Hundreds of Jews gathered this weekend to celebrate their exodus from Egyptian slavery at the annual seder in the highest point on earth – the Himalayas.
The media was left clueless as to where the famous Kathmandu Chabad House of Nepal seder was being held, however, due to the tight security surrounding the event this year.
Rabbi Chezki and Chani Lifshitz, co-directors of Chabad of Nepal, announced they would not release information about the location of the festive meal until 24 hours ahead of the event. “But don’t worry, the Israeli grapevine is alive and active,” people were told. “Folks will know where to go and how to get there.”
And so they did, indeed. A gym “who knows where” was packed to the rafters with at least 200 Israeli and other celebrants, right on schedule, for the start of the Passover seder.
The couple have spent the past 20 years orchestrating the most famous seder in the world.
This year numerous roads were reduced to rubble due to last year’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks, a massive avalanche, and subsequent blizzards. Thousands of locals were left homeless.
But the couple has a finely developed resourcefulness and creativity – for months they’d been making Passover wine in preparation for the holiday – and organizing strategies for transport of supplies.
Each year, the challenge of bringing needed supplies for the Passover holiday has required a different strategy. From using horses to a helicopter, with the help of the Israeli and Nepalese governments, the couple has always found a way to bring the goods to the Chabad House nestled high in the Himalayas.
Israeli hikers trekking through the area on their ritual post-army exploration of the world mark the event as a seminal stop on their journey to global maturity.
