A Jewish cemetery purchased approximately five years ago by the Jewish community and Chabad in Bangkok has faced mounting difficulties with local authorities in recent months after officials refused to renew the burial license for the site.
On Friday morning, hours before Rosh Hashanah, Chabad representatives received a letter from the regional governor demanding that the cemetery, which contains four graves, be evacuated by Tuesday.
Faced with the urgent deadline, Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, the Chabad emissary in Bangkok, contacted ZAKA Deputy Operations Director Chaim Weingarten and requested the organization's assistance in transferring the graves to a new burial plot that had been purchased by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Thailand.
Immediately after Shabbat ended, and following halachic consultation with ZAKA's rabbinic advisors, Weingarten and ZAKA volunteer Berla Yaakubovitz departed for Bangkok.
On Tuesday, a joint team of ZAKA personnel, Chabad rabbis and members of the Jewish community worked at the site, including Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi, Yossi Goldberg and Dudi Hadad.
After hours of intensive and sensitive work, with strict adherence to respect for the deceased and halachic requirements, all four graves were transferred in their entirety to their new resting place.
