Purim at Yongsan

I went to a small Purim celebration at the Yongsan army base in Seoul in March. No photos, but a few vignettes:

One man had a copy of the Book of Esther in Korean and Hebrew (no English). He could read both.

The service was conducted in three languages and without a rabbi. The rabbi who'd been here previously has been transferred to Germany and no replacement seems to be forthcoming. There was a chaplain, of sorts. I think he was an Irish-American priest. But he didn't lead the service, just participated in reading the English parts.

There was a psychiatrist and her teenage son. It figures that the shrink on base would be Jewish :-)

Altogether there were only about 20 people--8 Korean men, 1 Korean woman, 2 Israelis and the rest of us Americans. The Passover seder promises to be a bigger crowd, but I won't be able to go because of my work schedule.

One Korean man got very red in the face from drinking the kosher wine. He said it was because of his "Mongolian blood," which struck me as funny because Koreans are still known for being proud of their ethnic purity.