Rabbi Kastel recalled seeing “cows walking around the streets, and all the water for drinking and cooking had to be boiled.”
Even phone calls had to be scheduled in advance, he said, and a trade dispute with Israel threatened to block a shipment of matzah, kosher wine and gefilte fish coming into the country.
But there was great enthusiasm for the Seder. The Israeli embassy in the city had circulated a sign-up sheet expecting around 90 people to attend an event in a local restaurant.
But ballooning interest across Nepal and the wider region meant that it had to be held out of doors.
Eventually 500 Jews came to the Seder night. The card tables supplied to them were too small, so they borrowed doors from a hotel that was being constructed nearby and laid doors on top of them lent, so they had enough space to gather around and read through the Haggadah.
The 2018 Seder in Kathmandu, organised by Chabad, will be something of a reunion as Rabbi Kastel intends to return.
He will be bringing his entire family with him — his wife, Tzippi, their seven children and two grandchildren.
