Two weekends ago, I traveled 40 minutes northwest of Phnom Penh by tuk-tuk, the ubiquitous three-wheeled form of transport in Southeast Asia. I was going to see something strange: Cambodia’s first Jewish cemetery, which was inaugurated in April. The cemetery is the brainchild of Rabbi Bentzion Butman, who has run the Chabad Jewish Centre of Cambodia for the past five years.
Long ago, a few Jewish foods made themselves an indispensable part of the way Americans eat. So thorough was their assimilation that their popularity swiftly overshadowed their cultural origins. (These days, who thinks “Jewish” when they reach for their bagel and schmear?)
