46 The Jewish Herald • Friday, March 22, 2013 45 S P IRI T S


A JOYOUS PASSOVER TO ALL ACROSS AMERICA Awaiting Elijah In Kathmandu


How a tradition leading to 1,000-strong Passover Seders may have started 30 years ago in the Nepalese capital


encountering the Yeti. Looking back, I like to think that it was Elijah the proph- et who turned up at my door an hour be- fore the Seder with a bottle of kosher-for- Passover wine in his travel bag. But that’s getting ahead of the story. We were six months into a year-long


trip around the world and my ex and I had carefully planned to arrive in Kath- mandu three days before the Seder, which was to fall that year (1983) on March 28. We knew there was an Israeli Consul- ate in Kathmandu where surely there would be room for two more. Not so. The Consulate Seder was meant ex-


Entrance to Chabad in Kathmandu


Shula Kopf


Haifa through the Suez Canal, crosses the Arabian Sea, skirts Sri Lanka and navigates the Bay of Bengal to dock in the port of Kolkata. From there the goods — 2,500 bottles


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of kosher wine, 1,100 pounds of matzoh, 180 pounds of oil, 3,000 pieces of gefilte fish and a sundry mix of other kosher goods — are trucked 650 kilometers at an average speed of 20 kilometers per hour on cratered roads through north India to Nepal. The destination is Kathmandu for what


is billed as the largest Passover Seder in the world where more than 1,000 young Israeli backpackers in Nepal after their military service, as well as Jews from other countries, celebrate the ancient Jewish rite of redemption. Every year I listen to radio reports of


how many attend the Seder, taking per- sonal pride at the growing numbers. This year is the 30th anniversary, almost to the day, of the impromptu Seder that I organized in Kathmandu . . . that I like to think helped start this tradition. Crates of 2,500 bottles of kosher wine


are on their way to Kathmandu and 30 years ago I couldn’t find even one bot- tle. I scoured every market, every liquor shop, but my chances of finding a bottle of kosher wine were about the same as


ERUSALEM — Each year a container of kosher supplies travels by ship from


clusively for Jews who live in Kathmandu year round, folks who work for the Unit- ed Nations and other international or- ganizations. There would be a party the following night for Israeli travelers. After the trip to the Nepalese capital


that took two days on local vintage 1940s buses, a jeep that broke down several times, a night spent at the Nepalese bor- der in a room with no electricity or run- ning water, and a bus trip from the bor- der that took 19 hours, the disappoint- ment was as bitter as the bitterest herbs. The invitation in the Haggadah is ex-


plicit: “Whoever is needy let them come and join.” I had my heart set on a tradi- tional Seder. In those days there was no Skype, there


was only the Poste Restante. In a stroke of luck, friends had sent us a small package with a box of matzoh and a Haggadah. We had the makings of our own Seder. That morning I put up a notice on the bulletin board of the Kathmandu Guest House, our $4-a-night hostel. “Seder — Any- one interested, please contact, etc. etc.” The first response came almost im-


mediately. In a twist of Jewish geography it turned


out that he and I had attended the same yeshiva day school in New York City and he and my ex the same high school. He was there with his girlfriend. Five peo- ple studying Buddhism in the nearby Kopan Monastery said they were inter- ested. We were nine. I reserved a small room at a nearby


restaurant that could comfortably hold 12 people. This was Friday and I was op- timistic that by Monday evening a few more would join.


C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 4 5


Photo Jim Maggid


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