Lubavitchers Print Tanya in the Kingdom of Bahrain

By COLlive reporter

Avigdor Factor, Yossi Lipsh, and Moshe Raichman, Lubavitch chassidim from Ramat Beit Shemesh in Israel recently printed an edition of the book of Tanya in Manama, the capital and largest city of the Gulf island nation of Bahrain.

It was the 7,755 edition of the Tanya printed in the world after the Rebbe instructed his chassidim to print the foundational work of Chabad chassidus in every location globally with a Jewish community, in order to spiritually ‘purify the air’.

Jews have been living in Bahrain since the Second Beis Hamikdash, In 1880, Iraqi Jews traveling to India stopped in Bahrain on the way, liked what they saw, and decide to settle there. The descendants of those settlers make up the community, the oldest contemporary community in the Gulf region. The Kingdom of known to be tolerant of Jews, and three of its members have served in the national parliament.

The three Lubavitchers have been conducting business in Bahrain well before the signing the Abraham Accords peace agreement between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in 2020.

“I have been doing business with Bahrain for fifteen years,” Raichman said. “I realized that this was likely one of the last active Jewish communities globally that has yet to have a Tanya printed.”

The synagogue called Beit Aseret Hadibros was restored during the Abraham Accords and a Torah scroll was donated in merit of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa by Jared Kushner, son-in-law and then a senior advisor to President Donald Trump.

Raichman, who traveled there again last week, said he felt this was “the perfect opportunity” to print the Tanya as the 24th of Teves marked the yartzeit of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya.

“It was an elevating experience to participate in this printing on the Alter Rebbe’s yartzeit,” Lipsh said. “We took the fresh pages of the printing and learned them in the beautifully restored ‘Ten Commandments’ synagogue. The dream was realized.”

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