For about a year, between the summers of 2009 and 2010, I lived in Southeast Asia. Cambodia to be exact. I was hired at a Western-run private elementary school to teach 5th grade impoverished Cambodian children from the countryside. The year and a half before I left, I had been slowly moving towards becoming more observant. With my move, however, I felt like I was taking a step backwards, unable to practice while in the middle of a small Cambodian city. Nevertheless, before I stepped on the plane in that July, I decided my year abroad would signal another milestone in my Jewish journey. The last time I ate non-Kosher meat was the night before I left.

When I arrived in Cambodia, there was no established Chabad house. There was a sizable Chabad presence a short but expensive plane flight away, in Bangkok. I had visited that location several times during previous trips, and always felt like I was walking from an alien land into a home. At Chabad I was surrounded by Jews from around the world: Israel, New Jersey, Australia. From Israeli backpackers to frum couples from New Jersey on an exotic vacation - everyone came together at Chabad. The stories they told me about their Chabad experiences varied. The backpackers told me that Chabad was the place they could come for a taste of home or a chance to find new experiences around a new home. Many spoke of reconnecting to their Jewish roots in Nepal and Thailand in ways they never would have imagined when at home.The frum travelers were thankful for the opportunity that Chabad gave them to travel the world while still keeping Kosher and Shabbat. We came from such different backgrounds, but at the rabbi’s Shabbat table we sat as one.

Over the course of my year in Cambodia, Rabbi Benzion Butman and his wife Mashie came to Phnom Penh to establish the Chabad of Cambodia. My first interaction with Rabbi Butman came Chanukah time that year. Rabbi Butman sent a menorah to Siem Reap, where I was living, a six hour bus ride from his home in the capital city. From that first encounter, our relationship continued to grow. I spent Shabbatot with the Butmans and their children, broke fasts at their table, and always knew I had someone to call or even text with a question or problem. Rabbi Butman made it possible for me to hold a seder in Siem Reap for my friends and a fellow Jew. Visiting rabbis flew in to help, driving around the country with a trunk full of matzo, haggadot and Kedem grape juice.

Their doorway became a teleportation device. Stepping inside brought us from the hustle and bustle of a developing country into a Jewish living room that could have been plucked right out of Israel or New York. Leaving Cambodia was made especially difficult knowing that I was leaving the burgeoning Jewish community that Rabbi Butman was building virtually from scratch. I receive their newsletters weekly. Even here in New York I love getting details about what’s going on there: a new Torah commissioned, their need for more chairs, and even the opening of a kosher restaurant. I open my wallet to very few things, being a young professional just starting out my life. However, emails from Rabbi Butman always inspire me to give what I can, so that he can give to others the Jewish experience I had in Phnom Penh.

 Since returning to the States I've completed my "Jewish journey" and am now fully shomer-Kashrut and shomer-Shabbos. I think I was on this path regardless, but my experiences in the Butman's home solidified in my soul that this was the person I was meant to be.

 Bethany Shondark Mandel is the social media associate at Commentary Magazine in New York City.