By Jerry D. Barach, Cleveland Jewish News
If you’re going to go globe-trotting and are interested in finding synagogues and kosher eating places, your first choice is not likely to be the Far East. But, surprise! Besides finding the Far East to be a culturally enriching experience generally, you can also encounter, with some advance planning, Jewish “soul brothers” and even obtain some good and very reasonable kosher eats.
The first stops on our two-and-a-half-month trip this past summer to Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Shanghai were Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand. In both places, plus two others in Thailand, as well as in Laos and Vietnam, there are established Chabad Houses, where one can find sustenance, both culinary and spiritual, as well as convenient access to Internet and telephone lines.
Our Shabbat experience at the Ohr Menachem Chabad House in Bangkok was almost surrealistic: Hundreds of young backpackers, the vast majority of them young Israelis traveling during their post-army wandering ritual, stream into the multi-story Chabad House in the seedy and raucous Khao San Road area of Thailand’s capital city every Friday evening to partake in a festive Shabbat dinner. More than a few can be found there on weekdays, too.
Most of the 600 to 700 young people there (my wife and I were told that the crowds sometimes reach up to 1,000) have never or, at best, rarely had exposure to anything resembling a traditional Shabbat evening, let alone one hosted by black-hatted and -garbed ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Yet this stop at a Jewish oasis in a decidedly non-Jewish part of the world is an absolute “must” on their itineraries. Many of the participants had also come prior to the meal for the Shabbat prayer service.
The meal, served at long tables family-style, is accompanied by spirited singing of Shabbat and classic Chasidic-style songs, followed by an oneg Shabbat in the resident rabbi’s apartment. That, in fact, turned out to be an additional Shabbat meal, with even more singing and with participants getting up to deliver “testimonials” about their personal experiences, Jewish or otherwise. Some of those testimonials tell of how the Thailand Shabbat experience set them on a life-changing path. The entire evening lasted until 1:15 a.m.
What is the secret of Chabad appearing so prominently on the Jewish backpackers’ itinerary?
The 30-something Rabbi Nechemya Wilhelm, charismatic director of Ohr Menachem Chabad House Bangkok’s since 1995, told us simply: “If you open the door, they will come.”
One can argue that those who do come through the door do so mainly for a good, free, hot meal on Shabbat and very inexpensive meals on weekdays – no small consideration for those on a lean budget.
It’s also a good meeting point, where young travelers can perhaps link up with familiar faces or meet new ones and exchange tales of adventures. There’s also the free Internet and Israel phone line connections. But there also seems to be a certain atmosphere of pure enjoyment and maybe even spirituality in the midst of a totally foreign culture.
Thailand is one of the early “Jewish outposts” that Chabad has developed over the past couple of decades into a global success story involving the backpackers’ trail. Others can be found in Laos, Vietnam, India, Nepal and China, as well as in various locations in Latin America. It’s all part of the realization of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe’s aim of reaching out to Jews wherever they may be.
