New Chabad center in Myanmar is home away from home for Jews

Since arriving in 2018, Schneur Raitport and his wife Yehudis have set up a synagogue and Myanmar’s first kosher restaurant.

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
People living on the other side of the river, the site of the proposed New Yangon City project site, arrives for school and work by boat in the early morning in Yangon, Myanmar, August 2, 2019 (photo credit: ANN WANG / REUTERS)
People living on the other side of the river, the site of the proposed New Yangon City project site, arrives for school and work by boat in the early morning in Yangon, Myanmar, August 2, 2019
(photo credit: ANN WANG / REUTERS)
Jews visiting Myanmar now have a welcoming home away from home, where they can enjoy an authentic Shabbat, thanks to a young couple from Argentina, Rabbi Schneur Raitport and his wife, Yehudis.
According to an article published by Chabad,org, the Raitports arrived in Yangon, formerly Rangoon, in late 2018 where they set about founding the Chabad-Lubavitch of Myanmar. Serving the local Jewish community of around 100 people, their efforts were recognized Sunday when the appointment by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor was announced at a gala banquet of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries.
Home to some 7 million people, Yangon also has a steady stream of Jewish businesspeople, tourists, aid workers and backpackers, all of whom also receive a warm welcome by the Raitports.
The young couple are aware of the challenges faced by Jewish people when travelling to a region with no community, having encountered them themselves. Upon arrival, the Rabbi's first task while still jet-lagged was to procure kosher food, so he headed to a nearby market where he had been told live chickens were on sale.
“It was a halal stand, and I told them that instead of them killing the chickens, I wanted to slaughter them myself,” the rabbi, a trained shochet, told Chabad.org.
With the help of a passerby who had some English and through extensive use of gestures, he explained to the tradesman that he wanted to slaughter the chickens himself, and that he didn't want them dipped in hot water to aid defeatherment.
He shechted his three chickens and moved along to a fish stand, where he found a specimen with fins and scales. It turned out to be Asian sea bass.
“I went on YouTube and learned how to fillet the fish,” Raitport explained in his interview, “and that’s how we had food for Shabbos.”
Now their food no longer comes from the market. Once a month a large delivery of chickens arrives from a farm, while the wholesale fish market on the Yangon River provides fresh carp, which he and his wife turn into homemade gefilte fish.
“Ashkenazim are shocked to see gefilte fish in Burma, and are even more surprised when they learn it’s actually made out of carp and not breadcrumbs,” said Raitport. “And Sephardim, who have never tasted it, see that it’s homemade, venture to taste it and they enjoy it, too.”
Over the last year, the couple have moved their operation to a large villa in central Yangon, where they run a synagogue, host classes and Jewish holiday programs, and operate Myanmar’s first kosher restaurant. They also provide a catering service, delivering homemade schnitzel, red-lentil hummus, Israeli salad, and fresh pitta to Israeli backpackers who were volunteering in a school outside of the city in recent weeks.
For now, their focus is on Yangon, but Raitport knows of Jews living in the capital, Naypyidaw, and hopes also to visit Mandalay soon. In addition to being a shochet, he is also a trained mohel, and has performed brit milahs on babies born in South Korea and Vietnam.
Another brit milah brought events round in full circle for Raitport. Before he and the rebbetzin arrived in Myanmar they met with the incoming Israeli ambassador, Ronen Gilor, and his wife, Sharon Hadar-Gilor.
“In the restaurant, they pulled out a picture of their son’s brit and asked if I recognized the mohel,” Raitport told the news site. “I looked and I see: It’s my father!”
It transpired that the Gilor was posted to Caracas, Venezuela early in his diplomatic career, where the rabbi was born and raised.
“The Rebbe sent emissaries around the world because no matter where a Jew might be, we’re all part of one family, and we have a responsibility to each other,” he said. “This was an amazing reminder of how true that really is.”


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