Israel’s Thai Crisis Escalates Again - Chief Rabbi Faces Deportation!

Right, so, the Chief Rabbi of Thailand is no longer welcome in Thailand, where Chabad runs its centres, and where Yosef Chaim Kantor, the head of Chabad, has been keeping half the Thai bureaucracy up at night with his Israeli connections. Kantor, an American-born rabbi who has been working there for more than thirty years, has now been declared persona non grata. When Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pressed his hand to the paper on October 28, it must have been after some lengthy deliberations about how to make Israel's headaches in Thailand even more pronounced. PPTV reproduced the ministerial notice so kindly and lovingly that it would be a pleasure for anyone fascinated by bureaucratic nonsense, but for a citizen whose life and career are firmly rooted in the country, the consequences of this decision reach far beyond a simple airport inconvenience. Kantor landed in Thailand in 1993 and obtained a Thai passport in 2013, so this lands as a hammer blow to Israel right now as growing unrest at Israeli actions within Thailand are clearly worsening for them. Chabad houses have been the first resort for Jewish residents and tourists from Israel for many years, where you can find the right food, prayer, and the kind of practical help you need when there's no Hebrew, and you don't understand a thing. For decades now, Mr Kantor has been managing things for those who need a kosher meal, or who need to know how to survive the Thai bureaucracy. His status as a Thai citizen gave him a seat at the Thai table that a mere tourist visa never could have granted him, and now the Government has taken that away. They haven't booked him a one-way ticket yet, but after years as a Thai citizen, he is back to playing immigration roulette.