Joe Freeman

Joe Freeman is a Southeast Asia-based journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, The Phnom Penh Post, and the Nikkei Asian Review.

Inside a Muslim Ghetto
Dispatch from Aung Mingalar, Myanmar, where more than 4,000 Rohingya live separated, just across the road, from the rest of the city
byJoe Freeman
Celebrating 500 Years of Jewish History in a Venetian Palace
The recently opened exhibition ‘Venice, the Jews and Europe 1516-2016,’ is part of dozens of events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the city’s Jewish Ghetto
byJoe Freeman
Mandy Patinkin’s Passover Message from Cambodia
The celebrated actor authored a moving essay on the meaning of Passover and justice after taking an American Jewish World Service trip to the genocide-ravaged region
byJoe Freeman
Myanmar’s Jewish Vote
Casting a ballot with Sammy Samuels, the leader of Yangon’s minuscule Jewish community
byJoe Freeman
Meet the 99-Year-Old Jewish Veteran of the War in Burma
The story of British serviceman Mordaunt Cohen
byJoe Freeman
The Arab Was Named Voltaire
In the Israeli village of Neve Shalom, an unusual group of Jews and Arabs try to live together peacefully. It works, mostly.
byJoe Freeman
Mourners Remember Moses Samuels, Preserver of Myanmar’s Only Synagogue
Sammy Samuels will continue his father’s legacy by making sure the gate of the synagogue remains ‘unlocked.’
byJoe Freeman
The Singapore Story is the Israel Story
Late founding father Lee Kuan Yew looked to another young, security-focused state in 1965
byJoe Freeman
Dressing British and Speaking Yiddish in Burma
Dispatch from an old hill station on the road to Mandalay, where prosperous Jews once summered
byJoe Freeman
Israeli Photographer Navigates Cambodian Roots
Tomer Kep explores his unusual legacy through haunting images
byJoe Freeman
In Israel’s Earliest Days, the Place Its Leaders Felt Compelled To Visit Was Burma
A visit with Than Than Nu, whose father U Nu welcomed Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Moshe Sharett to Rangoon
byJoe Freeman
Breaking the Fast With a Cambodian Rabbi
David Adollah, who grew up in Phnom Penh, says God came to him in a dream
byJoe Freeman
Cambodian Opposition Leader’s Jewish In-Laws
Sam Rainsy’s daughter marries fellow Yale grad William Rubenstein
byJoe Freeman
A Jewish Encounter With Cambodia
Meeting a different kind of survivor abroad
byJoe Freeman
Not for Our Tragedy Alone
The genocide committed by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime earns a place in Washington’s Holocaust Museum
byJoe Freeman
A Secret Jew in Jordan
In the Peace Corps, I hid my Jewish identity. But that didn’t prevent me from experiencing anti-Semitism.
byJoe Freeman