The plaque at the Jewish Cemetery of Penang

Malaysia is a country that is jam-packed with diversity including many cultures, environments, foods, terrain and foreign influences throughout its rich history. With all of those great things going for it the question arises as to why Tamar didn’t join me on this visit to Malaysia since we all know she loves these things as much as I do. Well, unfortunately Israel citizens are not permitted to enter Malaysia and Malaysians are not allowed to visit Israel, in fact it even says so in their passports! That’s really too bad for everyone since I’m sure Israelis would have a blast adding Malaysia to their Southeast Asia itineraries and, from some of the young Malaysians I spoke to, there seems to be a fair amount of interest and curiosity about visiting Israel as well.

I started to dig a bit deeper into the current state of Israeli-Malaysian relations and I came across an interesting article written by an Israel professor for whom an exception may have been made (or he holds another passport) since he recently spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur. You can read about his impressions of Malaysia and its cultural diversity as well as his experiences with colleagues and conference attendees.

As with anything related to Internet research one thing led to another and I found myself looking into whether there is or ever was a Jewish community in Malaysia. After all, there are thousands of Jews in Iran and nobody from Israel is hopping on a plane to vacation in Iran these days or vice-versa. It turns out that there is a very small Jewish community in Malaysia although it was larger in the past. That past is now represented by the Jewish cemetery that still exists today in the middle of Georgetown on the island of Penang. There were a couple of articles written about this cemetery and they gave me the idea that I could just rent a motorbike and drive around looking for it myself.
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For anyone who may have read my previous posts, Applying for Visa Exemption and Still Working on the Visa Exemption for Vietnam, I have good news for my latest update! I got the Certificate of Visa Exemption which is valid until 2014!

Kevin's US Naturalization Certificate (1979)

The problem the first time was that the Vietnamese Embassy wanted to see further proof that I was previously a Vietnamese citizen prior to becoming an American citizen. I have no official Vietnamese documents that prove that such as an old Vietnamese identity card or passport. However, once I sent in a copy of my US Naturalization Certificate they were able to see that the “Country of former nationality” was “Vietnam” and this was sufficient proof that I was previously a “Vietnamese citizen”. On a side note, one thing I love about this Certificate of Naturalization is that I weighed only 30 pounds and still they thought to indicate that my “marital status” was “single”.
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I fired off the express envelope containing my application for a visa exemption to the Embassy of Vietnam on Monday. Express mail guarantees that it arrives the next day. When I received the envelope back today, only 3 business days after it was sent, (I included a self-addressed, stamped Express Mail return envelope) I was both excited and nervous. The good news is that they didn’t take the full “7 business days” (the turnaround time they indicate on the website) to look at my application. However, they didn’t accept my application either.
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Example of a Visa Exemption in a Passport

Great news! As of fall 2008 Vietnam has established visa exemptions for Viet Kieu (Vietnamese overseas). In theory, that means that as a Vietnamese-born person I can apply for an exemption ($20 the first time, only $10 for subsequent applications) and receive a visa exemption valid for 5 years! That’s awesome! That sure beats the expensive cost of getting a 1-3 month visa, especially a multi-entry visa, which is more expensive (with expedited shipping this can add up to well over $100). And I wouldn’t need to worry about visa issues for 5 years at a time which saves time and money. Ahh, membership has its privileges. As an adoptee I hope that they accept my paperwork since it’s different and not as complete as my fellow Viet Kieu, most of whom left Vietnam with their families and parents who were already Vietnamese citizens. I was only 10 months old and so I never had a Vietnamese passport and there’s very little in the way of documentation about me in Vietnam during the war. I have to call the Vietnamese Mission to the UN (an official Vietnamese office here in NY) first thing on Monday morning to get some questions answered. I guess we’ll just have to see how the application process goes!

For information regarding the new 5-year visa exemption for Vietnamese-born people, click here!