Ibrahim Rasheed

Thailand has revoked the Thai citizenship of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, the long-time head of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community network in Thailand. Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the Interior Ministry order on 28 October. According to the order, Kantor, originally a US citizen, was granted Thai citizenship through naturalisation, announced in the Royal Gazette on 11 April 2013. But the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) informed the ministry that he had since used his American nationality to travel in and out of Australia 16 times, most recently on 26 January 2026. The ministry said this breached the conditions of his naturalisation, which he had acknowledged when he applied, and fell under Section 19(2) of the Nationality Act, which allows citizenship to be revoked if a naturalised person continues to use their former nationality. The case follows a DSI investigation into foreigners using Thai nominees to hold land and property, which also looked at naturalised citizens who continued to travel on their original passports. The DSI handed evidence to the Department of Provincial Administration on 9 October. According to Thailand's Jewish community website, Kantor moved to Bangkok in 1993 to serve as the community's rabbi. Kantor has not publicly responded. facebook.com/share/p/1LuLswC… – at Thanon Nakhon Chai Si, Thailand