History of the Jews in Vietnam
Encyclopedia
Jews are a minor ethnic
and religious group in Vietnam
, presently consisting of only about 300 people, or an extremely small percentage of Vietnam's population
. Although Jews have been present in Vietnam and Judaism has been practiced since the 19th century, most adherents have been, and remain today, expatriates, with few to no native Vietnamese converts.
likely arrived following the French colonization of the country in the latter half of the 19th century.
There are a handful of references to Jewish settlement in Saigon sprinkled through the pages of the Jewish Chronicle in the 1860s and 1870s.
The Jewish Encyclopedia
mentions a French merchant and ship-owner named Jules Rueff being active in Indochina
in the 1870s, becoming "one of the pioneers of French influence in that country." Per the Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge, "in 1872 [Rueff] became one of the pioneers in the development of French Indo-China." He is also credited in other sources to have been both the "originator of the plan for the railroad of Saigon-My Tho, in Cochinchina
, and the founder and general director of the 'Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine,' which greatly facilitated the spread of French trade in Indo-China by the route of Mekong
." A steamship that traversed the Mekong was later christened the Jules Rueff to recognize his role in the region's maritime activities. Rueff was still active in regional trade as late as April 1889, when he co-signed a petition to the French government requesting relief on duties being charged on cotton imports from Indochina.
Between 1883 and 1886 Jewish soldiers and officers fought in the French army in the Tonkin campaign
. One such soldier, from a family of multiple members in the French military was Louis Naquet. Naquet, who eventually achieved the rank of Captain and was killed in action during World War I, received the Medaille du Tonkin for his actions in Tonkin and Annam, becoming chevalier of the 'Ordre Royal du Cambodge.
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Sylvain Levi
was the (one of the) founder(s) of the École française d'Extrême-Orient
(French School of the Far East) in Hanoi. The École française d'Extrême-Orient's website notes that the school was founded in Hanoi in 1902.
appears to have had some activity in Haiphong
during the 1920s.
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, between 1929 and 1932, the U.S. Consul
in Saigon was a diplomat named Henry Samuel Waterman, who was Jewish. In 1930, Waterman reported back the United States about the growth of communism in Vietnam, but his superiors at the State Department discounted his report, saying that the "French authorities have been stuffing him with a lot of hot air about the communistic menace." It turned out however, that Waterman's reports describing the Cong San were accurate, and referred to the Dang Cong San Viet Nam (Vietnamese Communist Party), directed from Moscow and Canton
, and indeed there was a "growing threat to colonial rule in Southeast Asia."
As late as 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities of Haiphong
, Hanoi
, Saigon and Tourane in French Indo-China numbered approximately 1,000 individuals. There were also reportedly eighty Jews in Tonkin
during the period of Vichy
rule, of which forty-nine were in the military and twenty-seven were in the foreign legion.
In 1940 the anti-Semitic Vichy-France "Statute on Jews
" was implemented in French Indo-China (Vietnam) by its Governor Jean Decoux
. In November 1940, Jewish people were limited to certain professions, and in July 1941 Jewish children were not allowed to comprise more than 2 % of public school students. By October 1942, fifteen government employees were dismissed from their positions for being Jewish (among the fifteen was Suzanne Karpeles, the director of the Buddhist Institutes in Phnom Penh
and Vientiane
), and Jews were "fired from a wide range of professions,from banking to the insurance, advertising, administration and business sectors." One such individual, Leo Lippmann, the former director of the Hanoi tram company, was dismissed from his position even after resigning from his post to assume a lesser position. When it was deemed by state officials that the statute would have an adverse effect upon their racial Vichy motives for the region – such as the case of George Coedès
, an employee at the government sponsored École française d'Extrême-Orient
(French School of the Far East), who was deemed useful by the resident superier of Tonkin
– an exemption to the discriminatory laws could be made. The anti-Jewish laws were repealed in January 1945.
In 1954, Vietnam achieved independence as a divided state, with a communist north and a capitalist south. The French Premier who negotiated France's pullout from the Indochina region thus granting Vietnam its independence was Pierre Mendes France, who happened to be Jewish. Prior to the French evacuation, the Jewish population in Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia
) was reportedly 1,500, and most of those Jews were said to have left with the French, leaving behind no organized Jewish communal structure. On 25 May 1954 Robert Capa
, a photo journalist made famous for providing the first photographs of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach
was killed while on assignment covering the French-Indochina War. The 1956 American Jewish Yearbook listed the Jewish population of French Indochina at 1,500, as noted above, but in its 1957 printing, there is no mention of a Jewish population in the region.
In 1971, about 12 French Jews still remained in South Vietnam
, all in Saigon. During the Vietnam War
, temporary Jewish communities were organized throughout South Vietnam, consisting largely of United States military personnel. Approximately 30,000 Jewish-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam; amongst them, Colonel Jack H. Jacobs
won the Medal of Honor
for heroism for his service. After the defeat of South Vietnam in 1975, almost no Jews remained in the country.
Gradually, as the communist government began accepting economic reforms, the number of Jewish visitors to the country increased. Vietnam and Israel established diplomatic relations on 12 July 1993. Israel opened its resident Embassy in Hanoi
in December 1993 with D. Matnai appointed as the first Ambassador to Vietnam. Vigorous efforts have been devoted by both sides to enhancing mutual understanding and deepening the bilateral cooperative relations, especially in agriculture, water resources and health services. Every year, the embassy holds an annual humanitarian mission that sends a convoy of doctors and support staff with supplies into Vietnam’s poorest mountain regions.
The discovery of the wild saola
species in Vietnam in 1993 made note in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society
's Fall 1999 issue. Although the "odd, elusive creature... possibly on the verge of extinction" was not being considered for consumption, it was noted as an example of an animal that exhibited both kosher indicia but lacking a "mesorah
" – an oral tradition required by many halachic decisors to declare the animal kosher.
" fleeing their war-ravaged country following the end of the Vietnam War. Despite desperate SOS signals, the refugees, who were out of food and water, had been ignored by passing ships from East Germany, Norway
, Japan and Panama
.
The Israeli ship picked up the passengers and took them to Israel. There, Prime Minister Menachem Begin
authorized their permanent admission to Israel, comparing their plight to that of European Jewish refugees seeking a haven in the 1930s. Subsequently, hundreds of additional Vietnamese refugees were taken in by Israel.
In 2006, Chabad
opened a center in Ho Chi Minh City, which is considered to be the economic center of Vietnam. A documentary about the Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Hartman of the Chabad Center was put online by Chabad http://www.col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=41652. The film, (mostly in Hebrew with Russian
subtitles) provides a look at the challenges faced by the emissaries upon their arrival, as well as a glimpse of the makeup of the Jewish community that existed upon their arrival. According to the Jewish Telepgraphic Agency, the Chabad Center is reportedly used largely by business people and tourists from Israel and the United States, and of as of 2007, there are some 100 “Do Thai,” or Jews in Hanoi and about 200 in Ho Chi Minh City
.
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
and religious group in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, presently consisting of only about 300 people, or an extremely small percentage of Vietnam's population
Demographics of Vietnam
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Vietnam, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
. Although Jews have been present in Vietnam and Judaism has been practiced since the 19th century, most adherents have been, and remain today, expatriates, with few to no native Vietnamese converts.
19th century
The first Jews to visit VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
likely arrived following the French colonization of the country in the latter half of the 19th century.
There are a handful of references to Jewish settlement in Saigon sprinkled through the pages of the Jewish Chronicle in the 1860s and 1870s.
The Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
mentions a French merchant and ship-owner named Jules Rueff being active in Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
in the 1870s, becoming "one of the pioneers of French influence in that country." Per the Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge, "in 1872 [Rueff] became one of the pioneers in the development of French Indo-China." He is also credited in other sources to have been both the "originator of the plan for the railroad of Saigon-My Tho, in Cochinchina
Cochinchina
Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1954. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region is called Nam Bộ...
, and the founder and general director of the 'Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine,' which greatly facilitated the spread of French trade in Indo-China by the route of Mekong
Mekong
The Mekong is a river that runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is the world's 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annually....
." A steamship that traversed the Mekong was later christened the Jules Rueff to recognize his role in the region's maritime activities. Rueff was still active in regional trade as late as April 1889, when he co-signed a petition to the French government requesting relief on duties being charged on cotton imports from Indochina.
Between 1883 and 1886 Jewish soldiers and officers fought in the French army in the Tonkin campaign
Tonkin campaign
The Tonkin Campaign was a armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin and entrench a French protectorate there...
. One such soldier, from a family of multiple members in the French military was Louis Naquet. Naquet, who eventually achieved the rank of Captain and was killed in action during World War I, received the Medaille du Tonkin for his actions in Tonkin and Annam, becoming chevalier of the 'Ordre Royal du Cambodge.
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Sylvain Levi
Sylvain Lévi
Sylvain Lévi was an orientalist and indologist. Born in Paris on March 28, 1863, his book Théâtre Indien is an important work on the subject. Lévi also conducted some of the earliest analysis of Tokharian fragments discovered in Western China.-Biography:Sylvain Levi passed the agregation...
was the (one of the) founder(s) of the École française d'Extrême-Orient
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The École française d'Extrême-Orient is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. Translated into English, it approximately means the French School of the Far East. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. After independence, its...
(French School of the Far East) in Hanoi. The École française d'Extrême-Orient's website notes that the school was founded in Hanoi in 1902.
20th century
The Alliance Israélite UniverselleAlliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 by the French statesman Adolphe Crémieux to safeguard the human rights of Jews around the world...
appears to have had some activity in Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
during the 1920s.
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, between 1929 and 1932, the U.S. Consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
in Saigon was a diplomat named Henry Samuel Waterman, who was Jewish. In 1930, Waterman reported back the United States about the growth of communism in Vietnam, but his superiors at the State Department discounted his report, saying that the "French authorities have been stuffing him with a lot of hot air about the communistic menace." It turned out however, that Waterman's reports describing the Cong San were accurate, and referred to the Dang Cong San Viet Nam (Vietnamese Communist Party), directed from Moscow and Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, and indeed there was a "growing threat to colonial rule in Southeast Asia."
As late as 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities of Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
, Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, Saigon and Tourane in French Indo-China numbered approximately 1,000 individuals. There were also reportedly eighty Jews in Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
during the period of Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
rule, of which forty-nine were in the military and twenty-seven were in the foreign legion.
In 1940 the anti-Semitic Vichy-France "Statute on Jews
Statute on Jews
The Statute on Jews was discriminatory legislation against French Jews passed on October 3, 1940 by the Vichy Regime, grouping them as a lower class and depriving them of citizenship before rounding them up at Drancy internment camp then taking them to be exterminated in concentration camps...
" was implemented in French Indo-China (Vietnam) by its Governor Jean Decoux
Jean Decoux
Jean Decoux was a French politician, who was the Governor-General of French Indochina from 1940 to 1945, representing the Vichy French government.-Biography:Decoux was born in Bordeaux...
. In November 1940, Jewish people were limited to certain professions, and in July 1941 Jewish children were not allowed to comprise more than 2 % of public school students. By October 1942, fifteen government employees were dismissed from their positions for being Jewish (among the fifteen was Suzanne Karpeles, the director of the Buddhist Institutes in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
and Vientiane
Vientiane
-Geography:Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point.-Climate:Vientiane features a tropical wet and dry climate with a distinct monsoon season and a dry season. Vientiane’s dry season spans from November through March. April marks the...
), and Jews were "fired from a wide range of professions,from banking to the insurance, advertising, administration and business sectors." One such individual, Leo Lippmann, the former director of the Hanoi tram company, was dismissed from his position even after resigning from his post to assume a lesser position. When it was deemed by state officials that the statute would have an adverse effect upon their racial Vichy motives for the region – such as the case of George Coedès
George Coedès
Georges Cœdès was a 20th century scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history. Coedès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish emigres. In fact, the family was known as having settled in the region of Strasbourg before 1740. His ancestors were working for the royal Treasury...
, an employee at the government sponsored École française d'Extrême-Orient
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The École française d'Extrême-Orient is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. Translated into English, it approximately means the French School of the Far East. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. After independence, its...
(French School of the Far East), who was deemed useful by the resident superier of Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
– an exemption to the discriminatory laws could be made. The anti-Jewish laws were repealed in January 1945.
In 1954, Vietnam achieved independence as a divided state, with a communist north and a capitalist south. The French Premier who negotiated France's pullout from the Indochina region thus granting Vietnam its independence was Pierre Mendes France, who happened to be Jewish. Prior to the French evacuation, the Jewish population in Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
) was reportedly 1,500, and most of those Jews were said to have left with the French, leaving behind no organized Jewish communal structure. On 25 May 1954 Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
, a photo journalist made famous for providing the first photographs of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II...
was killed while on assignment covering the French-Indochina War. The 1956 American Jewish Yearbook listed the Jewish population of French Indochina at 1,500, as noted above, but in its 1957 printing, there is no mention of a Jewish population in the region.
In 1971, about 12 French Jews still remained in South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
, all in Saigon. During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, temporary Jewish communities were organized throughout South Vietnam, consisting largely of United States military personnel. Approximately 30,000 Jewish-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam; amongst them, Colonel Jack H. Jacobs
Jack H. Jacobs
Jack Howard Jacobs is a retired colonel in the United States Army and a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Vietnam War. He currently serves as a military analyst for MSNBC and previously worked as an investment manager....
won the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
for heroism for his service. After the defeat of South Vietnam in 1975, almost no Jews remained in the country.
Gradually, as the communist government began accepting economic reforms, the number of Jewish visitors to the country increased. Vietnam and Israel established diplomatic relations on 12 July 1993. Israel opened its resident Embassy in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
in December 1993 with D. Matnai appointed as the first Ambassador to Vietnam. Vigorous efforts have been devoted by both sides to enhancing mutual understanding and deepening the bilateral cooperative relations, especially in agriculture, water resources and health services. Every year, the embassy holds an annual humanitarian mission that sends a convoy of doctors and support staff with supplies into Vietnam’s poorest mountain regions.
The discovery of the wild saola
Saola
The Saola, Vu Quang ox or Asian unicorn, also, infrequently, Vu Quang bovid , one of the world's rarest mammals, is a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos...
species in Vietnam in 1993 made note in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society
Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society
The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society is a semiannual Orthodox Jewish academic journal published by the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School and edited by Alfred Cohen...
's Fall 1999 issue. Although the "odd, elusive creature... possibly on the verge of extinction" was not being considered for consumption, it was noted as an example of an animal that exhibited both kosher indicia but lacking a "mesorah
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
" – an oral tradition required by many halachic decisors to declare the animal kosher.
Post-war Vietnamese refugees in Israel
In 1977, an Israeli cargo ship nearing Japan spotted a leaking boat crammed with 66 Vietnamese men, women and children. They were among hundreds of thousands of "boat peopleBoat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
" fleeing their war-ravaged country following the end of the Vietnam War. Despite desperate SOS signals, the refugees, who were out of food and water, had been ignored by passing ships from East Germany, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Japan and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
The Israeli ship picked up the passengers and took them to Israel. There, Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
authorized their permanent admission to Israel, comparing their plight to that of European Jewish refugees seeking a haven in the 1930s. Subsequently, hundreds of additional Vietnamese refugees were taken in by Israel.
Present day
In 2005, the U.S. State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report" noted "There were no reported anti-Semitic incidents during the period covered by this report. The country's small Jewish population is almost entirely of expatriates."In 2006, Chabad
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
opened a center in Ho Chi Minh City, which is considered to be the economic center of Vietnam. A documentary about the Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Hartman of the Chabad Center was put online by Chabad http://www.col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=41652. The film, (mostly in Hebrew with Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
subtitles) provides a look at the challenges faced by the emissaries upon their arrival, as well as a glimpse of the makeup of the Jewish community that existed upon their arrival. According to the Jewish Telepgraphic Agency, the Chabad Center is reportedly used largely by business people and tourists from Israel and the United States, and of as of 2007, there are some 100 “Do Thai,” or Jews in Hanoi and about 200 in Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
.