Central Asia — Bukharian Jewish center
Bukhara's Jewish community traces to the Babylonian exile. R. Yosef Maman al-Maghribi arrived from Morocco c. 1793 and 're-Sephardicized' the community, introducing Sephardic prayer-rite, Hebrew literacy, and Maimonidean law.
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Bukhara through the eras
Bukhara's Jewish community traces its origin to the Babylonian exile, with continuous settlement attested from the early medieval Islamic conquests. Under the Samanid dynasty (9th-10th c.) and subsequent Turkic regimes, the community lived in the Mahalla-yi Yahudi quarter, isolated from Bukharian Persian intellectual life by linguistic and religious barriers but preserving an ancient Babylonian-Talmudic tradition in their Judeo-Tajik vernacular.
Bukhara from the 16th through 18th centuries underwent severe religious decline: cut off from the wider Jewish world by Shi'a-Sunni political barriers and harsh dhimmi restrictions, the community lost most of its Hebrew literacy. The Khanate of Bukhara forced Jews to wear distinctive clothing, banned them from riding horses, and confined them to the increasingly overcrowded Jewish quarter. The arrival of R. Yosef Maman al-Maghribi from Tetouan, Morocco around 1793 — sent as a Tzfat shadar — saved the community: he stayed for 30 years and systematically reintroduced Hebrew literacy, the Sephardic-Mizrachi nusach, and Maimonidean halacha.
Bukhara in the 19th-20th centuries underwent dramatic transformation under Russian imperial rule (from 1868) and then the Soviet Union (from 1920). The Russian regime ended dhimmi restrictions, allowing the community to flourish economically and culturally; R. Shimon Hakham (1843-1910) translated the Tanach into Judeo-Tajik. The Soviet period dismantled the religious institutions but preserved the distinctive Bukharian Jewish identity. Mass emigration after the Soviet collapse (1989-1995) brought ~70,000 Bukharian Jews to Israel and ~50,000 to Queens, NY, where the Bukharian community now maintains over 50 synagogues. Today only a few hundred Jews remain in Bukhara itself.
Teachers who lived here