Elior Kurugli Rare Heritage - True Jewish Princess • Her mother, granddaughter of the late Cambodian King, converted after marrying a Jew • Bat Mitzvah celebrated in Phnom Penh

• Elior Kurugli, right, with her parents, her brother Methanel and half-sister Elizabeth Kurugli Damavandi next to a menorah lit at the party // Photo: Kang Freddy and Tea Rani

Every girl feels like a princess in her mitzvah, and every family wants to have a royal celebration for her daughter. But this time it was a truly royal event. The daughter of the daughter of a mitzvah may not be a real princess, but also being a granddaughter of a princess from the Cambodian royal it certainly counts.

The Bat Mitzvah bride, Elior Kurugli, is the great-granddaughter of the late King Siswath Munibong who ruled Cambodia from 1927 to 1941. Elior is also an Orthodox Jew. The 13-year-old grew up in Las Vegas and is the daughter of Suthaswi Thai Kurugli, the granddaughter of Monibong who converted in adulthood, and Rai Kurugli, a Jew of Iranian descent. During their stay in Cambodia on the occasion of the Bat Mitzvah, the Korugli family met with the current King and Queen Mother.

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A mixture of Jewish, Persian and Cambodian songs

At the Bat Mitzvah celebration, held last month at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, many members of the royal family attended, and the party highlighted Elior's diverse, unconventional tradition. She wore a traditional Cambodian costume, which she later changed into a sparkling bat mitzvah dress. The candle lighting of the menorah - the event was held during the Chanukah holiday - the family held a Persian style. The music was a mixture of traditional Jewish, Persian and Cambodian songs, including the inevitable "Hava Nagilah". At the event, kosher food was served with the assistance of Rabbi Benzion Botman, a Chabad envoy in Cambodia, and the Hasidic movement's website was also the first to report the event.

The bride of joy did not hide her excitement from the event: "It was amazing to see how one Cambodian, Jewish and Persian heritage can be incorporated into one event as we travel to Cambodia and I wear a Cambodian outfit, but also light Chanukah candles and wear modest clothes," Elior said in an interview with JTA. For family members living in Cambodia, this was the first time they had attended any Jewish event.

Elior's mother, Suthesway, was born in Washington, DC, where her father served as a Cambodian diplomat. Her mother, Princess Siswath Niri Bong Nga, was the daughter of King Munibong. Sathsawi returned to Cambodia with her family when she was two, but most of her childhood was spent in Long Beach, California. She met her husband at a birthday party in Las Vegas. "He came over and wanted to dance with me, and the rest is history," Suthesway said in a telephone interview.

Today, the couple lives with their three children - Elior and her 11-year-old brother, Nathaniel, and 7-year-old Eliav, Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb with a large Jewish population. Rai is engaged in commercial real estate and Southsway is a housewife.

Elior Kurugli // Photo: Kang Freddie and Tea Rani

"Glad I learned about Buda, but I always felt there was more"

Despite the differences between cultures, Sathswey, who grew up as a Buddhist, said religion did not come up in conversations between them when she and Rai started dating. But a few years later, she joined her husband for a lecture by Rabbi Shaye Harlig, a Chabad emissary in Las Vegas.

"I was taught about Buddha. And I am grateful for everything I was taught because it made me what I am. Buddhism gives me patience, it makes me what I am," Sasvi said. "However, I believe someone created it all. So when the rabbi talked about it, I suddenly realized, wow, that's exactly how I feel. That's why I wanted to know more."

Sathsawi underwent a Conservative conversion in 2003. Two years later, she and Miri married in Israel. The couple became Orthodox in 2012 and Sathsway converted again, this time with an Orthodox rabbi. Their second wedding ceremony was very much Orthodox. "It happened naturally," she says. "It took a long, many years."

The process was not easy at all. Sutheswy's mother did not like the idea that her daughter had left the religion in which she was born, and Suthswy sometimes felt alien to the only Asian in her husband's Jewish-Iranian family.

Elior with relatives and guests at candle lighting ceremony // Photo: Kang Freddie and Tea Rani

"There was a little bit of everything, and everything made me feel different"

Suthesway's desire to come to terms with all the identities that make up her personality is what led her to celebrate her daughter's bat mitzvah in Phnom Penh. The family had already celebrated a bat mitzvah at a Henderson home a year ago, but Sutheswi wanted something different. "We wanted to show her her identity - she is Persian, she is Cambodian, she is Jewish," said Suthasway.

As far as Elior is concerned, however, identities seem to fit easily into each other. "It was great that there was a little bit of everything," she said. "Everything was different, and everything made me feel different," the princess concluded.