Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bhutan
Bhutan: no Jewish community, formal relations with the Israeli state since December 2020 after years of secret contacts, and Israeli agricultural training
Bhutan has no known Jewish community. It established formal diplomatic relations with "Israel" on 12 December 2020, after what the Israeli foreign minister called years of "secret contacts".[1] The joint statement said "Israel" had supported Bhutan's human resource development since 1982, especially in agriculture.[2]
Jewish community and religious life
The World Jewish Congress has no community page for Bhutan, and no Jewish community or communal organisation in Bhutan was found.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Bhutan.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
Relations were established by an exchange of notes verbales in New Delhi between Bhutan's ambassador to India, Major General Vetsop Namgyel, and the Israeli ambassador to India, Ron Malka.[2][1] Malka called it a "historic day".[3] The Israeli foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, said the decision followed years of "secret contacts" and was finalised in a call with the Bhutanese foreign minister, Tandi Dorji, a week earlier.[1] Neither country has an embassy in the other; The Hindu reported that they would work through their missions in Delhi.[1] The Guardian called the agreement "the latest of a string of normalisation deals" agreed by "Israel",[3] and Al Jazeera noted that it came days after Morocco agreed to normalise relations, the fourth Arab state to do so since August 2020.[4] The joint statement named water management, technology, human resource development and agricultural sciences as areas for cooperation, alongside tourism and cultural exchanges.[2]
Before formal ties, according to The Hindu, the highest-level visits were by Bhutan's agriculture and forestry minister, Yeshey Dorji, invited to "Israel" in 2016, and by Gilad Cohen, deputy director general for Asia-Pacific at the Israeli foreign ministry, invited to Bhutan in 2017.[1]
Agricultural training
The joint statement said Israeli support for Bhutan's human resource development since 1982 had "benefitted hundreds of Bhutanese youths".[2] The Hindu reported that the Israeli development agency MASHAV had trained hundreds of Bhutanese young people since 2013.[1] The sources differ on when the training began.
Arms and trade
SIPRI records no Israeli arms transfers to Bhutan.[5] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Bhutan separately in its trade-by-country table.[6]
Political interference
UN voting
No vote by Bhutan is recorded on the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[7]
Jeffrey Epstein
Documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files include the following references to Bhutan:
- In April 2013 Tom Pritzker wrote to Epstein from a wedding in Sikkim attended by guests ranging from a Deutsche Bank vice chairman to "movie stars to CIA to high lamas", and attached "a play in two parts about the previous such wedding in Bhutan".[8]
- In October 2014 Bill Bensley, signing himself "Bill of Bhutan", asked Epstein for a brief for work on his island; Epstein wrote: "landscape the entire island, and build a new house 20k feet or so ... the island is my home. the entire island, . 80 acres".[9]
- In July 2017 Epstein wrote to Richard Kahn: "lets hire the bhutan lady".[10]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to India
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Nepal
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bangladesh
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Israel and Bhutan establish diplomatic ties The Hindu, 12 December 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (Bhutan), Joint Press Statement on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Kingdom of Bhutan and the State of Israel mfa.gov.bt, 12 December 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Israel establishes 'formal diplomatic relations' with Bhutan The Guardian, 12 December 2020.
- ↑ Israel and Bhutan establish diplomatic relations Al Jazeera, 12 December 2020.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Email thread between Tom Pritzker and Jeffrey Epstein, "RE:", 24 April 2013, EFTA00874541, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email thread between Bill Bensley and Jeffrey Epstein, "Dreams", 28 October 2014, EFTA01201708, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Richard Kahn, 24 July 2017, EFTA02642858, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 11, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.