Home Away from Home

etween narrow and crowded streets in the heart of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, is a Chabad House — a Jewish oasis amid a sea of Buddhist and Hindu structures. Chani Lifshitz and her husband, Chezi, have been the shluchim here for 24 years. “We arrived here as a young couple with a ten-month-old baby,” Chani says. “I was twenty-two and my husband Chezi was twenty-five.” Spiritually, everything around us was a barren wilderness.” (Today, Chani is a mother to six children aged nine to twenty-five, bli ayin hara.)

Unlike in many places around the world, there’s no permanent Jewish community in Kathmandu. Instead, around 25,000 Jewish backpackers pass through annually, most of them Israelis after their military service. “We built everything here with our own hands,” Chani says. “With a vision to provide a Jewish home for every backpacker, we started with a minyan and shiurim, and eventually established a private school for our children with teachers from Israel.”

“We live in an exotic, mountainous place somewhere between India and China. A large part of Nepal’s territory is made up of the Himalayas, which includes Mount Everest,” Chani explains. Young backpackers from all backgrounds and sectors of Israeli society arrive at the Lifshitz home, searching not only for the world’s tallest peak, but also for themselves.

“The backpackers fill our house every day, all day long,” Chani says with a smile, “and we’re here for them for whatever they need.”