Bukharan Jews

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Bukharan Jews
יְהוּדֵי־בּוּכָרָה‎
Bukharan students with their teacher in Samarkand, c. 1910
Total population
320,000
Regions with significant populations
 Israel160,000
 United States
120,000
80,000
 United Kingdom15,000
 Austria3,000–3,500
 Germany2,000
 Uzbekistan
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Bukharan Jews (

Afghan and Mountain Jews.[6][4][3]

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or the United States while others have immigrated to Europe or Australia.

Name and language

The Bukharan Jews originally called themselves

Israelites of Assyrian captivity. The term Bukharan was coined by European travellers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Emirate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is "Bnei Isro'il".[7]

Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or

Bukharian
.

The first primary written account of Jews in

Pumbeditha, who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv in Turkmenistan).[8] The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956.[9]

History

Further information:
Soviet Jews

Some Bukharan Jews relate their own ancestry to exiles from the tribes of Naphtali and Issachar during the Assyrian captivity,[10] basing this assumption on a reading of "Habor" at II Kings 17:6 as a reference to Bukhara. Nevertheless, more widespread Bukharan Jewish tradition associates their establishment in the country with the emigration of Persian Jews, fleeing the persecutions of King Peroz I (458–485 CE).[11] In the opinion of some scholars, Jews settled in Central Asia in the sixth century, but it is certain that during the eighth to ninth centuries they lived in Central Asian cities such as Balkh, Khwarezm, and Merv. At that time, and until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a group continuous with Jews of Iran and Afghanistan.[12]

The Bukharan Jews are considered one of the oldest

ethno-religious groups of Central Asia and over the years they have developed their own distinct culture. Throughout the years, Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road).[13]

16th to 18th centuries

Interior of the Great Synagogue in Bukhara, sketch based on a photograph by Elkan Nathan Adler
Bukharan Jews (before 1899)

At the beginning of the 16th century, Central Asia was controlled by Sunni Uzbeks. The town of Bukhara became a center of Jewish life in Central Asia in the 16th century, having also absorbed many Jews between the Persians and the local Sunni rulers. Bukharan Jews lived under the status of Dhimmi, and experienced persecution from the Muslim majority. They were forced to wear a yellow patch along with a special hat called a Tilpak to identify them as Jews and used rope for their belts, while the leather belts were reserved for Muslims. Jewish homes had to have a dirty cloth nailed to their front doors to identify them as Jewish, and their stores and homes had to be lower than Muslim ones. In court cases, any evidence from a Jew was inadmissible involving a Muslim. They were also forbidden to ride horses and had to transport themselves by foot. Lastly, when paying their annual Jizya tax, the Jewish men would be ritually slapped in the face by Muslim authorities. Despite these prohibitions and humiliations, the Jews were able to achieve financial success primarily as merchants and established lucrative trade businesses.[14][15][16]

Towards the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, the Jewish quarter, Mahalla, was established in the town of Bukhara. The Jews were forbidden to reside outside its boundaries.[17]

During the 18th century, Bukharan Jews continued to face considerable discrimination and persecution. Jewish centers were closed down, and the Muslims of the region forced conversion on many Jews. On top of this, isolation from the rest of the Jewish world reached a point where the Jews of Bukhara began to lack knowledge and practice of their Jewish religion.[18]

By the middle of the 18th century, practically all Bukharan Jews lived in the

Sunni dervish, writing in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone."[19]

Rabbi Yosef Maimon

Family of David Kalontarov, head of Samarkand’s Bukharan quarter, in front of their Sukkah, 1902

In 1793, a missionary kabbalist named Rabbi

Sephardic traditions.[20][21] Many of the native Jews were opposed to this and the community split into two factions. The followers of the Maimon clan eventually won the struggle for religious authority over the native Bukharans, and Bukharan Jewry forcefully switched to Sephardi customs. The supporters of the Maimon clan, in the conflict, credit Maimon with causing a revival of Jewish practice among Bukharan Jews which they claim was in danger of dying out. However, there is evidence that there were Torah scholars present upon his arrival to Bukhara, but because they followed the Persian rite their practices were aggressively rejected as incorrect by Maimon.[22] Maimon is an ancestor of Shlomo Moussaieff, author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and the former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff.[23][24]

19th century

In 1843 the Bukharan Jews were visited by the so-called "Eccentric Missionary",

Lost Tribes of Israel and the narrow one of seeking two British officers who had been captured by the Emir, Nasrullah Khan. Wolff wrote prolifically of his travels, and the journals of his expeditions provide valuable information about the life and customs of the peoples he travelled amongst, including the Bukharan Jews. In 1843, for example, they collected 10,000 silver tan'ga and purchased land in Samarkand
, known as Makhallai Yakhudion, close to Registon.

Bukharan women in the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem, early 1900s

In the middle of the 19th century, Bukharan Jews began to move into the region of

neo-Moorish arches and Italian marble.[26] Facades were decorated with Jewish motifs such as the Star of David and Hebrew inscriptions.[26]

In 1865, Russian troops took over

People's Artist of the Soviet Union". Jews succeeded in the world of sport also, with several Bukharan Jews in Uzbekistan becoming renowned boxers and winning many medals for the country.[27] Still, Bukharan Jews were forbidden to ride in the streets and had to wear distinctive costumes. They were relegated to a ghetto, and often fell victim to persecution from the Muslim majority.[28]

Soviet era

Following the Soviet capture of Bukhara, synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions.[29] Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West. The route they undertook went through Afghanistan, as the neighbouring country had many possibilities to the west. Consequently, Central Asian Jews in Paris had an Afghan nationality while a minority of them were born in Afghanistan. For instance many Jewish families with the Afghan nationality were born in Kokand.[30] Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews.[29] The remaining community attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government.

Stalin's decision to end Lenin's New Economic Policy and initiate the First five-year plan in the late 1920s resulted in a drastic deterioration of living conditions for the Bukharan Jews. By the time Soviet authorities established their hold over the borders in Central Asia in the mid 1930s, many tens of thousands of households from Central Asia had crossed the border into Iran and Afghanistan, amongst them some 4,000 Bukharan Jews (comprising about one tenth of the total number of Bukharan Jews in Central Asia), who were heading towards the region of Palestine.[31]

Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through Uzbekistan, though Ashkenazi Jews and Bukharan Jews interacted very little, and intermarriage between the two was practically non-existent.[32]

In 1948 began the "Black Years of Soviet Jewry," where suppression of the Jewish religion resumed after briefly stopping due to war.[33] In 1950 thirteen religious Bukharan Jews in Samarkand were arrested and sentenced to 25 years.[34] Similar arrests happened to prominent Bukharan Jews in Kattakurgan and Bukhara.

Bukharan Jews celebrate Hanukkah in Tel Aviv, 1959

After the creation of the state of

refuseniks.[36]

Bukharan Jews who had put efforts into creating a Bukharan Jewish Soviet culture and national identity were charged during Stalin's Great Purge, or, as part of the Soviet Union's nationalities policies and nation building campaigns, were forced to assimilate into the larger Soviet Uzbek or Soviet Tajik national identities.[31]

In the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost all of the remaining Bukharan Jews left Central Asia for the

Jewish population of Andijan and nearby areas. This led to most Jews in the Fergana Valley immigrating to Israel or the United States.[36]

After 1991

With the disintegration of the

Ashkenazi). Before the collapse of the USSR, there were 45,000 Bukharan Jews in Central Asia.[37]

Today, there are about 150,000 Bukharan Jews in Israel (mainly in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, especially the neighborhoods of Tel Kabir, Shapira, Kiryat Shalom, HaTikvah and its neighbouring cities within the Gush Dan region like Or Yehuda, Ramla and Holon) and 60,000 in the United States (especially Queens—a borough of New York that is widely known as the "melting pot" of the United States due to its ethnic diversity)—with smaller communities in the USA like Phoenix, South Florida, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver. Only a few thousand still remain in Uzbekistan. About 500 live in Canada (mainly Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec). Almost no Bukharan Jews remain in Tajikistan (compared to the 1989 Jewish population of 15,000 in Tajikistan).

Immigrant populations

Entrance to the now demolished Dushanbe Synagogue in 2006

Tajikistan

In early 2006, the still active

Palace of Nations. After an international outcry, the government of Tajikistan announced a reversal of its decision and publicly claimed that it would permit the synagogue to be rebuilt on its current site. However, in mid-2008, the government of Tajikistan destroyed the whole synagogue and started construction of the Palace of Nations. The Dushanbe synagogue was Tajikistan's only synagogue and the community were therefore left without a centre or a place to pray. As a result, the majority of Bukharan Jews from Tajikistan living in Israel and the United States have very negative views towards the Tajik government and many have cut off all ties they had with the country. In 2009, the Tajik government reestablished the synagogue in a different location for the small Jewish community.[38]

United States

Congregation Beth-El in Fresh Meadows, Queens, a Bukharan synagogue

The largest amount of Bukharan Jews in the U.S. is in New York City.[6] In Forest Hills, Queens, 108th Street, often referred to as "Bukharan Broadway"[39] or "Bukharian Broadway",[40] is filled with Bukharan restaurants and gift shops. Furthermore, Forest Hills is nicknamed "Bukharlem" due to the majority of the population being Bukharian.[41] They have formed a tight-knit enclave in this area that was once primarily inhabited by Ashkenazi Jews. Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona, Queens, a synagogue founded in the early 1900s by Ashkenazi Jews, became Bukharan in the 1990s. Kew Gardens, Queens, also has a very large population of Bukharan Jews. Although Bukharan Jews in Queens remain insular in some ways (living in close proximity to each other, owning and patronizing clusters of stores, and attending their own synagogue rather than other synagogues in the area), they have connections with non-Bukharans in the area. In December 1999, the First Congress of the Bukharian Jews of the United States and Canada convened in Queens.

Joseph Lieberman intoned, "God said to Abraham, 'You'll be an eternal people'… and now we see that the State of Israel lives, and this historic [Bukharan] community, which was cut off from the Jewish world for centuries in Central Asia and suffered oppression during the Soviet Union, is alive and well in America. God has kept his promise to the Jewish people."[43]

Culture

Dress codes

Bukharan kippah

Bukharan Jews had their own

Bar Mitzvah's.[44]

Bukharan Jews also have a unique

Reform Jews can be seen wearing the Bukharan kippah as well.[45]

Music

A Bukharan dance performed by members of the Rina Nikova ballet in the citadel of Jerusalem, 1946

The Bukharan Jews have a distinct musical tradition called

dayereh. Shashmaqam music "reflect[s] the mix of Hassidic vocals, Indian and Islamic instrumentals and Sufi-inspired texts and lyrical melodies."[46]
Ensemble Shashmaqam was one of the first New York-based ensembles created to showcase the music and dance of Bukharan Jews. The Ensemble was created in 1983 by Shumiel Kuyenov, a dayereh player from Queens.

Cuisine

See also: Uzbek cuisine
non
 in Bukharan, Tajik, and Uzbek (right)

Bukharan cuisine consists of many unique dishes, distinctly influenced by ethnic dishes historically and currently found along the

Shish kabob, or shashlik, as it is often referred to in Russian, are popular, made of chicken, beef or lamb. Pulled noodles, often thrown into a hearty stew of meat and vegetables known as lagman, are similar in style to Chinese lamian, also traditionally served in a meat broth. Samsa, pastries filled with spiced meat or vegetables, are baked in a unique, hollowed out tandoor oven, and greatly resemble the preparation and shape of Indian samosas
.

The Bukharians' Jewish identity was always preserved in the kitchen. "Even though we were in exile from Jerusalem, we observed kashruth," said Isak Masturov, another owner of Cheburechnaya. "We could not go to restaurants, so we had to learn to cook for our own community.[47]

sesame seeds, and the other, called non toki, bears the dry and crusty features of traditional Jewish matzah
, but with a distinctly wheatier taste.

After Sabbath synagogue service, Bukharan Jews often eat steamed eggs and sweet potatoes followed by a dish of fish such as carp. Next comes the main meal called oshesvo.

Genetics

A 2013 genetic study of multiple Jewish groups, including Bukharan Jews, found that Bukharan Jews clustered closely with Jewish communities from the Middle East and the Caucasus such as

Iraqi Jews, as well as other Middle Eastern and West Asian people including Kurds, Iranians, Armenians, Syrians, Druze and others; and did not cluster with their neighbours.[48]

Notable Bukharan Jews

Afghanistan

  • Zablon Simintov, widely regarded as last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, evacuated to Israel in 2021

United Kingdom

Israel

United States

Other

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "In Bukhara, 10,000 Jewish Graves but Just 150 Jews". The New York Times. 7 April 2018.
  2. doi:10.1163/22134638-12340078
    . Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-71009-128-4
    .
  4. ^ a b Ehrlich, M. Avrum, ed. (2009). "Caucasus and Central Asia". Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 1124. Bukharan Jews spoke a dialect of Tajik referred to as Bukhori or Judeo-Tajik, which is still used by Bukharan Jews today.
  5. doi:10.1163/22134638-12340078
    . The term 'the Jewish dialect of Tajik' is often used interchangeably with such terms as Judeo-Tadzhik, Judeo-Tajik, Bukhori, Bukhari, Bukharic, Bukharan, Bukharian, and Bukharit (Cooper 2012:284) in the literature.
  6. ^ a b Goodman, Peter. "Bukharian Jews find homes on Long Island", Newsday, September 2004.
  7. ^ Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan
  8. ^ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboda Zara, 31b, and Rashi
  9. ^ Ochildiev, D; R. Pinkhasov, I. Kalontarov. A History and Culture of the Bukharian Jews, Roshnoyi-Light, New York, 2007.
  10. ^ "The Jewish Palate: The Bukharian Jews". The Jerusalem Post.
  11. Encyclopedia Judaica
    , 2nd ed., 2007, volume 20 pp.447-448,447.
  12. ^ "Bukharan Jews".
  13. ^ "Wandering Jew: Bukhara, the ancient silk way city". The Jerusalem Post.
  14. ^ "Bukharan Jews".
  15. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20170917121000/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/06/arts/design-review-when-russia-uncovered-exotic-jewish-cultures.html
  16. ISBN 9780253006554
    .
  17. ^ Iran & the Caucasus Vol. 9, No. 2 (2005), pp. 257-272
  18. ^ "Bukharan Jews – History and Cultural Relations", everyculture.com website. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  19. ^ Malikov A. Arminius Vambery and the urban culture of Samarkand In: Orpheus Noster, Vol. 14, no. 4, 2022, p.97-108
  20. ^ "Bukharan Jews of Central Asia". Geni. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  21. ^ SHNIDMAN, RONEN (October 19, 2011). "Jews far and wide". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  22. ^ Cooper, Alanna (2012). Bukharian Jews. Indiana University Press. p. 60.
  23. ^ Fuzailoff, Giora. "Rabbinic Succession in Bukhara 1790-1930". JewishGen.
  24. ISBN 978-1-893552-09-8
    .
  25. ^ a b c d e Wager, Eliyahu (1988). Bukharan Quarter. The Jerusalem Publishing House. pp. 207–201. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  26. ^
    Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
    . Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  27. ^ Pinkhasov, Peter. "The History of Bukharian Jews", Bukharian Jewish Global Portal website, p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  28. ^ "Afghanistan — Viewer — World Digital Library". www.wdl.org. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  29. ^
    S2CID 250232378
    .
  30. ISBN 978-3-89500-638-8
    . Most Central Asian Jews in Paris were of Afghan nationality, yet very few were actually born in Afghanistan. For example, the Davidoff family of Natan (born in Kokand in 1884), the Meyer family (born in Kokand in 1904) and the Penina ...
  31. ^
    S2CID 250232378
    .
  32. ^ https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-features/rift-over-root-differences-remains-unmended-for-uzbek-jews
  33. ISBN 9780253013736
    .
  34. ^ Zand, Michael. "BUKHARA vii. Bukharan Jews". Encyclopædia Iranica.
  35. ^ "Bukharan Jews".
  36. ^ a b Blady, Ken (2000). Jewish Communities in Exotic Places. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 185.
  37. ISBN 963-9241-62-8
    .
  38. ^ "New Synagogue Opens In Dushanbe". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  39. ^ "Bukharan Broadway":
  40. ^ Moskin, Julia. "The Silk Road Leads to Queens" The New York Times, January 18, 2006.
  41. ^ Popik, Barry. "Buharlem or Bukharlem (Bukhara + Harlem)". www.barrypopik.com. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  42. ^ "Heritage". bucharianlife.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  43. ^
    The Jewish Week
    , October 31, 2007.
  44. ^ For examples see men and women coats as well as children's clothing from Bukhara, ["Dress Codes: Revealing the Jewish Wardrobe" "שפת לבוש". Archived from the original on 2014-07-03. Retrieved 2014-07-23.] exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, March 11, 2014 – October 18, 2014
  45. ^ Kippah Couture, The Forward, Angela Himsel, September 29, 2006.
  46. ^ "Shashmaqam". The Wandering Muse. Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  47. ^ NYT,1-18-2006 The Silk Road Leads to Queens
  48. ^ Behar, Doron; Metspalu, Mait; Baran, Yael; Kopelman, Naama; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Gladstein, Ariella; Tzur, Shay; Sahakyan, Havhannes; Bahmanimehr, Ardeshir; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Tambets, Kristiina (2013-12-01). "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews". Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints. 85 (6).
  49. ^ "A Silk Road Bride Rides a London Taxi". Haaretz. 2015-01-27.

Bibliography

  • Ricardo Garcia-Carcel: La Inquisición, Biblioteca El Sol. Biblioteca Básica de Historia. Grupo Anaya, Madrid, Spain 1990.
    ISBN 84-7969-011-9
    .

External links
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