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Bukharan Jews, from exile to exile


Bukhara Synagogue



An ancient history


The term "Bukhara Jew" is actually used to refer to the Jewish populations of Central Asia as a whole due to their large concentrations in the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. To understand the establishment of a Jewish community in the region, one must go back to the capture of the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, in 597 B.C. This Babylonian ruler decided to exile the predominantly Jewish population throughout his kingdom in order to assert his power over this newly conquered land.


In 539 BC, the Persian emperor Cyrus II conquered the Babylonian kingdom, making Judea a Persian province as well. Cyrus II also allowed the Jews to return to their land, but encouraged some to settle elsewhere in the Persian Empire, of which the present-day territory of Uzbekistan is part. Thus begins their story.


Important figures of the Bukhara Jewish community

Jewish wedding in Bukhara between Barukh on the left and Khanna on the right in 1870. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington



A unique culture


Due to the prolonged distance from the rest of the Diaspora, the Jews of Bukhara developed specific rituals, a language and even a particular cuisine, inspired by local specialties, but adapted to their religious constraints. One of the iconic dishes is mai birion ovi sir, a fish with garlic that all Bukhara Jews eat on Shabbat evening


Their music known as shashmaqam is particularly interesting for its heterogeneous influences with Central Asian rhythms, melodies from Arabic, Klezmer and Indian music whose lyrics are inspired by Sufi writings. They sing in their language, Bukhari, a dialect of Tajik language with contributions from Hebrew.


Traditional Jewish dance from Central Asia. Source: Zoltan Kluger - National Photo Collection of Israel, D827-056



The Silk Road, a renaissance for this community


The Jews of Bukhara were subject to influxes of people from the rest of Central Asia with the emergence of the Silk Road in the 13th century, but also from Afghanistan, Yemen or the Maghreb. Reconnected to the rest of the diaspora, this was an era of prosperity for this community which grew rich thanks to well-established contacts in international trade. With the decline of this trade route and the establishment of the Khanate of Bukhara at the beginning of the 16th century, religious tolerance deteriorated and the Jews had to pay taxes, dress differently and live in a demarcated area. The "Chalas" then appeared, Jews who converted to Islam to escape discrimination while secretly practicing Judaism in the image of the Marannes Jews of Spain in Catholic appearance.


Bukhara Synagogue



Pagan Judaism?


Paradoxically, the first officially recorded synagogue was built in 1620, during a time of religious restricitions. The Jews previously officiated in the mosque, alongside the Muslims. Isolation, the absence of a religious institution and the various local influences had imbued their rites with Muslim, Zoroastrian and Persian influences. A Moroccan Rabbi Yoseph Ben Moshe Maimon visiting Bukhara was moved by their difficult living conditions and settled there (Pinkhasov, Ochilʹdiev & Kalontarov, 2007). He soon became an important religious leader and led them to practice Judaism according to Sephardic rites, still in use today.


Meeting between an Imam, an Orthodox priest and a rabbi in Bukhara. Source: Bukhara photo gallery.



Russian invasion, Soviet turn

In 1868, the Khanate of Bukhara was invaded by Russian imperial troops and became a protectorate. Although anti-Semitism was omnipresent in Russia at that time, the Russian administration was less restrictive than that of the Khanate and brought an influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Russia. The Russian domination was a sign of renewal for this community, which shone in the fields of art, commerce, but also sports. In 1920, shortly after the Bolshevik revolution, the region became a republic attached to the USSR. Many fled to Afghanistan as the Red Army approached and those who remained were forbidden to practice their religion. With the closing of the borders, the Jews of Bukhara became the most isolated community in the world.


Interior of the Bukhara synagogue

Towards a global diaspora


With the fall of the USSR, they will migrate almost in their entirety massively: today about 70,000 live in the United States, 100,000 in Israel and 10,000 in the rest of the world. In America, almost all of them settled in New York in Queens, more precisely in Forest Hill, sometimes called "Bukharlem", where even today restaurants and stores offer typical products of their original community. Today there are only a few thousand Bukhara Jews left in Central Asia, and about a hundred in Bukhara.


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