Chani Lifshitz, who manages the Chabad House in Kathmandu alongside her husband, Rabbi Chizki, posted on Facebook sharing that they are being forced to leave their current home due to a series of harassment and restrictions.
"The last few days have not been easy for Chizki and me. You know what? Forget about beating around the bush. These are tough days. We’re in a crisis - but we’re not abandoning our mission. After many years of this specific home being the work of our lives - a place of Shabbat, holidays, tears, hugs, and conversations that lasted until the night was over - we now find ourselves packing everything into boxes and looking for a new place. How much we invested in this home... yours and ours. Wow. Suddenly starting all over again - what a lesson in humility this is," Lipshitz wrote.
She explains why the Chabad House is being forced to relocate: "In recent months, we felt how the noose was tightening around us. Another request from the landlord, another demand, more restrictions, more decrees... these have been months of nightmares. At first, we were asked to remove all the signs in Hebrew - so that no one would see that there is a Jewish presence here... so they wouldn’t suspect that the landlord was a spy from Iran. Meanwhile, the financial demands kept increasing, again and again, until it became impossible to meet them. Slowly, it became clear to us that we were being led to one place: they don’t want this place to be a home for Jews. Our presence here? Unnecessary. It’s disturbing. And that hurt. Because behind all of this was a clear sense of antisemitism, one that could no longer be ignored."
Then came the moment when they were simply told to leave, effective immediately. "Just like that, almost without a breath to spare, we packed everything into a large storage room we quickly found in a neighborhood called Balajo. And we’re constantly checking options for a new place. We’re now facing empty walls, and I quietly say to myself: how do you leave a house that is all soul? Ugh. Chizki says that everything is for the best (does anyone still doubt that?) and all I have are tears in my eyes," she concluded.