pull you in and you have no choice but to get settled.

New Yorker Kineret Muller, 32, was raised religious – she ate only Kosher food, kept the Sabbath and wore long skirts that went below her knee. As an adult, she has become less observant – she visited the Chabad House recently wearing cargo pants, a tank top and sunglasses, looking like your typical modern tourist. Kineret said she lived in Chiang Mai for three months as a volunteer with the non-governmental organisation Thai Youth AIDS Prevention Project (TYAP). When she travelled abroad before, she had not visited Chabad centres. This time was different.

“Since I was going to be here for so long,” she said, “it seemed weird to me to not have some sort of Jewish connection.”

She began visiting the Chabad and grew to adore the rabbi, his wife, and their baby, whom she described as irresistible. She attended Shabbat services, celebrated Passover here, and went to the Elisheva’s home on Tuesday evenings for a night of coffee, homemade fruitcakes, discussion of Bible stories, and shmoozing with other Jewish women.

“These people – they suck you in!” she said. “You come Friday night for Shabbat, you have dinner, then they invite you to stay – they woo you with cake and coffee. They say, ‘Oh, stay, please…’ How do you say no to these people? Without realising it, you become more and more involved.”

This June, back in Chiang Mai for only a short trip, Kineret made sure to stop by the Chabad to visit Rabbi Hadad. She won’t move here for good, though, because she needs to think about her future – romantically, that is.

“If I am looking for a Jewish partner, it is impossible to find one here,” she said. “You have only a handful of single Jewish adults living here – maybe five – that’s an awfully small pool!”

But for a short stay, when the pressure to find a mating partner can be suppressed, the Chabad House serves its purpose: an oasis of familiarity in a foreign land.