The permanent Jewish community in Nepal is very small and consists largely of diplomatic officials and Chabad staff.
Nepal established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1960. Among Jews, Nepal is known as the premier destination of Israeli backpackers. In 1986, the Israeli embassy in the Thamel section of Katmandu started the tradition of holding a Passover Seder for Israeli travelers. In 1999, the Chabad organization picked up this tradition and became the main organizer of this annual event. In 2006, the annual Chabad seder hosted 1,500 participants. The acting Chief Rabbi of Chabad in Nepal is Chezky Lifshitz. In November 2007, Rabbi Lifshitz announced the opening of a second permanent Chabad house in the city of Pokhara, to assist Jewish travelers in that area.
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or jews:
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No doubt Jews are most obnoxious creatures. Any competent historian or psychoanalyst can bring a mass of incontrovertible evidence to prove that it would have been better for the world if the Jews had never existed. But I, as an Irishman, can, with patriotic relish, demonstrate the same of the English. Also of the Irish.... We all live in glass houses. Is it wise to throw stones at the Jews? Is it wise to throw stones at all?”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)