Sarah Bracha Koroghli: How A Cambodian Princess Embraced Torah Judaism

00:03 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wolak, and this is Lamplighters, stories from Chabad emissaries on the Jewish frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad House are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances, and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Chaya Harlig is shlucha at Chabad of Henderson, Nevada, a city near Las Vegas. Chanie Zerkind is shlucha at Chabad of Fresno, California. Aside from their work as Chabad emissaries, the rebbetzins have something else in common. They're both very close to an extraordinary woman. Chaya Harlig describes her like this.

01:02 Speaker 2 Like, I call her the Ruth of this generation, the Ruth, because she came from a princess lineage.

01:09 Speaker 1 Ruth, of course, is the Moabite princess at the center of the Book of Ruth who gives up royal prestige for a life in Israel among the Jewish people. So what is it about this mutual friend that would cause Harlig to make such a comparison? Satha Sowithay was born in Washington, DC in the early '70s. Her mother was a princess, the youngest of the 56 children of King Sisowath, who ruled Cambodia for 23 years. Her father was a Cambodian diplomat to the US. When Satha Sowithay, or Susie as she came to be called, was just two years old, the family moved to Cambodia for a brief time. They eventually settled in Long Beach, California to be closer to their extended Cambodian family and to explore their cultural heritage.

02:01 Speaker 3 My mother, she spoke Khmer to us from the get-go. We would go to the Buddhist vihara in LA on Sundays for Buddhist temple services.

02:12 Speaker 1 It was in California that her mother told Susie that she was a member of the royal family of Cambodia. She taught her to carry herself in a royal, dignified fashion, but her mother stressed her lineage didn't make her better than anyone else.

02:29 Speaker 3 I learned how to be humble. I learned about how to be compassionate, just to look inside myself.

02:36 Speaker 1 Susie practiced what she had learned. Many years later, that would lead her to an entirely new family. When Susie was just 12, her father passed away, and the Thays moved to Fresno, California. About 10 years later, Susie moved to Las Vegas. In 1996, she met Ray Korogli at a friend's birthday party.

03:01 Speaker 3 And we just started to talk, and we formed a friendship.

03:05 Speaker 1 They dated, but there was a problem. Ray was a Persian Jew. When the relationship progressed, did you find that your religious backgrounds presented any problems for you?

03:15 Speaker 3 In the beginning, yes, because I was raised Buddhist. My mother and my sister, they were not happy with it. Here, I'm going to something totally different.

03:26 Speaker 1 Susie and Ray dated and occasionally attended a non-Orthodox synagogue, and she was learning about Jewish custom, but she didn't know much about the Jewish religion. One night in 1999, she attended a class with Ray at Chabad of Southern Nevada. It was taught by Rabbi Shea Harlig.

03:44 Speaker 3 And towards the end, he was mentioning about God. Who is God? What is God? God is infinite. And it was at that moment where something intrigued me. You know, I've always felt this, but I never knew what it was, so when I heard that, I wanted to know more, and that's when I started taking classes in Judaism and reading more, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Because within myself, this is what I've always felt.

04:19 Speaker 1 Susie and Ray met more people in Las Vegas' Jewish community, including Rabbi Mendy and Rebbetzin Chaya Harlig, co-directors of Chabad of Henderson. Harlig says she was drawn in by Susie's sense of humor.

04:32 Speaker 2 But then when you sit down and have a conversation or you talk to her deep, you see that deep connection and that kind of neshamah hovering over her. You felt it. You felt the sincerity and the wanting so much to really come down to the truth, always curious, asking questions, and always in such a dignified manner.

04:55 Speaker 1 Susie and Rebbetzin Chaya developed a close relationship. Susie kept studying and became more involved in shul life. In 2003, Susie underwent a non-Orthodox conversion. Her mother gained a new perspective on her daughter's spiritual life.

05:12 Speaker 3 My mother, she knows how I am. I think with my heart, my soul, always with love and kindness, just like her.

05:21 Speaker 1 Susie's mother began to see the beauty in Judaism, and she accepted her daughter's new path. Susie and Ray married in 2005 in Israel. Back in the States, she frequently visited her Cambodian family in Fresno, and she remained involved with Chabad. Before one visit, she reached out to Rebbetzin Chanie Zerkind of Chabad of Fresno for help.

05:46 Speaker 4 I got a phone call. "Hi, I'm calling from Las Vegas. I want to join for Shabbat to light candles."

05:56 Speaker 3 She's like, "Okay, come on over."

05:57 Speaker 1 Susie arrived in Fresno the next day.

06:00 Speaker 4 From the first second, from the moment she walked in, there was some energy. From the time I greeted her, it was almost- I know this sounds funny, but it was almost as if we had known each other for a very long time. There was a certain warmth

06:15 Speaker 3 Something kind of resonated with me with Chanie and Rabbi. There was something there.

06:25 Speaker 1 As Shabbos drew near, Susie asked if she could call Ray, who was home in Las Vegas when she lit candles. The Zirkinds' children responded...

06:34 Speaker 4 Um, "You don't really be on the phone when you light Shabbat candles." And I thought to myself, "Oh, man, this is starting off wrong." And we lit a l- a couple minutes early so that it wouldn't be in violation of Shabbat.

06:51 Speaker 1 She got up to leave, but the Zirkinds invited Susie, who was there with Ray's daughter, Elizabeth, to stay for Shabbos meal. She accepted, and then they talked.

07:01 Speaker 4 That night she told us her story, and she said, "Well, I'm from Cambodia."

07:08 Speaker 1 She also told the Zirkinds about her Jewish husband and about her non-Orthodox conversion. The Zirkinds accepted her for who she was.

07:16 Speaker 4 You know, this is her journey, but we're not here to change her, and I think she ended up leaving, like, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

07:25 Speaker 1 In just a few short hours, Susie and Chanie Zirkind had become close friends.

07:31 Speaker 4 And we both said we feel like we'll always be part of each other's lives, and she's like, "Are you sure? Can I be part of your life even if I'm not accepted Jewish by you?" And I said, "Of course. I feel like we're meant to be in each other's lives, and you have family here, and you're always welcome to come back."

07:54 Speaker 1 Susie returned to Las Vegas, where she continued to learn and to practice Yiddishkeit with Chaya Harlig. But she says she had a deep yearning for more.

08:03 Speaker 4 All of a sudden, from that one meeting, she started the phone calls, and then she started to travel in more often, and she would ask me all the tough questions that she normally would not have asked other rebbetzins because it's not easy. But she was like, "Just answer everything." Like, she just wanted to hear everything raw and honest.

08:30 Speaker 1 After a few years of honest talk and a gradual infusion of Torah and mitzvahs into her life, Susie decided that she wanted to pursue an Orthodox conversion.

08:40 Speaker 4 And then in 2011, when she once again decided that she wanted to go through gerus, she spent the summer with us.

08:51 Speaker 1 While Elizabeth attended summer camp in Fresno with the Zirkinds, she and Ray, who the Zirkinds insist on calling by his Hebrew name, Rachamim, studied a range of subjects. But there was one biblical book in particular that the Zirkinds wanted to learn with Susie.

09:06 Speaker 4 And my husband and I said to her, "We think that it would be proper, being that you're from royalty, we would like to learn Megillas Rus with you, the story of Ruth."

09:18 Speaker 3 It was just right. It just felt comfortable.

09:21 Speaker 4 And we learnt the story of Ruth, and she's like, "This is my story," and it solidified everything for her.

09:32 Speaker 1 Chaya Harlig noticed the difference right away.

09:35 Speaker 2 On went the sheitel and on went the tznius clothes. I mean, a full-on Rus. So, um, it was just an unbelievable thing to watch. I, I mean, in general, we don't push people to convert, but here we saw clearly the hand of Hashem and the desire for her to receive her n- Jewish neshamah.

09:55 Speaker 3 In the beginning, I was thinking, "Wow, Orthodox is very hard. You know, it's a tough lifestyle." However, when I actually immersed myself into Chabad, it was just something so beautiful. The love of Torah, the Rebbe. At that point, it was no longer intimidating.

10:20 Speaker 1 In December of 2012, Susie got the green light from the Orthodox beit din. The following month, the Koroglis, the Harligs, and the Zirkinds made the trip to the mikvah in Los Angeles, where the gerus would be finalized. Chaya and Chanie were there with her when she was asked-

10:38 Speaker 2 "Are you ready to accept the one Hashem, the one G-d of the universe?" And she said, "Yes."

10:46 Speaker 4 You know, in that moment when she said yes, we were holding hands, squeezing each other, hugging.

10:55 Speaker 1 She had a hard time reciting the blessing for immersion because of the tears in her eyes.

11:00 Speaker 3 But I have to finish to say the bracha. I looked at the chart there and finished saying the bracha. I turned around and I looked at Chanie and Chaya, and they were hugging each other. At that point, I'm like, "Did they feel what I felt?"

11:18 Speaker 2 We all felt Hashem's hand literally taking her neshamah and placing it inside of her.

11:24 Speaker 4 You felt a new creation. It was something that you almost cannot describe.

11:30 Speaker 2 It was a day like I've never experienced.

11:37 Speaker 1 Sarah Bracha, as she was now known, had accomplished her goal, but there was little time to reflect on that. She and Ray were married three days later, and then they went to Cambodia.

11:48 Speaker 3 For my cousin's funeral, King Norodom Sihanouk. My mother, she could not attend, therefore, she asked for Ray and I to go to pay our respects on her behalf.

11:59 Speaker 1 They visited the entire royal family, toured the grounds of the royal palace, and visited locations named after relatives, including Sisowath Street. Honoring her great-grandfather. When she was young, she had wondered what it meant to be a member of a royal family.

12:16 Speaker 3 You know, I know my, my mother is a princess, but living in a Western world, how would we ever conceive that? But at that point when we went, then I'm like, "Okay. You know what? She's the daughter of a king at one point that ruled Cambodia."

12:33 Speaker 1 Sara Bracha and Ray returned to Vegas, where they run the family business and raise their children. In 2019, the Koroglis made international headlines and history for becoming the first Jewish family to celebrate a bas mitzvah in Cambodia. Sara Bracha planned and pulled off a totally kosher gathering in Phnom Penh that included dozens of friends and members of the Cambodian royal family, who lit candles on a giant menorah as part of the festivities.

13:05 Speaker 3 For me, I found such love in that, because my family members, they, they love me, and therefore they saw this is part of me, and they were there to support my family and I, which is huge.

13:21 Speaker 1 This year, the family celebrated the bar mitzvah of their son Matanel. Because of COVID travel restrictions, it was held in Henderson, not Phnom Penh. Sara Bracha somehow found the time to compose a Dvar Torah for the occasion. Her message resonated with Chaya Harlig.

13:39 Speaker 2 About what she wanted from her children, that she wanted them to lead a Torah life, to make Hashem happy, to make the Jewish people happy, that really touched me.

13:49 Speaker 1 Matanel chanted all seven aliyas of Parshas Breishes, read the haftarah, and led Shabbos services.

13:57 Speaker 2 I just turned to Sara Bracha and to Chaya, and I was like, "Is anyone else feeling what we felt all those years ago by the mikvah?" And they looked at me and they said, "We're feeling the exact same thing."

14:09 Speaker 3 Seeing my son there reading, and the way he rocks himself as he davens, I couldn't be any more proud, and I see the work of Hashem in my children.

14:24 Speaker 1 There are those who would say that they see the same thing in Sara Bracha Korogli.

14:29 Speaker 2 She's so comfortable within herself that she's able to share her story, and she's open with it, and her children are proud of who she is, and they are true Lamplighters.

14:47 Speaker 1 After Chanie Zuerkin's words about Sara Bracha and the family she's helped build, could there possibly be anything left to say? I'm Gary Wolik. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast at L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.