Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jews sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the Emirate of Bukhara, a polity that once had a sizable Jewish population.
Bukharan Jews are one of the oldest Jewish diaspora groups, dating back to the Babylonian exile, and comprise a branch of Judeo-Persian. They are also one of the oldest ethnoreligious groups in Central Asia.Goodman, Peter. "Bukharian Jews find homes on Long Island", Newsday, September 2004.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most Bukharan Jews have emigrated to Israel, the American Jews, Canada, Europe, and Australian Jews.
The term Bukharan was coined by travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. The Jewish community at the time lived in the Khanate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Khiva, and the Khanate of Kokand, with the term "Bukharan" likely being coined as the Bukharan Emirate was the largest of the three khanates.Ochildiev, D; R. Pinkhasov, I. Kalontarov. A History and Culture of the Bukharian Jews, p. 161. Roshnoyi-Light, New York, 2007.
The local populace referred to them as Yahudi (یهودی) or Juhood (جهود)—the latter of which was a pejorative term.Ochildiev, D; R. Pinkhasov, I. Kalontarov. A History and Culture of the Bukharian Jews, Roshnoyi-Light, New York, 2007.
Up until the 19th century, Persian speakers in Central Asia (including Jews) had no name for the dialect/language and simply regarded themselves as speaking Farsi. By then, Bukharan Jews had dubbed their Judeo-Persian language "Bukharian" or Bukhori dialect, which is most similar to the Tajik language and Dari dialects of Farsi, with linguistic elements of Hebrew language and Aramaic to communicate among themselves.
This language—along with Hebrew—was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until Central Asia was "Russification" by the Soviet Union and the dissemination of religious information was halted, as the Soviet Union wanted Russian as the lingua franca in the region.
During the Soviet era, the two main languages spoken by Bukharan Jews were Bukhori dialect and Russian language (some also spoke Uzbek language, depending on where they worked or lived). The younger generation, those born outside Central Asia or who left the region as children, generally use Russian as their secondary language, some do understand or speak Bukhori dialect.
Historians trace their establishment in the region to the period following the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus the Great, when it became part of the Persian Empire. Cyrus granted all Jews citizenship and permitted them to return to the Yehud Medinata, however a significant number chose to remain in Mesopotamia and later dispersed throughout the Persian Empire.Abraham Polak, Uzbekistan, Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd ed., 2007, volume 20 pp.447-448,447. According to some scholars, Jews may have settled in Central Asia as early as the sixth century, though it is certain that by the eighth to ninth centuries they lived in Central Asian cities such as Balkh, Khwarazm, and Merv. During this time, until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a culturally and religiously cohesive group with the Jews of Iran and Afghanistan.
The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates back to the beginning of the 4th century CE. It is recalled in the Talmud by Rabbi Shmuel bar Bisna, a member of the Talmudic academy in Pumbeditha, who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv in Turkmenistan).Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboda Zara, 31b, and Rashi The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on Ossuary from the 5th and 6th centuries, which were uncovered between 1954 and 1956.
A similar event happened to the Jews of Afghanistan in the middle of the 18th century. The Durrani dynasty took control of the Afghani kingdom while the Manghud dynasty ruled the Emirate of Bukhara. Due to the hostile relationship between the two dynasties, the ties between the Jews of Afghanistan and Bukharan Jews were split into two similar but separate communities.
Over the centuries, whether it was to escape political turmoil, persecution, or to pursue economic opportunities, Jews from Iran and Central Asia would frequently migrate to each other's communities. Notable instances that spurred such migrations include persecution under the Safavid dynasty in the mid 17th century which caused Jews to flee Iran and forced conversion to Islam in the mid 19th century which resulted in Jewish flight from the Afghan cities of Kabul and Herat . Other Jews from Iran and Afghanistan migrated during the Russian conquest of Central Asia as the Russians had extended greater freedoms and economic opportunities for Jews. However, when Joseph Stalin and Soviet authorities consolidated their hold over the borders in Central Asia in the mid 1930s, living conditions for the Bukharan Jews deteriorated drastically, forcing a significant number of them to migrate to Iran or Afghanistan.
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.Iran & the Caucasus Vol. 9, No. 2 (2005), pp. 257–272
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 a significant number of Jews (over one-third, according to one estimate), under a threat of torture and agonizing execution. Some were killed for refusing to convert. Jews who forcibly converted were known as Chalas, a term meaning "neither this nor that".
By the middle of the 18th century, practically all Bukharan Jews lived in the Bukharan Emirate. In the early 1860s, Arminius Vambery, a Hungarian-Jewish traveler, visited the emirate disguised as a Sunni dervish and noted in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone."Malikov A. Arminius Vambery and the urban culture of Samarkand In: Orpheus Noster, Vol. 14, no. 4, 2022, p.97-108
Prior to Maimon's arrival, the native Jews of Bukhara followed the Persian religious tradition. Maimon staunchly demanded that the native Jews of Bukhara adopt Sephardic Jew traditions. Many of the native Jews were opposed to this and the community split into two factions. The opposing faction was led by Rabbi Zacchariah ben Mashiah, who was originally from Sanaa, Yemen. 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.
Maimon's great-grandson Shimon Hakham continued his great-grandfather's work as a Rabbi, and in 1870 opened the Talmid Hakham yeshiva in Bukhara, where religious law was promoted. At that time Bukharan Jews were getting only a general education, which mostly consisted of religious laws, reading, writing and some math. Even though they studied Torah, many Bukharan Jews did not speak fluent Hebrew. Only a few books were written in Persian language and many of them were old and incomplete. Hakham decided to change this situation by translating religious books into Bukhori. However, since there was no printing in Bukhara at that time, he went to Jerusalem to print his books.
Whatever we know of the interior of Bukhara we are chiefly indebted for its Jewish inhabitants..... Upon the whole the Jews of Bukhara are much shrewder than their oppressive masters, and able to converse on subjects of which a genuine Bokharan has no idea.
In spring of 1868, Russian authorities relied on Jewish support when their armies attacked the Emirate of Bukhara as young Jewish men acted as scouts for the Russians and brought food and drinks to the Russian troops.
An 1884 report by Vasily Radlov described how the Bukharan Jews viewed Tsarist Russia rule:
The Jew, who in Europe has lived for centuries in enmity with the Christian, welcomes him here with a shining gaze (...) and is delighted to be able to wave a greeting to him. He proudly regards him as his new friend, his protector. In his proximity, he looks down on the Mohammedan with contempt.
Dubbed the "Golden Age" for Bukharan Jews, from 1876 to 1916 they were no longer restricted in their autonomy and had the same rights as their Muslim neighbors. Dozens of Bukharan Jews held prestigious jobs in medicine, law, and government, and many of them prospered. Many Bukharan Jews became successful and well-respected actors, artists, dancers, musicians, singers, film producers, and sportsmen. Several Bukharan entertainers became artists of merit and gained the title "People's Artist of Uzbekistan", "People's Artist of Tajikistan", and even (in the Soviet era) "People's Artist of the Soviet Union". Many succeeded in the world of sport, with several Bukharan Jews in Uzbekistan becoming renowned boxers and winning many medals for the country.Pinkhasov, Peter. "The History of Bukharian Jews", Bukharian Jewish Global Portal website, p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
Rabbi Shimon Hakham and Rabbi Shlomo Moussaieff were some of the organizers of the quarter where Bukharan homes, synagogues, schools, libraries, and a bath house were established.
The Bukharan Quarter was one of the most affluent sections of the city, populated by Bukharan Jewish merchants and religious scholars supported primarily by various trading activities such as cotton, , and tea from Central Asia. Following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, the quarter fell into decline as sources of income from foreign trade became cut off leaving many residents with little more than just their homes in Jerusalem, forcing them to subdivide and rent out rooms to bring in income. From being lauded as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, the Bukharian Quarter earned the opposite sobriquet, of being one of the poorest neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood also became one of the centers of the Zionist movement with many of its leaders and philosophers living there.
Between 1953 and 1963, Rabbi Bernard M. Casper was working as Dean for Student Affairs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and during this period he became deeply concerned about the impoverished Quarter. After his appointment as Chief Rabbi in South Africa he set up a special fund for the Quarter's improvement and this was tied with Prime Minister Menachem Begin's urban revitalization program, Project Renewal. Johannesburg was twinned with the Bukharan Quarter, and Johannesburg Jewry raised enormous funds for its rehabilitation. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Casper traveled to Jerusalem in 1981 to resolve the hurdles. He consulted with community organizer Moshe Kahan and suggested that they present the dormant agencies with concrete evidence of what could be done. Using a private discretionary fund, he initiated development of several pilot projects, among them a free loan fund, a dental clinic and a hearing center whose successes spurred the municipality back on track. Grace under fire The Jerusalem Post. 8 January 2009
The quarter borders Tel Arza on the west, the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood on the north, Arzei HaBira on the east, and Geula on the south. Today, most of the residents are Haredi Judaism. The Moussaieff Synagogue, a Relic of Bukhara in Jerusalem, Haaretz
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 who were heading towards Mandatory Palestine.
Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews. 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. Nevertheless, the community still attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government.
During this time, both Jews and Muslims suffered from the anti-religious policies the Soviets imposed on Central Asia, which aimed to break the power of their religious institutions and eventually replace religious belief with atheism.
In 1950, the "Black Years of Soviet Jewry" began when suppression of the Jewish religion resumed after having paused due to World War II. After Joseph Stalin's attempt to turn the newly founded state of Israel into a socialist country failed, an anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic campaign launched against Soviet Jews. Several religious and prominent Bukharan Jews were arrested and sentenced to 25 years on charges of "Zionist propagation". Even those who uttered the traditional phrase said by Jews on the Passover holiday, "Next Year in Jerusalem", were subject to arrests. These arrests were all part of the Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaign, where antisemitism was often disguised under the banner of anti-Zionism.
After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and later the Six-Day War of 1967, antisemitism intensified amongst the Muslim majority, with the 1967 war leading to a rise in Zionism. The Soviet Union forbade Jews to make aliyah to Israel though these restrictions loosened in the 1970s and ceased in the 1980s.
Despite this, Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews largely remained separate from one another, and intermarriage between the two was extremely rare. Bukharan Jews ranged from religious to traditional, and clustered together (particular those who lived in the Jewish Quarters), while most Ashkenazi Jews living in Central Asia were secular, both structurally and culturally, and assimilated into the general populace. Some Bukharan Jews viewed Ashkenazi Jews as inauthentic Jews, and looked down on them for their lack of Jewish identity. Both groups are also buried in separate cemeteries.
However, Bukharan Jewry had good relations with the Chabad, beginning from the end of the 19th century with the arrival of Rabbi Shlomo Leib Eliezrov, a student of Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn. Rabbi Eliezrov accepted a temporary rabbinical position in Uzbekistan and helped organize the provision of kosher meat in surrounding cities where Jews lived. Over the decades, other emissaries from Chabad would come to support the community as well.
Amongst other Mizrahim, there were numerous migrations of Jews from Iraq and Yemen who migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road), and were absorbed into the Bukharan Jewish community. Some Bukharan Jews also have Sephardic ancestry, similarly from various migrations of Jews from Syria, Morocco, and Turkey in the late 18th through 19th century.
Some left due to economic instability, while others left fearing growth of nationalistic policies in the country. The resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (such as the Fergana massacre and the 1990 Dushanbe riots) prompted an increase in the level of Jewish emigration. According to various Bukharan Jews, the Uzbek and Tajik locals would come to Jewish homes and say things in line with "Go back to where you came from. You don't belong here." Because of this, Jewish citizens also found it difficult to sell their homes at a reasonable price. In 1990, there were riots against the Jewish population of Andijan and nearby areas. This led to most Jews in the Fergana Valley immigrating to Israel or the United States.
As of the 2010 census, there are 36 Jews left in Tajikistan. Two are Bukharan Jews while the other 34 are Ashkenazi. On January 15, 2021, Jura Abaev, the last Jew in the city of Khujand, Tajikistan died.
With the Kazakh famine of 1930–1933, a significant number of Bukharan Jews crossed the border into the Kingdom of Afghanistan as part of the wider famine-related refugee crisis; leaders of the communities petitioned Jewish communities in Europe and the United States for support. In total, some 60,000 refugees had fled from the Soviet Union and reached Afghanistan.
In 1935, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that "ghetto rules" had been imposed on Afghan Jews, requiring them to wear particular clothes, requiring Jewish women to stay outside markets, requiring all Jews to live within certain distances from mosques and banning Jews from riding horses. In 1935, a delegate to the World Zionist Congress claimed that an estimated 40,000 Bukharan Jews had been killed or starved to death.
Due to decades of warfare, antisemitism, and religious persecution, Afghanistan's Jewish population continued to dwindle as many emigrated to other countries. By the end of 2004, only two known Jews were left in Afghanistan, Zablon Simintov and Isaac Levy (born c. 1920). Levy relied on charity to survive while Simintov ran a store selling carpets and jewelry until 2001. They lived on opposite sides of the dilapidated Kabul synagogue. In January 2005, Levy died of natural causes, leaving Simintov as the sole known Jew in Afghanistan.
In 2021, Simintov left Afghanistan amidst the Taliban takeover, and there are officially no Jews remaining in Afghanistan today.
Bukharan Jews also have a unique kippah, a full head-sized covering with rich patterns and lively colors embroidered. In present times, this kippah can sometimes be seen being worn by liberal-leaning and Reform Jews. Kippah Couture, The Forward, Angela Himsel, September 29, 2006.
An account from explorer Henry Lansdell in 1885, upon visiting Samarkand and hearing the music of the Bukharan Jews:
Before the wedding, a unique practice that was done was a Kosh-Chinon ceremony, a local custom practiced by both Jews and Muslims in Central Asia, which involved all the female guests of the wedding to pluck the bride's eyebrows and the strands of hair above her lip, as well as the sides of the bride's face being cleaned of their dark wisps. Girls in Central Asia were taught that they should not manicure their facial hair until they got married. The smooth, clean face served as a mark of womanhood. This ceremony was done a few days before the wedding, and after the bride had immersed herself in the Mikveh.
The wedding itself followed the same traditions as a standard Jewish wedding, including the signing of the Ketubah, the Chuppah, and the Kiddish. A few small differences were the Chuppah being a prayer shawl that was held by members of the family, unlike it being hung on four poles as is widely practiced today in Jewish weddings. Furthermore, as the bride and groom would take their positions in the prayer shawl, the mothers of the bride and groom would stitch their needles through the fabric of their children's clothing.
Authentic Bukharan Jewish dishes include:
Among non-Jewish populations, Bukharan Jews also form a cluster with other West Asian people including Kurds, Iranian peoples, Armenians, Assyrians, and Arabs.
Under Soviet Union rule
Relationship between other Jewish communities
Mass migration after 1991
Immigrant populations
Tajikistan
Afghanistan
United States
or "Bukharian Broadway",Moskin, Julia. "The Silk Road Leads to Queens" The New York Times, January 18, 2006. is filled with Bukharan restaurants and gift shops. Furthermore, Forest Hills is nicknamed "Bukharlem" due to the majority of the population being Bukharan. 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. In 2007, Bukharan-American Jews initiated lobbying efforts on behalf of their community.Ruby, Walter. "The Bukharian Lobby" , The Jewish Week, October 31, 2007. Zoya Maksumova, president of the Bukharan women's organization "Esther Hamalka" said "This event represents a huge leap forward for our community. Now, for the first time, Americans will know who we are." During a speech, Senator Joseph Lieberman stated, "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."
Culture
Dress codes
Music
We went then to the synagogue, allowed to the Jews of Samarkand only since the Russians came, where the best chorister in the region was that evening to sing. The crowd was dense, and in a short time two singers appeared; the "primo," a delicate, modest-looking man, who blushed at the eagerness with which his arrival was awaited, whilst the "secondo" was a brazen-faced fellow, who carried his head on one side, as if courting attention, and with the assurance that he should have it. They were introduced to us, and began at once, that we might hear. The singing, so called, was the most remarkable that up to that time I had ever heard. The first voice led off in a key so high, that he had to strain for some seconds before he could utter a sound at all. After this he proceeded very slowly as to the number of words he sang, but prolonged his notes into numerous flourishes, screaming as loud as he could in falsetto. The second voice was an accompaniment for the first; but as both bawled as loudly as possible, I soon voted it anything but good music, and intimated that it was time for us to go. The congregation, moreover, were crowding round, without the smallest semblance of their being engaged in divine worship.
Weddings and marriage traditions
Cuisine
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."NYT,1-18-2006 The Silk Road Leads to Queens
Genetics
Notable Bukharan Jews
Israel
United States
United Kingdom
Other
See also
Notes
Bibliography
External links
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