Bukharan Jews

Jewish Children with their Teacher in Samarkand. Early color photograph from Russia, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1909 to 1915. (Wikipedia)

Background: 

The Bukharan Jews (Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכארא/яҳудиёни Бухоро, Yahudiyoni Bukhoro; Hebrew: יהודי בוכרה, Yehudey Bukhara), in modern times also called Bukharian Jews (Bukharian: יהודי בוכרה/яҳудиёни бухорӣ, Yahudiyoni Bukhorī; Hebrew: יהודים בוכרים, Yehudim Bukharim), are an ethnoreligious Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that historically spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Tajik 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 comprise Persian-speaking Jewry along with the Jews of Iran, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus Mountains. Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews, like Persian, Afghan and Mountain Jews. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or the United States while others have immigrated to Europe or Australia. 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".

Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or Bukhori, a Jewish dialect of the Tajik language (in turn a variety of Persian) 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 Russians 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). 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.

Bukharan Jews Celebrating Sukkot, c. 1900

Most Bukharan Jews relate their own ancestry to 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. 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). 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.The Bukharan Jews are therefore considered one of the oldest ethno-religious groups of Central Asia and over the years they have developed their own distinct culture. Throughout the years, Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road).

During the 18th century, Bukharan Jews faced considerable discrimination and persecution. Jewish centers were closed down, the Muslims of the region usually forced conversion on the Jews, and the Bukharan Jewish population dramatically decreased to the point where they were almost extinct. Due to pressures to convert to Islam, persecution, and isolation from the rest of the Jewish world, the Jews of Bukhara began to lack knowledge and practice of their Jewish religion. By the middle of the 18th century, practically all Bukharan Jews lived in the Bukharan Emirate. 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. 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 is an ancestor of Shlomo Moussaieff, author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and the former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff.

In 1843 the Bukharan Jews were visited by the so-called "Eccentric Missionary", Joseph Wolff, a Jewish convert to Christianity who had set himself the broad task of finding the Lost Tribes of Israel and the narrow one of seeking two British officers who had been captured by the Emir, Nasrullah Khan. Wolff wrote prolifically of his travels, and the journals of his expeditions provide valuable information about the life and customs of the peoples he travelled amongst, including the Bukharan Jews. In 1843, for example, they collected 10,000 silver tan'ga and purchased land in Samarkand, known as Makhallai Yakhudion, close to Registon. In the middle of the 19th century, Bukharan Jews began to move to Palestine. The land on which they settled in Jerusalem was named the Bukharan quarter (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today. In 1865, Russian troops took over Tashkent, and there was a large influx of Jews to the newly created Turkestan Region. From 1876 to 1916, Jews were free to practice Judaism. Dozens of Bukharan Jews held prestigious jobs in medicine, law, and government, and many Jews 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". Jews succeeded in the world of sport also, with several Bukharan Jews in Uzbekistan becoming renowned boxers and winning many medals for the country. Still, Bukharan Jews were forbidden to ride in the streets and had to wear distinctive costumes. They were relegated to a ghetto, and often fell victim to persecution from the Muslim majority.

Bukharan Hanukkah Celebration in Tel Aviv in 1959

By the time of the Russian Revolution, the Bukharan Jews were one of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world. Following the Soviet capture of Bukhara, synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions. Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West. The route they undertook went through Afghanistan, as the neighbouring country had many possibilities to the west. Consequently, Central Asian Jews in Paris had an Afghan nationality while a minority of them were born in Afghanistan. For instance many Jewish families with the Afghan nationality were born in Kokand. Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews. The remaining community attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government. Stalin's decision to end Lenin's New Economic Policy and initiate the First five-year plan in the late 1920s resulted in a drastic deterioriation of living conditions for the Bukharan Jews. By the time Soviet authorities established their hold over the borders in Central Asia in the mid 1930s, many tens of thousands of households from Central Asia had crossed the border into Iran and Afghanistan, amongst them some 4,000 Bukharan Jews (comprising about one tenth of the total number of Bukharan Jews in Central Asia), who were heading towards Palestine. 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.World War II and the Holocaust brought a lot of Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through Uzbekistan. Starting in 1972, one of the largest Bukharan Jewish emigrations in history occurred as the Jews of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan immigrated to Israel and the United States, due to looser restrictions on immigration. In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, almost all 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.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and foundation of the independent Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991, some feared growth of nationalistic policies in the country. The resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan prompted an increase in the level of emigration of Jews (both Bukharan and Ashkenazi). Before the collapse of the USSR, there were 45,000 Bukharan Jews in Central Asia. Today, there are about 150,000 Bukharan Jews in Israel (mainly in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, especially the neighborhoods of Tel Kabir, Shapira, Kiryat Shalom, HaTikvah and its neighbouring cities within the Gush Dan region like Or Yehuda, Ramla and Holon) and 60,000 in the United States (especially Queens—a borough of New York that is widely known as the "melting pot" of the United States due to its ethnic diversity)—with smaller communities in the USA like Phoenix, South Florida, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver. Only a few thousand still remain in Uzbekistan. About 500 live in Canada (mainly Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec). Almost no Bukharan Jews remain in Tajikistan (compared to the 1989 Jewish population of 15,000 in Tajikistan). 

Total population
320,000
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	2000
Uzbekistan Bukhara	1,500 150
Canada	1,500
Russia	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)
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Iranian Jews, Afghan Jews, Mashhadi Jews, Caucasus Jews, Georgian Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Soviet Jews, Kaifeng Jews, and Tajiks

 Source for Writing & Pictures: Wikipedia

  **COOL PERSONAL FACT RELATED TO THIS**

I myself am of Bukharian Jewish descent. My paternal grandfather Uriel Simkhai was born there with all of his family, and all my paternal Simkhai male-line ancestors (Uriel's father and his father) all the way to the founder: Simho/Simha Qasob, who lived during late 1700s.(Qasob translates to Butcher), Simkhai original was known as Simhayoff, which means "Son of Simho/Simha". Also most of my paternal ancestors and their families also originated in this culture and people! I come from a big family: Uriel had five sons: my dad and my four uncles: who each had their own children and then grandchildren, with me myself having two siblings from my dad. We are all very proud of our Bukharian roots, and actually my twp uncles and cousins just recently in 2023 went to visit Uzbekistan, specifically Tashkent and Kokand where our ancestors lived!!