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The history of the Jews in Central Asia dates back centuries, where Jews have lived in countries which include Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2019) |
The history of the Jews in Central Asia dates back centuries, where Jews have lived in countries which include Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Joseph Stalin forcibly relocated thousands of Jews from other parts of the Soviet Union to the Kazakh SSR. During the Holocaust 8,000 Jews fled to Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan's Jewish population rapidly increased between 1926 and 1959, being almost eight times larger in 1959 than in 1926. Kazakhstan's Jewish population slowly declined between 1959 and 1989, followed by a much larger decline after the fall of Communism between 1989 and 2002 due to massive Jewish emigration, mostly to Israel.
Until the 20th century, most Jews living in the Kyrgyz areas were of the Bukharan Jewish community. However, during the 20th century, large numbers of European Jews began to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan which was then part of the Soviet Union, and a small number still lives in that country.
According to a census held in 1896, Jews represented about 2% of the region's total population. Ashkenazi Jews first arrived in Kyrgyzstan with its conquest by the Russians. After World War I, more and more Ashkenazi Jews came to Kyrgyzstan. During the Second World War, more than 20,000 Ashkenazi Jews fled to Kyrgyzstan from the Nazi-occupied western parts of the Soviet Union. After the Second World War, the percentage of the Jewish population began to decline and in early 2001 the Jews represented only 0.03% of the total population. [1]
Jews and Judaism in Tajikistan have a long and varied history. Jews first arrived in the eastern part of the Emirate of Bukhara, in what is today Tajikistan, in the 2nd century BC[ citation needed ]. After the Communists came to power they organized the country into republics, including Tajikistan, which was first formed as an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan in 1924, and in 1929 became a full-fledged republic. In an effort to develop Tajikistan, Soviet authorities encouraged migration, including thousands of Jews, from neighboring Uzbekistan. Most Jews settled in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where they opened the Dushanbe Synagogue, now destroyed. During World War II, a second wave of Ashkenazic Jews migrated to Tajikistan.
Jews and Judaism in Turkmenistan have a history dating back to the late 1830s when Persian Jews, fleeing persecution in Iran settled in Mary, Ýolöten, and Baýramaly. During the 1980s, the population peaked to about 2500. [2]
Uzbek Jews have two distinct communities; the more religious and traditional Bukharan Jewish community and the more progressive, Europe-extracted Ashkenazi community.[ citation needed ] There were 94,900 Jews in Uzbekistan in 1989. Most Uzbek Jews are now Ashkenazi due to the immigration of Bukharian Jews to Israel and the United States.
The Jewish population of Uzbekistan (then known as the Uzbek SSR) nearly tripled between 1926 and 1970, then slowly declined between 1970 and 1989, followed by a much more rapid decline since 1989, when the collapse of Communism began to occur. Between 1989 and 2002, over ninety percent of Uzbekistan's Jewish population left Uzbekistan and moved to other countries, mostly to Israel.
Tajiks are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Tajikistan, and the second-largest in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. They speak varieties of Persian, a Western Iranian language. In Tajikistan, since the 1939 Soviet census, its small Pamiri and Yaghnobi ethnic groups are included as Tajiks. In China, the term is used to refer to its Pamiri ethnic groups, the Tajiks of Xinjiang, who speak the Eastern Iranian Pamiri languages. In Afghanistan, the Pamiris are counted as a separate ethnic group.
Bukharan Jews, in modern times called Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Iranic ethnicity that historically spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Persian dialect of the Tajik language, in turn a variety of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara, 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.
Jews and Judaism in Tajikistan have a long and varied history. Many of the Tajik Jews were originally Bukharan Jews.
Bukharian or Judeo-Bukharic is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from—and largely mutually intelligible with—the Tajik branch of the Persian language.
The Dushanbe Synagogue, also known as the Bukharian Synagogue, located in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was constructed in the 19th century in one of the two Jewish Quarters in Dushanbe at the time. It was part of the Jewish community compound, which also included ritual buildings and a school. In February 2006, the Government of Tajikistan began demolition of the Jewish community compound as part of an urban redevelopment plan designed to make way for a new presidential residence, the Palace of the Nation, with adjoining landscaped areas. The demolition of the synagogue was delayed due to international protests and a series of court actions until the end of June 2008, when the old building was finally razed.
Ohr Avner Foundation is a philanthropic foundation that was established in 1992 by the Israeli billionaire and émigré from the former Soviet Union, Lev Leviev and is managed by its Director Rabbi David Mondshine. The foundation was named in memory of Lev Leviev's father Rabbi Avner Leviev. It supports a large network of Jewish educational institutions in the former Soviet Union, such as Jewish day schools, kindergartens and youth camps, a resource center and a teachers training institute.
The history of the Jews in Uzbekistan refers to the history of two distinct communities; the more religious and traditional Bukharan Jewish community and the Ashkenazi community.
Gavriel Aronovich Mullokandov is widely regarded as the greatest Bukharian Jewish singer and musician. He was the People's Artist of Uzbekistan.
The Tajik language has been written in three alphabets over the course of its history: an adaptation of the Perso-Arabic script, an adaptation of the Latin script and an adaptation of the Cyrillic script. Any script used specifically for Tajik may be referred to as the Tajik alphabet, which is written as алифбои тоҷикӣ in Cyrillic characters, الفبای تاجیکی with Perso-Arabic script and alifboji toçikī in Latin script.
Soviet Central Asia was the part of Central Asia administered by the Russian SFSR and then the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian republics declared independence. It is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan in the Russian Empire. Soviet Central Asia went through many territorial divisions before the current borders were created in the 1920s and 1930s.
The history of the Jews in Azerbaijan dates back many centuries. Today, Jews in Azerbaijan mainly consist of three distinct groups: Mountain Jews, the most sizable and most ancient group; Ashkenazi Jews, who settled in the area during the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and during World War II; and Georgian Jews who settled mainly in Baku during the early part of the 20th century.
The history of the Jews in Kazakhstan connects back to the history of Bukharan and Juhuro Mountain Jews. Kazakh Jews have a long history. At present, there are several thousand Jews in Kazakhstan.
Barno Iskhakova was a Soviet and Bukharian Jewish musician from Tajikistan.
The history of Jews in Thailand began in the 18th century with the arrival of Baghdadi Jewish families and Jewish peoples from Europe during the Napoleonic era (1799–1815).
Israel–Kazakhstan relations refers to the current and historical relations between Israel and Kazakhstan. The countries established diplomatic relations on April 10, 1992. The embassy of Israel in Astana, Kazakhstan opened in August 1992. The embassy of Kazakhstan in Tel Aviv, Israel opened in May 1996. In 2004, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Israel-Kazakhstan was established in Israel in order to develop and expand trade and economic relations.
The history of the Jews in Kyrgyzstan is linked directly to the history of the Bukharan Jews of Uzbekistan. Until the 20th century, most Jews living in the Kyrgyz areas were of the Bukharian Jewish community. However, during the 20th century, large amounts of European Jews began to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan which was then part of the Soviet Union, and a small amount of them still live in the country.
Armenians in Central Asian states: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, were mainly settled there during the Soviet era for various reasons.
The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was a Soviet state that governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic. After the redrawing of regional borders, its territory was assigned mostly to the Uzbek SSR and some to the Turkmen SSR.
Bukharian Jews in Israel, also known as the Bukharim, refers to immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Bukharan Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel.
Fergana massacre happened in 1989, after riots broke out between the Meskhetian Turks exiled in Uzbekistan and the native Uzbeks. Hundreds of Meskhetian Turks were killed or injured, nearly 1,000 properties were destroyed and thousands of Meskhetian Turks fled into exile.
