Uzbekistan is a land of tolerance to religions. This surprised me because I thought all Muslim countries are the same.
Did you know there are Jews living in Uzbekistan?
Well, why would they want to live there? Funny question. But honestly, after the destruction of Northern Kingdom of Israel in 720 BC and Southern Kingdom of Israel in 586 BC, the Israelites were mostly captivated to Assyria and Babylon. And as Bukhara is an ancient city in the realm of Babylon, probably one of the most famous cities back in the history, many Jews migrated there.
I was shocked to see Jewish influences to Bukhara. There was a rabbi in this synagogue (and he didn’t ask me any money for taking photographs)
Inside the synagogue. It’s Hebrew!
And even in the Ark Fortress (the city of a city), there was a synagogue.
So you must wonder who are these Jews? And when did they come?
Here’s some information from Wikipedia,
According to some ancient texts, there were Israelites that began traveling to Central Asia to work as traders during the reign of King David of Jerusalem as far back as the 10th century B.C.E. When Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon, he encouraged the Jews he liberated to settle in his empire, which included areas of Central Asia. In the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish settlement in Central Asia was in the Emirate of Bukhara.
Among Bukharan Jews, there are two ancient theories of how Jewish people settled in Central Asia. Many Bukharan Jews trace their ancestry to the Tribe of Napthali and to the Tribe of Issachar of the Lost Tribes of Israel who may have been exiled during the Assyrian captivity of Israel in 7th century BCE. There is another tradition stating that Central Asian Jews are descendants of the Israelites who never returned from the Babylonian captivity after exile in the 6th–5th century BCE.
The Bukharan Jews are 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 (usually by taking the Silk Road).
So there are three time frames.
- One is during the time of David in the 10th century BC.
- And then the captivity of Assyria in the 7th century BC.
- And the third time was after King Cyrus conquered Babylon and after the exile to Babylon in 6th BC.
In any words, these Bukharan Jews had lived in Uzbekistan for at least 2600 years! Imagine that!
The Holocaust
I found out from a personal story that in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, many Jews who lived there escaped to Bukhara. Those people left before the holocaust, and as there was already a Jewish community in Bukhara, they felt it was a safe place to live and so they stayed here for a short while. So you can say Bukhara is a place that hosted the Jews in their time of need. This group went back to Poland after the war, which some even have migrated to Israel now.
How are they today?
I saw a Jewish gallery in Bukhara (free), where some photographs of the Jews were taken.
Okay… the one on the right looks like a rabbi to me!
It says Bukharan Jewish Mystic Ritual (very mystic)
Another Bukharan Jew. Did she look Jewish to you? Well, some Jews must have intermarried with other ethnic groups who lived in Uzbekistan. 2600 years are a long time!
The Bukharan Jews I Met
In Bukhara, you’d have a good chance of meeting Bukharan Jews who still live there. It’s hard to imagine that they can live as Jews in Uzbekistan. These girls were so cute! Are you surprised?
In reality, there are more Jews in Uzbekistan than people know. A lot of them are mixed. In a hair salon I met two sisters who are 1/4 of Tajik, 1/8 of Jews, 1/2 of Uzbek and 1/8 Russian. It’s pretty surprising!
Traveling Mega
