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Jewish community life in Thailand dates back to the 17th century, first with the arrival of a few Baghdadi Jewish families, although the current community is comprised mainly of Ashkenazi descendants of refugees from Russia, and later the Soviet Union. Further augmenting the community were Persian Jews fleeing persecution in Iran in the 1970s and 1980s.
Most of the Jewish community in Thailand, consisting of probably less than 1,000 individuals, resides in Bangkok[1] (especially in the Khaosan Road area), although smaller Jewish communities with synagogues are found in Phuket, Chiang Mai (home of Rabbi Levi Tzeitlin) and Koh Samui. During Jewish holidays, these communities' numbers are greatly increased (to several thousand) as a result of vacationing Jews, primarily from Israel and the United States. At the request of two of Bangkok's synagogues, Beth Elisheva and Even Chen, Rabbi Yosef Kantor, in Thailand since 1960 (when the Jewish Association of Thailand was founded), a member of Chabad, took up residence as the first permanent rabbi in Bangkok, in 1992, where he was joined in 1995 by Rabbi Nechamya Wilhelm, also of Chabad.
Today there is complete range of Jewish education available in Bangkok, from kindergarten through highschool, including a recently-opened Orthodox yeshiva. After years of governmental refusal, permission has also been granted for the establishment of a Jewish cemetery.[2]
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