Bukharan Jews

Bukharan Jews, in modern times called Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that traditionally spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Persian language most similar to the Tajik dialect of Farsi. Their name comes from the former Muslim-Uzbek polity Emirate of Bukhara which once had a sizable Jewish population. The vast majority lived in modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, with small groups in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.

Bukharan Jews

יהודים בוכרים‎
Jewish family in Bukhara, 1880
Total population
300,000–350,000 (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Israel	160,000
United States New York metropolitan area	120,000 80,000
United Kingdom	15,000
Austria	3,000–3,500
Germany	2,000
Uzbekistan Bukhara	1,500 150
Canada	1,500
Russia	1,000
Australia Melbourne	130+ 130+
Tajikistan	34
Afghanistan	0
Languages
Traditionally Bukharian Russian, Hebrew (Israel), English (United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia) and German (Austria and Germany), Uzbek (Uzbekistan)
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Iranian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Afghan Jews, Mashhadi Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Soviet Jews

Bukharan Jews are one of the oldest Jewish diaspora groups, dating back to the Babylonian exile, and are a branch of Persian-Jewry. They are also one of the oldest ethno-religious groups in Central Asia.

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

Name

The term Bukharan was coined by European travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Khanate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is Bnei Israel.

Language

Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or Bukhori, a Judeo-Persian language most similar to the Tajik and Dari dialect of Farsi, with linguistic elements of Hebrew and Aramaic, 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, as the Soviet Union wanted Russian as the dominant language in the region.

During the Soviet era, the two main languages spoken by Bukharan Jews were Bukhori and Russian. The younger generation today either born outside Central Asia or who left as children use Russian as their secondary language, but sometimes do understand or speak Bukharian.

History

Further information: History of the Jews in Central Asia, History of the Jews under Muslim rule, and Soviet Jews

According to one legend, Bukharan Jews are exiles from the tribes of Naphtali and Issachar during the Assyrian captivity, basing this assumption on a reading of "Habor" at II Kings 17:6 as a reference to Bukhara. However, modern day scholarship associate this telling with European myths, where stories about the "Ten Lost Tribes" had been propagated in Europe. Historians associate their establishment in the region following the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus the Great, which became part of the Persian Empire. 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, Samarkand, and Merv. At that time, and until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a homogeneous group with the Jews of Iran and Afghanistan.

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). 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.

Under the rule of Tamerlane

In the 14th century under the rule of Timur in the Timurid Empire, Jewish weavers and dyers contributed greatly to his effort to rebuild Central Asia following Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasions. In the centuries following Timur's demise, Jews came to dominate the region’s textile and dye industry.

Splintering of the Judeo-Persian communities

Map of travel routes in the Silk Road that connected Persian-Jewry

Until the start of the 16th century, the Jews of Iran and Central Asia constituted one community. However, during the Safavid dynasty, Iran adopted the Shia branch of Islam, while Central Asia retained their allegiance to the Sunni branch of Islam. Due to the hostile relationship between the neighboring states because of this, the links between the Jews of the area were severed, and the Jewish community was divided into two similar but separate communities. From here, a distinct point of origin of the ethnonym and cultural identity of "Bukharan Jews" began to take formation.

A similar event happened in the middle of the 18th century with the Jews of Afghanistan, which saw the creation of the Afghani kingdom, ruled by the Durrani dynasty, while the Emirate of Bukhara was ruled by the Manghud dynasty. 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 purse economic opportunities, Jews from Iran and Central Asia would frequently migrate to each other's communities.

Under Sunni Muslim rule

Bukharan Jewish girl, c. 1860s

In the Khanate of Bukhara, Bukharan Jews lived under the status of Dhimmi, and experienced persecution from the Muslim majority. They were forced to wear clothing that identified them as Jews, such as a yellow patch, a hat called a Tilpak, and had their belts made of rope, while the leather belts were reserved for Muslims. 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. 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. Despite these prohibitions and humiliations, the Jews were able to achieve financial success primarily as merchants and established lucrative trade businesses.

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.

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 Bukharan Jews (over one-third, according to one estimate), under a threat of torture and agonizing execution. These Jews who forcibly converted were known as Chala's, 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, writing in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone."

Rabbi Yosef Maimon

Rabbi Shimon Hakham, the great-grandson of Rabbi Yosef Maimon

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".

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. 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.

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. But since there was no printing in Bukhara at that time, he went to Jerusalem to print his books.

Under Imperial Russia rule

The borders of the Russian imperial territories of Khiva, Bukhara, and neighboring provinces in 1902–1903

In 1865, Russian colonial troops took over Tashkent and established the Russian Turkestan region, as part of their expanding empire. Unlike the Jews of Eastern Europe, Tsarist Russia was largely favorable towards the Jews living there, due to years of trade relations with the Bukharan Jews, and they were viewed as potential allies in the region to act as interpreters with the local authorities. As a Russian official explained in 1866:

"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.

Hibbat Zion and immigrating into Ottoman Palestine

Bukharan Jewish women in the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem, 1906

Bukharan Jewish men in the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem, 1927

Bukharan Jewish women in the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem, 1927

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. The land on which they settled in Jerusalem was named the Bukharan Quarter (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today. In 1890, seven members of the Bukharan Jewish community formed the Hovevei Zion Association of the Jewish communities of Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent. 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. Architect Conrad Schick was employed to design the neighborhood. The streets were three times wider than even major thoroughfares in Jerusalem at the time, and spacious mansions were built with large courtyards. 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.

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, 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. 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. 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.

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.

Under Soviet Union rule

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

Bukharan Jewish family celebrate Hanukkah in Tel Aviv, 1959

Bukharan Jewish family celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, c. 1970s

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. Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West.

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, but 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 where suppression of the Jewish religion resumed after stopping 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 Arab–Israeli War of 1967, antisemitism intensified amongst the Muslim majority, with the 1967 war leading to a rise in Jewish patriotism. The Soviet Union forbade Jews to make aliyah to Israel, though these restrictions loosened in the 1970s and were dropped in the 1980s.

Relationship between other Jewish communities

After the Russian conquest of Central Asia, a small amount of Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe and the European part of the Russian Empire to Russian Turkestan. During World War II, large migrations of Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union headed eastward to various countries in Central Asia. The Bukharan Jewish communities helped contribute to the resettlement of these refugees, housing families in their homes and assisted them with finding jobs until they settled in to their new surroundings.

Despite this, Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews 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.

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. 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.

There were also Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco who migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road), and were absorbed into the Bukharan Jewish community.

Mass migration after 1991

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, the Uzbek and Tajik locals would come to Jewish homes and would often say things in line with "Go back to where you came from. You don't belong here." Because of this, they 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.

Immigrant populations

Tajikistan

Entrance to the now demolished Dushanbe Synagogue in 2006

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. In 2009, the Tajik government reestablished the synagogue in a different location for the small Jewish community.

As of the 2010 census, there are 36 Jews left in Tajikistan. All but two are Ashkenazi Jews, while the others are Bukharan. On January 15, 2021, Jura Abaev, the last Jew in the city of Khujand, Tajikistan died.

Afghanistan

Zablon Simintov, known as the last Jew of Afghanistan

As Afghanistan is a landlocked country located between Central Asia and South Asia, the Jews who lived in Afghanistan are sometimes considered to be the same as Bukharan Jews, though some Jews from Afghanistan identify solely as "Afghan Jews."

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.

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.

Due to decades of warfare, antisemitism, and religious persecution, there are officially no Jews remaining in Afghanistan today.

United States

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

The largest number of Bukharan Jews in the U.S. is in New York City. In Forest Hills, Queens, 108th Street, often referred to as "Bukharan Broadway" or "Bukharian Broadway", 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. 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."

Culture

Dress codes

Bukharan kippah

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 Mitzvahs.

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.

Music

Jewish ensemble in Bukhara, 1987

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." They were heavily responsible for sustaining and transmitting the music during the Soviet era, and later when immigrating to the United States. Ensemble Shashmaqam was one of the first New York-based ensembles created to showcase the music and dance of Bukharan Jews.

An account from explorer Henry Lansdell in 1885, upon visiting Samarkand and hearing the music of the Bukharan Jews:

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

Jewish bride at a Kosh-Chinon ceremony in Bukhara, 1999

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. 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.

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 shouldn't 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.

Cuisine

See also: Uzbek cuisine

Central Asian style dumpling soup called shurboi dushpera or tushpera (left) along with traditional tandoor style bread called non in Bukharan, Tajik, and Uzbek (right)

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.

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."

Authentic Bukharan Jewish dishes include:

• Osh palov – a Bukharan Jewish version of palov for weekdays, includes both beef and chicken.
• Bakhsh – "green palov", rice with meat or chicken and green herbs (coriander, parsley, dill), exists in two varieties; bakhshi khaltagi cooked Jewish-style in a small bag immersed in a pot with boiling water or soup and bakhshi degi cooked like regular palov in a cauldron; bakhshi khaltagi is precooked and therefore can be served on Shabbat.
• Oshi sabo (also osh savo or osovoh), a "meal in a pot" slowly cooked overnight and eaten hot for Shabbat lunch. Oshi sabo is made with meat, rice, vegetables, and fruit added for a unique sweet and sour taste. By virtue of its culinary function (a hot Shabbat meal in Jewish homes) and ingredients (rice, meat, vegetables cooked together overnight), oshi sabo is a Bukharan version of cholent or hamin.
• Khalta savo – food cooked in a bag (usually rice and meat, possibly with the addition of dried fruit).
• Yakhni – a dish consisting of two kinds of boiled meat (beef and chicken), brought whole to the table and sliced before serving with a little broth and a garnish of boiled vegetables; a main course for Friday night dinner.
• Kov roghan – fried pieces of chicken with fried potatoes piled on top.
• Serkaniz (Sirkoniz) – garlic rice dish, another variation of palov.
• Oshi piyozi – stuffed onion.
• Shulah – a Bukharan-style risotto.
• Boyjon – eggplant puree mixed only with salt and garlic, the traditional starter for the Friday-night meal in Bukharan Jewish homes.
• Slotah Bukhori – a salad made with tomato, cucumber, green onion, cilantro, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Some also put in lettuce and chili pepper.
• Bichak - stuffed baked or fried pastry, traditional for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot.
• 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.
• Noni Toki – a crispy flat bread that is baked on the back of a wok. This method creates a bowl-shaped bread.
• Fried fish with garlic sauce (for Friday night dinner): "Every Bukharian Sabbath ... is greeted with a dish of fried fish covered with a pounded sauce of garlic and cilantro". In the Bukharan dialect, the dish is called mai birion or in full mai birion ovi sir, where mai birion is fried fish and ovi sir is garlic sauce (literally "garlic water"). Bread is sometimes fried and then dipped in the remaining garlic water and is called noni-sir.
• Chakchak, a popular sweet made from unleavened dough cut and rolled into hazelnut-sized balls, which are then deep-fried in oil. Optionally, hazelnuts or dried fruit (e.g. apricots and raisins) are added to the mixture. The fried balls are stacked in a mound in a special mold and drenched with hot honey.

Genetics

In autosomal analyses, Bukharan Jews form a cluster with Iranian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Kurdish Jews and Iraqi Jews, and do not cluster with their local neighbors. This cluster plots between Levantine and Northern West Asian populations.

Among non-Jewish populations, Bukharan Jews also form a cluster with other West Asian people including Kurds, Iranians, Armenians, Assyrians, and Levantine Arabs.

Notable Bukharan Jews

Israel

• Assi Azar, television host and screenwriter
• Yisrael Aharoni, celebrity chef and restaurateur
• Mordekhai Batchaev, poet and radio broadcaster
• Avi Benedi, singer and songwriter
• Yoni Ben-Menachem, journalist and General Director of Israel Broadcasting Authority
• Amnon Cohen, politician and member of the Knesset for Shas
• Guy Haimov, professional football player
• Shimon Hakham, Bukharan-Israeli rabbi, writer, one of the founders of the Bukharan Quarter
• Robert Ilatov, politician and member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu
• Avi Issacharoff, journalist and creator of the series Fauda
• Lev Leviev, billionaire businessman, investor, philanthropist, president of the World Congress of Bukharian Jews
• Nitzan Kaikov, songwriter and music producer
• Rinat Matatov, actress
• Moshe Mishaelof, professional football player
• Shlomo Moussaieff, co-founder of the Bukharan Quarter in Jerusalem
• Shlomo Moussaieff, businessman
• Dorrit Moussaieff, former First Lady of Iceland
• Rafael Pinhasi, politician and member of the Knesset for Shas
• Albert Pinhasov, researcher; Rector of Ariel University
• Gideon Sa'ar, politician who served as a member of Knesset for New Hope
• Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich, politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima
• Idan Yaniv, singer, "2007 Israeli Artist of the Year"
• Benjamin Yusupov, classical composer, conductor and pianist

United States

• Jacob Arabo, proprietor of Jacob & Co.
• Michael Aronov, actor and playwright, Tony Award winner
• Boris Kandov, president of the Bukharian Jewish Congress of the US and Canada
• Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author
• Jacob Nasirov, Bukharan-American rabbi from Afghanistan (member of the Bukharian Rabbinical Counsel)
• Greg Yuna, Jeweler
• Rus Yusupov, Internet entrepreneur; co-founder of Vine
• Iosef Yusupov, designer

United Kingdom

• Yvonne Green (née Mammon), poet and translator
• Jeremy Issacharoff, diplomat and ambassador for Israel
• Anthony Yadgaroff, businessman, Jewish community leader

Other

• Alexandre Reza, Jeweler known for his diverse and rare collection of precious gemstones
• Ari Babakhanov, musician from Uzbekistan
• Eson Kandov, singer and Honored People's Artist of the USSR
• Rena Galibova, Soviet actress, "People's Artist of Tajikistan" (an awarded title, alluding to national prominence)
• Meirkhaim Gavrielov, journalist murdered in Tajikistan in 1998
• Barno Itzhakova, vocalist, famous for her rendition of traditional Shashmaqom songs in Tajik and Uzbek
• Malika Kalontarova, dancer, "People's Artist of Soviet Union" (Queen of Eastern Dance)
• Fatima Kuinova, Soviet singer, "Merited Artist of the Soviet Union"
• Ilyas Malayev, musician and poet from Uzbekistan, "Honoured Artist of Uzbekistan"
• Shoista Mullodzhanova, Shashmakon singer, "People's Artist of Tajikistan" (Queen of Shashmakom music)
• Gavriel Mullokandov, popular Shashmakom artist, "People's Artist of Uzbekistan"
• Suleiman Yudakov, Soviet composer and musician, "People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR"
• Zablon Simintov, widely regarded as the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, evacuated to Israel in 2021

See also

• Bukharan Jews in Israel
• Bukhori dialect
• Africa Israel Investments
• Bais Yaakov Machon Academy
• Dushanbe Synagogue
• Emirate of Bukhara
• History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
• History of the Jews under Muslim Rule
• Islamic–Jewish relations
• Antisemitism in Islam
• Ohr Avner Foundation

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

• Media related to Jews of Bukhara at Wikimedia Commons
• Bukharian Isralites
• The Great Aminoff Escape Saga
• Joseph Mammon. My Story Archived 2004-03-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Official World Wide Bukharian Community Website
• BJews.com, Bukharian Jewish Global Portal
• Cooper, Alanna E. Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
• "Alanna's Cooper's publications on Bukharan Jews", kikayon.com
• Elena Neva, "Heavenly Frogs in the Art of Bukharian Jewelers"^[usurped], Kunstpedia, March 19, 2009.
• "Bukharian Jews protect their culture in a N.Y. enclave", Haaretz (Reuters), October 21, 2009.
• LAZGI Firuza Jumaniyazova shimon polatov israel 2011 on YouTube
• AVRAM TOLMAS, RUSTAM, YASHA BARAEV on YouTube
• Malika Kalantarova - Lazgi.avi on YouTube
• Lazgi Malika Kalontarova Dushanbe Малика Калонтарова Лазги Душанбе on YouTube
• Bukharian Torah Lectures by Bukharian Rabbis