| Group: | Bukharan Jews |
| Pop: | 320,000 (est.) |
| Region1: |  Israel |
| Pop1: | 160,000 |
| Region2: |  United States
|
| Pop2: | 120,000 80,000 |
| Region3: |  |
| Pop3: | 15,000 |
| Region4: |  Austria |
| Pop4: | 3,000–3,500 |
| Region5: |  Germany |
| Pop5: | 2,000 |
| Region6: |  Uzbekistan
|
| Pop6: | 1,500 150[1] [2] |
| Region7: |  Canada |
| Pop7: | 1,500 |
| Pop8: | 1,000 |
| Languages: | Traditionally Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik), Russian, Hebrew (Israel), English (United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia) and German (Austria and Germany), Uzbek (Uzbekistan) |
| Religions: | Judaism |
| Related: | Iranian Jews, Afghan Jews, Mashhadi Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Soviet Jews, Kaifeng Jews |
Bukharan Jews (Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכארא/яҳудиёни Бухоро, Yahudiyoni Bukhoro; Hebrew: יְהוּדֵי־בּוּכָרָה, Yehudey Bukhara), in modern times called Bukharian Jews (Bukharian: יהודי בוכרה/яҳудиёни бухорӣ, Yahudiyoni Bukhorī; Hebrew: יְהוּדִים־בּוּכָרִים, Yehudim Bukharim), are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Iranic ethnicity that historically spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Persian[3] [4] dialect of the Tajik language, in turn a variety of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara (now primarily Uzbekistan), which once had a sizable Jewish population. Bukharan Jews are of Persian-Jewish ancestry, though they are considered one of the oldest ethno-religious groups of Central Asia and over the centuries developed their own distinct customs.[5] [3]
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or the United States, with smaller groups immigrating to Europe or Australia.
The Bukharan Jews originally called themselves Bnei Israel, which relates specifically to the 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".[6]
Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or Bukhori, a Jewish dialect of the Tajik language (in turn a variety of Farsi) with linguistic elements of Hebrew, to communicate among themselves. This language was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until Central Asia was "Russified" by the Soviet Union and the dissemination of "religious" information was halted. The elderly Bukharian generation used Bukhori as their primary language but largely speak Russian (sometimes with a slight Bukharian accent). The younger generation use Russian as their primary language, but often do understand or speak Bukharian.
The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates 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).[7] 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.[8]
Bukharan Jews relate their own ancestry to exiles from the tribes of Naphtali and Issachar during the Assyrian captivity,[9] 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).[10] 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.[11]
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 had their belts made of rope, while the leather belts were reserved for Muslims.[12] Jewish homes also had to be marked as "Jewish" with a dirty cloth nailed to their front doors, and their stores and homes had to be lower than Muslim ones.[13] In court cases, any evidence from a Jew was inadmissible involving a Muslim. They were also forbidden to ride horses and donkeys 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.[14] Despite these prohibitions and humiliations, the Jews were able to achieve financial success primarily as merchants and established lucrative trade businesses.[15]
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.[16]
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 of over one-third of Bukharan Jews, under a threat of torture and agonizing execution.[17] These Jews who forcibly converted were known as Chala's, an Uzbek term meaning "neither this nor that."[18] 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.[19]
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, writing in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone."[20]
In 1793, a missionary kabbalist named Rabbi Yosef Maimon, who was a Sephardic Jew originally from Tetuan, Morocco, travelled to Bukhara to collect/solicit money from Jewish patrons. Upon arriving and his first days of meeting the Bukharan Jews, he stated in his writings:
"As I arrived in Bukhara in 1793, I found my co-religionists in a state of utter ignorance. Only a few of them could read. I found serious deviations in Jewish observance. The local community did not have leaders who could competently govern their people. In addition, there weren't enough religious literature, the community owned only two copies of the Holy Scripture, and even then, they only had the first three books of the Pentateuch".[21]
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 traditions.[22] [23] 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.[24]
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 and many of them were old and incomplete. Hakham decided to change this situation by translating religious books into Bukhori.[25] But since there was no printing in Bukhara at that time, he went to Jerusalem to print his books.[26] [27]
In 1865, Russian colonial troops took over Tashkent, and established the Russian Turkestan region, as part of their expanding empire. The emir of Bukhara, 'Abd al-Ahad Khan and his successor Sayyid Mir Muhammad Alim Khan blamed their defeat against the Russians on the Jews, and attempted to punish them, causing a migration of Jews from Bukhara to Samarkand, Tashkent, Fergana, Dushanbe, and other Turkistan cities.[28] Unlike the Jews of Eastern Europe, Tsarist Russia was largely favorable towards the Bukharan Jews living there, due to years of close trade relations between Russian and Jewish merchants.[29] 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.[30] [31] 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.[32]
Beginning from 1872, Bukharan Jews began to move into the region of Ottoman Palestine, motivated by religious convictions and the desire to return to their ancestral homeland.[33] The land on which they settled in Jerusalem was named the Bukharan Quarter (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today.[34] [35] In 1890, seven members of the Bukharan Jewish community formed the Hovevei Zion Association of the Jewish communities of Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent.[34] [35] In 1891, the association bought land and drew up a charter stating that the new quarter would be built in the style of Europe's major cities.[35] Architect Conrad Schick was employed to design the neighborhood.[34] The streets were three times wider than even major thoroughfares in Jerusalem at the time, and spacious mansions were built with large courtyards.[34] The homes were designed with neo-Gothic windows, European tiled roofs, neo-Moorish arches and Italian marble. Facades were decorated with Jewish motifs such as the Star of David and Hebrew inscriptions.[35]
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.[36] [37]
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, gemstones, and tea from Central Asia. After World War I and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, however, the quarter fell into decline as overseas sources of income were cut off and residents were left with just their homes in Jerusalem, forcing them to subdivide and rent out rooms to bring in income.[37] [38] From being lauded as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods of Jerusalem, the Bukharian Quarter earned the opposite sobriquet, of being one of the poorest neighborhoods of Jerusalem.[39] In the 1920's and 1930's the neighborhood also became one of the centers of the Zionist movement with many of its leaders and philosophers living there.[40]
Between 1953-1963, 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.[41]
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 Jews.[42]
By the late 19th century, much of the Bukharan Jewish population began to favor a Bolshevik takeover, with the perception that the Soviets would continue to be tolerant of the Jews. This new political view led to more animosity from the Muslims, with several riots breaking out against Jews from 1918 to 1920. Following the Soviet capture of Bukhara and the creation of the Soviet Social Republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions.[43] Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West. The route they undertook went through Afghanistan, as the neighboring country had many possibilities to the west.
Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews.[43] 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, but the community still 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 who were heading towards Mandatory Palestine.[44]
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.[45] In 1950 the "Black Years of Soviet Jewry" began where suppression of the Jewish religion resumed after stopping due to World War II.[46] 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.[47] Several religious Bukharan Jews in Samarkand were arrested and sentenced to 25 years. Similar arrests happened to prominent Bukharan Jews in Kattakurgan and Bukhara, on charges of "Zionist propagation."[48] Even those who uttered the traditional phrase said by Jews on the Passover holiday, "Next Year in Jerusalem", were subject to arrests.[49] These arrests were all part of the Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaign, where antisemitism was often disguised under the banner of anti-Zionism.[50]
After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and later the Six-Day Arab–Israeli War of 1967, antisemitism intensified amongst the Muslim majority, with the 1967 war leading to a rise in Jewish patriotism as Bukharan Jews and others carried out demonstrations as refuseniks.[51]
After the Russian conquest of Central Asia, the first wave of Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe and the European part of Russia to Turkestan. The second wave came after World War II and the Holocaust which brought many more Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to Uzbekistan.[52]
Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews interacted very little, and intermarriage between the two was practically non-existent.[53] Bukharan Jews were generally religious, traditional, and clustered together (particular those who lived in the Jewish Quarters), while most Ashkenazi Jews living in Central Asia were secular, and assimilated into the general populace.[54]
However, Bukharan Jewry had good relations with the Chabad-Lubavitch, beginning from the end of the 19th century with the arrival of Rabbi Shlomo Leib Eliezrov, a student of Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn.[55] 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 Bukharan community as well.[56]
From the 19th century, some Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road), and were absorbed into the Bukharan Jewish community.[57]
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were approximately 50,000 Bukharan Jews in Central Asia.[58]
In the late 1980s to the late 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and foundation of the independent Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991, most of the remaining Bukharan Jews left Central Asia for the United States, Israel, Europe, or Australia in the last mass emigration of Bukharan Jews from their resident lands.
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 emigration of Jews. According to various Bukharan Jews living in Bukhara and Samarkand, the local Uzbek Muslims would come to the Jewish Quarters and would often say things along the lines of "Go back to where you came from. You don't belong here." Because of this, the Jews also found it difficult to sell their homes at a reasonable price. [59] 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.
In early 2006, the still active Dushanbe Synagogue in Tajikistan as well as the city's mikveh (ritual bath), kosher butcher, and Jewish schools were demolished by the government (without compensation to the community) to make room for the new 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 center 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.[60]
On January 15, 2021, the last Jew of Tajikistan, Jura Abaev, died.[61]
The largest amount of Bukharan Jews in the U.S. is in New York City.[5] In Forest Hills, Queens, 108th Street, often referred to as "Bukharan Broadway"[62] or "Bukharian Broadway",[63] is filled with Bukharan restaurants and gift shops. Furthermore, Forest Hills is nicknamed "Bukharlem" due to the majority of the population being Bukharan.[64] 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.[65] In 2007, Bukharan-American Jews initiated lobbying efforts on behalf of their community.[66] 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." Senator 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."
Bukharan Jews had their own dress code, similar to but also different from other cultures (mainly Turco-Mongol) living in Central Asia, which they were wore as their daily attire until the country was "Russified" by the Soviet Union. Today, the traditional kaftan (Jomah-ҷома-ג'אמה in Bukhori and Tajik) is worn during weddings and Bar Mitzvah's.[67]
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.[68]
The Bukharan Jews have a distinct musical tradition called shashmaqam, which is an ensemble of stringed instruments, infused with Central Asian rhythms, and a considerable klezmer influence as well as Muslim melodies, and even Spanish chords. The main instrument is the dayereh. Shashmaqam music "reflect[s] the mix of Hassidic vocals, Indian and Islamic instrumentals and Sufi-inspired texts and lyrical melodies."[69]
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.
Bukharan Jews celebrated their weddings in several stages leading up to the wedding ceremony. When a match between a couple was accepted, an engagement (Shirini-Khori) took place in the house of the bride. Following this, the Rabbi congratulated the father of the bride on the engagement and distributed sugar to those present. Other sweets were distributed towards relatives, notifying them that the engagement had taken place.[70] After engagement, the meeting between parents of the groom and bride was carried out in the house of the bride, where refreshments and gifts from the groom were sent. Further celebrations lasted a week in the house of the groom, where relatives of the groom brought gifts to the bride.[71]
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.[72] Girls in Central Asia were taught that they shouldn't manicure their facial hair until they got married. The smooth, clean face served as a mark of womanhood.[73] This ceremony was done a few days before the wedding, and after the bride had immersed herself in the Mikveh.[74]
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.[75]
See also: Uzbek cuisine.
The cooking of Bukharan Jews forms a distinct cuisine within Uzbekistan, other parts of Central and even Southeast Asia, subject to the restrictions of Jewish dietary laws.[76]
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."[77]
Authentic Bukharan Jewish dishes include:[78]
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 Iranian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Kurdish Jews and Iraqi Jews, and did not cluster with their neighbours.[85]
Notes
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