Fort Kochi, India – Chabad emissaries in the southern Indian city of Kochi on Tuesday vehemently denied a report that appeared in local media earlier in the day accusing them of being part of an Israeli covert operation.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Rabbi Shneor Zalman Bernstein and Yaffa Shenoi told The Jerusalem Post they were stunned by a story run by the Times of India in which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.
“I was invited here by the Jewish community of Kochi with the full knowledge of local authorities,” said Zalman, a 27-year-old rabbi from Jerusalem. “I have no idea how they got the impression I was part of a Mossad operation.”
He said he and Shenoi ran an outreach center catering to Jewish travelers in the popular tourist destination as well as to the city’s remaining 50 Jews, part of a once much larger community whose origins date back to the 16th century. Zalman insisted their sole motivation for being in the country was to provide religious services to local members of the Jewish community and had nothing to do with Israel.
Content is provided courtesy ofthe Jerusalem Post
So let me see, a Chabad couple go to a tourist place, one that has both historical Jewish attractions and Jewish and Israeli tourists. They pay to rent a big house for too many rupees. They probably thought that they got a great deal because their budget comes from Israel and $500 a month looks cheap to them but looks like a fortune to the Indians where that building normally rents for about $100.
Then they meet with groups of unknown people (like, maybe Jewish/ Israeli tourists?) and have meetings late into the night in a foreign language.
Looks and sounds suspicious to me.
I think the Indians heard “kiruv” and thought they were saying “covert”
Shame on the Indian authorities….relations with India and Israel are usually good and there is no ill will towards Jews. We have a lot in common with them and common enemies.
And that #3 gives us the answer to who is making the “diltoorah” – the trouble for these Shluchim in India. Anyone remember who “turned in Moshe Rabbaynu” to Pharaoh — because he wasn’t official? The entire story sounds like an l inside job — and not from India but rather from the fellow who calls himself official “Thailand ” and those who “Officially” stand behind them. in. NY
Very sad indeed to “fall” so low
Somehow, there are those in the Indian gentile community who can’t understand the feelings that one Jew has for another, especially in a foreign country, where they are vastly outnumbered. Hence, they equate ahavas yisrael with spying.
When tragedy strikes and someone is faced with hardships is it morally correct to say that so-and-so is not under the official umbrella of מרכז לענייני חינוך, lit. Central Organization for Education that the Lubavitcher Rebbe Zatz’l founded? Can’t we just simply view at him as a Jew? A jew who, put all politics aside, is being Moiser Nefesh for jewish people in that corner of the globe?
Let’s try to keep positive because and talk positively that is the quickest road for us to reach the Geulah!!!
The official and unofficial shluchim in India get along well. This sounds like some idiot in a local bureaucracy who wants shoichad because he sees that the shaliach overpaid for his facility and assumes that there is money to be extorted. It may also be the work of a worthless tabloid that prints bought articles.
Rabbi Zalmen and his wife Sheindy are real honest people they are giving away all there personal life to bring a Jewish soul closer to hashem, they just finished building a mikvah in there chabad house, As a relative I did contact Rabbi Berenstein via email and he wrote me that the situation its not at all as reported on all the different websites, and the story is just overblown from a letter he got, let’s pray for his safety and healthiness
Who put the finger on this guy and his wife?