Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Nepal

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Nepal: a Chabad centre for Israeli backpackers, the first South Asian state to establish relations with the Israeli state, the Learn and Earn farm-labour scheme, and the Nepali students killed and taken hostage on 7 October 2023

Nepal has no permanent Jewish community recorded by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which lists a Chabad House in Thamel, Kathmandu.[1] Nepal established diplomatic relations with "Israel" on 1 June 1960, the first South Asian country to do so.[2] Over 4,000 Nepalis had taken part in the Israeli "Learn and Earn" agricultural programme by 2024;[2] ten Nepali students on the programme were killed in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Alumim on 7 October 2023, and one, Bipin Joshi, was taken hostage and killed in captivity.[3][4]

Jewish community and religious life

The WJC lists a Chabad House in Thamel, Kathmandu, and no other Jewish institution in Nepal.[1] No Nepali Jewish communal organisation was found.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Nepal


Israeli state and commercial ties

Diplomacy

Relations were established on 1 June 1960, and "Israel" opened an embassy in Kathmandu in March 1961. Nepal's prime minister, B. P. Koirala, met David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv on 12 August 1960, and King Mahendra made a state visit to "Israel" in September 1963.[2][5] Nepal opened an embassy in Tel Aviv on 13 August 2007.[5] In 2020 Nepal's foreign minister, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, recalled that Nepal was "the first country in the South Asia region to formally recognize the State of Israel by establishing diplomatic relations and hosting Israeli Embassy in Kathmandu".[6]

Military and development cooperation

According to Nepal's embassy, "Israel" helped to set up the National Construction Company of Nepal and provided "training facilities for the Nepalese Army personnel in parachuting". It has also given short-term scholarships in agriculture, education, rural development, water resources and tourism. Nepal's embassy said that Israeli government assistance after the 2015 earthquake was "appreciated from all levels of Nepal Government".[5] An agricultural cooperation framework agreement was signed in 2010, and the Israeli agriculture minister, Yair Shamir, visited Nepal in 2015.[2] Gyawali said in 2020 that the two countries were setting up "agriculture centers of excellence in Nepal" to transfer Israeli technology.[6]

Arms

SIPRI records one Israeli arms transfer to Nepal: 16 second-hand AMX-13 light tanks, ordered in 1969 and delivered in 1970.[7]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Nepal separately in its trade-by-country table.[8]

Migration and labour

Learn and Earn. The Learn and Earn programme, launched in 2013, brings Nepali agriculture students to work and study on Israeli farms; according to the Israeli embassy, over 4,000 Nepalis had taken part by 2024.[2] In October 2023, 17 Nepali students on the programme had been at Kibbutz Alumim for just over three weeks when it was attacked. Ten were killed. Bipin Joshi, a 24-year-old agriculture student, was taken hostage; according to a fellow student, he had thrown back a grenade thrown into their shelter.[3] The Israeli military identified his body among the first four dead hostages returned by Hamas in October 2025. Israeli officials said he had been murdered in captivity during the first months of the war.[3][4] He was cremated with state honours in Kanchanpur on 21 October 2025; staff of the Israeli embassy draped an Israeli flag over the body.[4]

Caregivers. Nepal's embassy says that "Israel" has become a favoured destination for young Nepalis, particularly women, seeking work as caregivers and in agriculture. In 2016 "Israel" recruited 59 female caregivers through a government-to-government process.[5] Gyawali said in 2020 that a bilateral labour agreement on employing Nepali workers in long-term care facilities in "Israel" had recently been concluded.[6]

Political interference

UN voting

Nepal voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[9]

Jeffrey Epstein

Documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files include the following references to Nepal:

  • Epstein was on the mailing list of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, whose newsletter of 29 April 2015 led with "IDF Humanitarian Mission Arrives in Nepal" after the earthquake.[10]
  • In March 2019 Epstein sent Tom Pritzker a link to Al Jazeera's investigation "Nepal's great plunder", on the theft of Nepali antiquities. Pritzker replied: "There is a back story. King of Mustang is a friend." Epstein answered: "No surprise".[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 World Jewish Congress, Community in Nepal worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Embassy of Israel in Nepal, Bilateral relations embassies.gov.il, accessed 21 October 2026 (Israeli government-side).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Bipin Joshi 'threw back Hamas grenade and saved my life', friend tells BBC BBC News, 14 October 2025.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bipin Joshi cremated with state honours The Kathmandu Post, 21 October 2025.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Embassy of Nepal in Tel Aviv, Nepal – Israel Relations il.nepalembassy.gov.np, accessed 21 October 2026 (Nepalese government-side).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Nepal), Remarks by Hon. Pradeep Kumar Gyawali at a seminar organized by Embassy of Israel in Kathmandu to mark the 60th Anniversary of Nepal-Israel relations mofa.gov.np, 2020 (Nepalese government-side).
  7. ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
  8. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  9. ↑ 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).
  10. ↑ Email newsletter from AICE to Jeffrey Epstein, "AICE Update: IDF Humanitarian Mission Arrives in Nepal", 29 April 2015, EFTA01153136, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Email thread between Jeffrey Epstein and Tom Pritzker, "Re:", 17 March 2019, EFTA02637347, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 11, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
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