Christopher Pike for NPR
toggle caption Christopher Pike for NPR
Rabbi Levi Duchman lights a menorah during Hanukkah at a private residence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in December. Christopher Pike for NPR
In the six years that Brooklyn native Rabbi Levi Duchman has lived in the United Arab Emirates, he s never been this overwhelmed.
On Hanukkah, the 27-year-old rabbi hurried from one party to another, dashing into a Dubai Hilton hotel ballroom to briefly light candles with a group of Orthodox Jewish tourists from Israel, many of them visiting an Arab country for the first time.
One of them approached the rabbi with a query: Did the local Starbucks use camel milk, which is not kosher, in its coffee machines?