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Finding a Jewish soul in Seoul
Finding a Jewish soul in Seoul
Playing a word association game using South Korea would lead most participants to think of hi-tech companies such as Samsung, LG or Hyundai. Others might mention Seoul, a teeming metropolis of 15 million people and the country’s capital. Still others would bring up the tense demilitarized zone that demarcates South and North Korea. Few, however, would associate Judaism with South Korea. Half of Korea’s population is said to have no religious affiliation; 25% are Buddhists; and 25% are Christians. In fact, the world’s largest Pentecostal mega-church, which hosts some 200,000 worshipers each Sunday, is in Seoul.
Is there a Jewish soul in Seoul? A recent visit to the capital city provided some definitive answers. Located on a quiet street in Itaewon, in one of Seoul’s fashionable neighborhoods near the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, is Chabad Korea, Lubavitch Chabad’s outpost in Seoul. Chabad in Korea is headed by Rabbi Osher Litzman and his wife, Mussy. Litzman, 36, a native of Kiryat Malachi, and Mussy, from Kfar Chabad, have spent the past 10 years in Korea acting as Judaism’s ambassadors in Korea. Underneath the large Chabad sign outside the Litzmans’ home that serves as Chabad headquarters is the heading “Your Jewish Embassy.”
Litzman is tall, dynamic and poised. When asked if he and his wife chose Korea as their calling, he first replied jokingly, “It’s similar to the question, ‘Did you choose your wife, or did someone force you to marry her?’” Addressing the question a bit more seriously, he explained, “We didn’t care where we would go. We heard that there was a need for a Chabad couple here, and we said we would come. We didn’t know anything about Korea. Back then, nobody heard about Korea. We told people that we are going to Korea and they said ‘Ukraine,’ or someone said, ‘Croatia.’”
Litzman, who arrived in Korea with his wife and a toddler in the spring of 2008, explains how Chabad came
to Korea. Jews have been living in Korea since the Korean War (1950-1953). Approximately 4,000 US Armed Forces members who served in the Korean conflict were Jewish. Since 1957, the US Army has maintained a large presence in Korea, and a small percentage of its current servicemen are Jewish. As a result, he said, there have always been Jewish services held at the army bases there. About 12 years ago, Litzman continued, the US government ruled that Israelis would be not allowed to visit US military installations. As a result, Israel Embassy staff, as well as visiting Israeli professors were unable to attend religious services. Chabad was contacted, and Litzman answered the call.
The number of Jews in Korea is small. Litzman estimates that there are no more than 200 spread throughout the country. Most are from the United States and Canada, visiting for a year or two while working as English teachers. Others work as engineers with Samsung and other hi-tech companies. “Many of those who are coming are unaffiliated. Our job is to make them feel a warmth for Judaism, so that each Jew has something that draws him near – maybe Hanukkah, maybe Passover or Rosh Hashanah.”
Passover and Rosh Hashanah are the two holidays that attract the highest number of attendants, according to Litzman. This year, he says, the US Army asked Chabad to prepare Passover Seder meals for Jewish army personnel in South Korea, as Chabad is the only source of kosher food in the entire Korean Peninsula. Chabad also hosted soldiers and Department of Defense personnel at the Seders held at the Chabad house and provided Passover food, including shmura matzah and wine, to soldiers and hundreds of civilians throughout Korea.
Hanukkah is also celebrated in Korea in a big way, and Chabad holds a public lighting ceremony in Seoul. On Sukkot, Litzman builds a large sukkah as well as a mobile version, and he proudly related that US Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris visited the Chabad sukkah during the holiday.
TWO HUNDRED Jews in a country of 50 million is statistically insignificant, but, said Litzman, “We are loved here. It is very warm and very friendly.” Interestingly, Koreans are