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East meets West for UC Grad at Asian Chabads

Like many newly minted American college graduates, Liad Braude, a 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) alumnus, chose to travel instead of going straight into the workforce.
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October 1, 2014

Like many newly minted American college graduates, Liad Braude, a 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) alumnus, chose to travel instead of going straight into the workforce. However, unlike his peers who were buying round-the-world tickets, packing for European trips or strapping on their backpacks for budget jaunts through South America, Braude embarked on a road less traveled, opting instead to spend a year volunteering in Chabads across India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

When I caught up with Braude in Hanoi, Vietnam, the bearded young man who stood before me was a world away — both physically and spiritually — from the beer-guzzling Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity boy I had befriended five years before at college. Months ago, when we shared a farewell in Israel, neither of us had any idea where his trip would take him. 

Braude left on a one-way ticket for India hoping to go to the East to further his yoga studies. Born in South Africa and raised in San Diego, he first saw his path diverging from the norm during his junior year at UCSB, when he credits his highly creative roommates, who were “artists, musicians, fire spinners and cooking enthusiasts,” with influencing his overall direction. During that time, he traded in his six-days-a-week gym routine for rigorous yoga-and-meditation training and pursued individual studies in the religious studies department. Raised deeply Jewish, his political science education had taught him to question biases, so he began to look to different philosophies — including Buddhism, Hinduism, North American religions and Islam — for direction. When graduation came, although he had been planning a trip with friends since his freshman year, he instead decided to travel alone to the East. 

“I came to the conclusion that if you believe in something, you have to go for it and not hold back. There would be no saying ‘what if’ later in life,” he said, explaining his decision to leave without a plan or even a cell phone, guided only by faith. 

Not long after Braude arrived in India, he found that the teachings of the ashrams where he was studying could be in opposition to the communal Jewish values with which he was raised. Braude realized he could live a life of seclusion forever, but decided his purpose was to grow spiritually while also helping those around him to grow.

“I was sleeping [for] around five hours a night, eating one vegetarian meal a day and dedicating the rest [of my time] to study, meditation and yoga,” Braude said. “My Eastern religious texts stressed a life of simplicity and separation. My Jewish texts taught me that while we must seek spiritual refinement, the Jewish purpose is to elevate the world around us by being deeply involved in the physical world.”

Braude had explored many different philosophies and faiths but kept finding himself returning to volunteering in Chabad communities. His service grew so much that at one point he was singlehandedly running the Chabad in Rishikesh, India, using his own funds and donations when the Chabad’s rabbi needed to return to Israel. 

Throughout his time in northern India, Braude met with elder spiritual leaders from a wide range of faiths, including priests, gurus, Brahmans, yogis and babas, but also spent his Shabbat dinners at Chabads, together with up to 30 Jews gathered from around the world.

In Sri Lanka, where the Jewish community is very small — Braude estimates that fewer than 15 Jews live in Sri Lanka’s capital city — the Chabad’s primary focus was catering to traveling businessmen and visiting Israeli travelers. Sri Lanka’s only synagogue is in Colombo, and the Chabad, located near the airport, provides rooms and kosher food for those passing through. During Braude’s time there, he helped in various ways, including by teaching the shaliach’s children English and assisting with the culinary needs of the Chabad by making sure all foods were cooked and prepared in accordance with the laws of kashrut. He also described how the Chabad brought a Torah to festivals on the beach for the many Israeli travelers who attended. 

“Young backpackers would come and go constantly, and I was there to make them feel comfortable and answer questions,” Braude said. “When desired, I could also provide short lessons of Judaism or assist in putting on tefillin.”

Vietnam’s Jewish community, in contrast to Sri Lanka’s, is large and well established, especially in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I would open the Chabad every morning at 9 and spend all day overseeing its daily operations,” Braude said. “My overall concern was focused on upholding and assisting the rabbi with the religious aspect of the center, as well as making all feel welcome. Thus, the focus was on kashrut, Torah study, tefillin, communicating with visitors and spiritual guidance at times.”

Braude also spent a lot of time in the kitchen of the Chabad in Ho Chi Minh City, an area renowned for its delicious kosher restaurant and even caters kosher food throughout the country for large tour groups. The bustling, industrious Vietnamese hub drew large crowds during festivals, and Braude said one of his favorite memories of his trip was bartending a shtetl/”Fiddler on the Roof”-themed Purim party at the Chabad, which more than 70 guests attended.

A “Fiddler on the Roof”-themed Purim party at the Chabad in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Chabad

“When people ask my favorite place over the course of my year, I explain that I was fortunate enough to be in some of the most amazingly scenic places in the world. Nevertheless, a place is only as good as the people you are surrounded by. Even though Ho Chi Minh is a big, industrious city, I had an incredible family there that made it one of my favorite locations.” 

After a year away, Braude is now back in the U.S., living with his family in San Diego. One of his biggest adjustments since his return has been to move from a highly spiritual and spartan lifestyle to the life of abundance he faces in California.

“The life of an observant Jew, to many, doesn’t match up well with life over here,” he said. “However, this is where I know I am supposed to be for now, and I don’t believe the two have to be in conflict. The Jewish philosophy is to be involved in this world and to infuse godliness within it. I am still in the process, but I intend on fusing the life I had before with my newfound path.”

Although his lifestyle has changed from what he left behind in Santa Barbara, Braude said he is still very much the same passionate soul he has always been.

“I may have a beard and tzitzit now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do all the things I used to do,” he said. “In fact, I quite enjoy the notion that I may be the first observant individual to bless my beer at a certain bar, or do a mikveh at the local beach.”

Although he may still consider pursing ordination as a rabbi, he said he believes how a person lives is more important than a framed paper hanging on the wall.

“My senior quote in high school was Mark Twain’s ‘I never let my schooling interfere with my education,’ ” Braude said. “I think that still holds true for me.”

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