Thailand revokes citizenship of Chabad leader Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor
Thai authorities have revoked the citizenship of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, head of the Chabad network in Thailand, after finding he repeatedly used his American passport to travel to Australia.
Thailand has revoked the Thai citizenship of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, the head of the Chabad network in Thailand, after investigators found he had continued to use his American nationality to travel to and from Australia on 16 occasions. Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the revocation order, dated October 28, citing a breach of the conditions under which Kantor obtained Thai citizenship.
Kantor, widely known as Rabbi Yosef, is a Jewish community leader who has lived in Thailand since 1993 and held American citizenship before becoming a Thai national. According to the announcement, he obtained Thai citizenship through naturalisation under Section 10 of the Nationality Act 1965. The naturalisation was published in the Royal Gazette on April 11, 2013, and he received his first Thai national identity card on May 2 that year. Because the rules he accepted tied naturalisation to giving up continued use of his original nationality, the ministry treated his later travel as a direct breach of the terms of his application.
The case came to light after the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) passed information to the Interior Ministry showing that Kantor had kept using his American nationality to enter and leave Australia. The most recent journey recorded was on January 26, 2026. The ministry concluded that this continued use of his original nationality breached a condition of his naturalisation application, a condition he had acknowledged when applying for Thai citizenship. Anutin then revoked Kantor's Thai citizenship under Section 19(2) of the Nationality Act, the provision that allows the state to strip nationality where the conditions of its grant have been broken.
Kantor arrived in Bangkok with his wife and daughter in 1993 to serve as a community rabbi, according to a Jewish community website in Thailand. In the decades since, he has led the Chabad-Lubavitch network in the country, which organises religious activities and provides services for Jewish residents and visitors. The network's work has made him a visible figure in the country's small Jewish community, which is why the revocation has been closely followed by local and religious observers.
The decision has also drawn attention in connection with other recent Chabad-related developments in Thailand. Activists in Phuket have planned a new protest against Chabad for October 31, and Thai officials are examining Chabad funding as well as 61 company registrations linked to the network. The Interior Ministry is separately investigating the Thai citizenship of an Israeli national in Phuket. These matters are distinct from the revocation order against Kantor, and the sources do not link them to the reasons cited for his case.
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