Cultures Collide Wonderfully for Unusual Seder in Thailand

It isn’t often a person from West Bloomfield shares Passover Seder in Thailand with someone from Sydney, Australia, but that’s exactly what I did this year.

Australian Rebbecca Saidman was married a few days before and looked up the nearest Chabad House during her travels in the city of Chiang Mei.

“It was really quite incredible and weird to be in Thailand in a place where a Seder was taking place. I have never had a Seder with 350 people,” Saidman said.

The relaxed yet festive Seder made a positive impression on the Saidmans, who said they wouldn’t hesitate to visit the nearest Chabad House if they ever again found themselves away from home for a Jewish holiday. “The non-judgmental atmosphere, which made everyone feel so welcome, is a huge part of what made this holiday so special for us,” she said.

Meeting the Saidmans was one of many reasons that made all the time and effort it took to get to Thailand worth it. Giving up spending the holiday with my own family was difficult, but hearing positive feedback about spending Passover with Chabad made it a bit easier.

This year, the Chabad emissaries in Chiang Mei, Rabbi Moshe Haddad and his family, hosted 350 guests for the first Seder and more than 60 for the second Seder. I was offered the opportunity to come and help.

Getting there was an adventure in itself, with stopovers in Germany and Singapore, and then finally arriving in Bangkok and starting the last leg of our journey, a short flight north to the mountain resort town of Chiang Mei. I left from New York at 4 p.m. Sunday, we arrived at our destination at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Though I arrived only a day before the festival, there was still plenty of work left to do. One of the major tasks was preparing lettuce for Seder. Jewish dietary laws forbid eating bugs, and Jewish tradition dictates using lettuce, which can be infested with little white bugs. Lettuce is one of the symbolic foods for the Passover Seder, so we had to individually check more than 2,000 leaves of lettuce to make sure they were bug-free.

Finally, after a long day of feverish preparations and a Seder that lasted until 11:30 p.m., we thought we were ready to go to sleep. Then another 20 people showed up who had needed a Seder, so we did it all over again. Sleep didn’t come until the early hours of the morning.

There were other adventures and unusual circumstances — some unique to Jewish tradition, some unique to Thailand and many due to the intersection of cultures.

This year, Passover and the Thai New Year overlapped, which meant that Jews coming to and from the Chabad House had to navigate their way through Mardi Gras-style festivities in the streets. Many of us were doused as revelers happily sprayed each other with water guns during the celebration.

One afternoon, while we were in Chiang Mei, the King of Thailand’s son decided to take a stroll in the area around the Chabad House. All cars, trucks and tuk tuks — a type of bicycle — were towed away to clear the streets. This happened during afternoon prayer service. When Chabad guests went outside, they had to search for their bikes. No one understood what had happened. Then it became clear that officials had simply moved everything to the side to clear the area for the prince and his entourage.

Unfortunately, not everything happening in Thailand these days is so festive or orderly. As I left during the intermediate days of Passover, rioting in the capital city, Bangkok, intensified. Many governments issued warnings to their citizens traveling in southeast Asia. The Chabad Houses, meanwhile, were urging visitors to call home and let their families know that they were safe and sound. It is one of the many services Chabad in Thailand has grown accustomed to providing for Jewish travelers.

Chana Kroll contributed to this article.