By COLlive reporter
A few years ago, Esther Vender found herself being slapped with a bill she didn’t know where she would find the money to pay it – and from all places, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“We were missing 1000 Nepalese Rupee,” she recalls. “As we were discussing how to get the money together, Rabbi Chezky passed by and without thinking, pulls out the money and gives it to us.”
“The amount wasn’t much ($11), but he didn’t know if he would ever meet us again. And even so, you felt his lack of hesitation to help out. And this is something very interesting and universal to all Shluchim in all places.”
This episode – and subsequent visits to Chabad centers in Thailand, Cambodia, China and Vietnam – has led Vender to create a new drama series depicting a Shliach’s life which is being aired on Channel 2, Israel’s largest station and on the Israeli Channel in the U.S.
“Kathmandu,” as the series is titled, tracks how a young Chabad couple copes with the many challenges an observant Jew faces in a politically unstable and poor country in the Far East, like Nepal.
The series is inspired by the lives and fascinating experiences of Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz and his wife Chani who are the directors of Chabad of Nepal and the ‘parents’ of tens of thousands of Israeli backpackers who pass through the country.
Vender says she has spent hundreds of hours talking with Shluchim and her conclusion was that “they have this unconditional love. It’s very hard for such people to live in such a weird place.”
While the show is stated as fiction and not a documentary, the actors share a close resemblance to the Shluchim – in look and character.
Michael Moshonov plays the friendly and unassuming Rabbi Shmulik, while Nitzan Levertovsky is the spirited and defiant Shlucha Mushkie in a role highlighting the unsung heroes of Shlichus, as the Rebbe has set up.
“The actors were in Kfar Chabad many times and participated in farbrengens and learned niggunim and the Chabad slang,” Vender told the Makor Rishon weekly.
The first episode, aired Thursday, May 17, shows the ‘Shluchim’ sitting in the Shlucha’s parents’ home in Kfar Chabad, devastated after their Makom Hashlichus (to Brussels) was filled by another couple. Instead, they consider Nepal.
After arriving in Nepal, when telling their taxi driver (actually rickshaw cart rider) that they were here to stay – the man bursts out in laughter. And as they very soon find out, what you’re promised in Nepal, is not what you’ll get.
The driver charging them full price for taking the two a few feet down the road is only one example (the pair ending up in jail is another).
Most reviews in the Israeli press have thus far been sympathetic, and the funding for the show from the Avi Chai Foundation is on the condition that the show will properly portray the life of a Chabad family on Shlichus.
Also of note: advising the creators of the show is Yechiel Fleishman, a Lubavitcher and brother of Chani Lifshitz.
VIDEO: The Rabbi
VIDEO: The Rebbetzin
Is there any english subtitle of it??? can i find it online any where
Amazing! I loved it and made my friends all watch it with me!!!
It just disturbs me when someone tries to depict frum life & is not accurate (a la Fiddler on the Roof). Has the fellow say kaddish for his father in the mountains in Nepal without a minyan? Takes down the mechitza for the boy’s bar mitzvah? Has him read the haftorah in front of a bunch of getchkas? Really, the consultant has to be consulted & not ignored just to make the story more exciting. But I did enjoy the series.
ppl with negative comments: … let me remind you that you are on the internet and thats controversial too!! make sure your standards are double…
personally i think the one episode I watched, was brilliant, and depicted Chabad Shluchim to be the most astounding,amazing, selfless, loving of all Jews, people ever created …. and is a big kiddush Hashem
If u hold by the standerd not to watch tv regulerly than u shouldn’t watch this ethier b/c what you see in the show A- btween the other couples at the chabad house B-what u see btween the shliach and shlucha behind closed doors is also a “shtickel” not tznios
i watched this show and i recommend others to watch it!
wowwwwww
BIG KIDUSH HASHEM !!!!
i watched this show and i would not recommend others to watch it
it is a nice show but not as tznius as it should be…would not recommend it for our kids as it gives a wrong messagea in many ways….but it does publicize chabad in a positive way, which is nice.
Well, I am puzzled how the shluchim stage a wedding in about 2 days notice . Do they have less stringent rules than the Rabbanut? Or did the producers forget to run this one by their consultant?
For secular audiences
I looked for it on youtube because i heared its about chabad and i saw the promo.. Like these two clips here about the shluchim there are also a few more about other figures and it doesnt look like this series will be more kosher than any other tv series. I think its beautiful that they took the shluchim as roles in the series and than they show them in such a positeve way but its not a hechsher for us to watch it
Nonsense.
How do you know? Have you seen the show?
All the series focuses on the work of the Shluchim.
About israelis in kathmandu and they also took shluchim-figures as a part of the play because its a part of the israeli life in the far east. Thats all. There is no reason to put here a link of a tv series, get real
no it will be used to be shluchim on bilboareds
WE HAVE AMAZING SHLUCHIM IN NEPAL!!!
chabadnepal.com
What’s next???? Shluchim on billboards?
he goes to jail
WHAT?????
the difference between shluchim and insane community servers is that shluchim’s entire shlichus is about a deep rooted connection and bittul to the rebbe- who in turn ensures their safety and success.
So on the one hand- making a shlichus story without emphasising that connection is a waste of time… but Any fictional shlichus story which does bring out that connection is essentially a collection of made up rebbe story (not that they are non existant)
which is a little degrading…
i think #6 is talking to us as lubavitchers 😉
what is great for one may not be good for another.
that what happend to me!!!
Time to get your head out of the sand. This is about the great work that people do. Would you watch the Chabad telethon? It is, after all, on TV!
Watch yourself? Lower and Lower? You are worried about this when you now have websites with pedophiles addresses? This is nothing. The real world is part of ours and this is nice and respectful and shows us what schluchim go through. I mean lets get real here.
This is a wonderful avenue to educate and spread to the general / secular Israeli society the amazing story of shluchim dedicating their lives to the Rebbe’s mission.
this how ppl fall. they first start with jewish tv and then go lower and lower. know yourself be careful 🙂
Its not a religious show, and there is no reason any one that doesn’t watch TV generally should watch this.
can they post more
one more pf the Rebbr`s promises became true!
Where can we watch this video?? Sounds amazing!
is there somewhere online we can watch this?