View source for Bukharan Jews

{{Short description|Jewish subgroup of Central Asia}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Bukharan Jews
| image            = Bukharian Jewish family, 1880c.png
| image_caption    = Jewish family in [[Bukhara]], 1880
| pop              = '''300,000–350,000''' (est.)<ref>{{cite web |title=EAJC Deputy Secretary General Participates In World Congress of Bukharan Jews Meeting |url=http://jewseurasia.org/page84/news35805.html |website=jewseurasia |access-date=19 November 2024}}</ref>
| region1          = {{flag|Israel}}
| pop1             = 160,000
| ref1             = 
| region2          = {{flag|United States}}
:*[[New York metropolitan area]] (primarily [[Queens]])
| pop2             = 70,000<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hahamy |first=Madison |date=2019-09-27 |title=The Queens 50,000: Locating my identity in "Remapping America" |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/09/27/the-queens-50000-locating-my-identity-in-remapping-america/ |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=Yale Daily News |language=en}}</ref><br />50,000<ref>{{Cite news |last=Benaim |first=Rachel Delia |date=2017-04-19 |title=Now Americans, Bukharian Jews face new set of challenges |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/now-americans-bukharian-jews-face-new-set-of-challenges/ |access-date=2025-08-10 |work=The Times of Israel |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref>
| ref2             = 
| region3          = {{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
| pop3             = 15,000
| ref3             = 
| region4          = {{flag|Austria}}
| pop4             = 3,000–3,500
| region5          = {{flag|Germany}}
| pop5             = 2,000
| region6          = {{flag|Uzbekistan}}
::*[[Bukhara]]
| pop6             = 1,500<br />150<ref name =NewYorkTimes>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/world/asia/uzbekistan-bukhara-jews.html|title=In Bukhara, 10,000 Jewish Graves but Just 150 Jews|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=7 April 2018}}</ref><ref name=Ido>{{cite journal |last=Ido |first=Shinji |date= June 15, 2017 |title=The Vowel System of Jewish Bukharan Tajik: With Special Reference to the Tajik Vowel Chain Shift |journal=Journal of Jewish Languages |volume=5 |issue= 1 |pages=81–103 |doi=10.1163/22134638-12340078 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
| ref5             = 
| region7          = {{flag|Canada}}
| pop7             = 1,500
| region8          = {{flag|Russia}}
| pop8             = 1,000
| region9          = {{flag|Australia}}
:*[[Melbourne]]
| pop9             = 130+<br />130+<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/encounter/shalom-from-the-silk-road-the-story-of-the/3000902|title=Shalom from the Silk Road: The Story of the Bukharians|work=[[Radio National]]|date=February 13, 2011|quote=And what of Melbourne's Bukharians, with around 65 families?}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vic.gov.au/jewish-community-profile|title=Jewish community profile|work=State Government of Victoria|date=March 27, 2024|quote=The Jewish community in Victoria is the largest in Australia, with the majority of Jewish people living in Melbourne.}}</ref>
| region10         = {{flag|Tajikistan}}
| pop10            = 34
| region11         = {{flag|Afghanistan}}
| pop11            = 0<ref name="last">{{Cite web|title=Woman now thought to be Afghanistan's last Jew flees country|url=https://www.independent.ie/world-news/woman-now-thought-to-be-afghanistans-last-jew-flees-country-40996142.html|access-date=2021-11-12|website=Independent|date=29 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
| languages        = Traditionally [[Bukhori language|Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik)]],<ref name="IranicaBukhara">{{Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Zand|first=Michael|title=BUKHARA vii. Bukharan Jews|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/bukhara-vii|volume=4|fascicle=5|pages=530–545}}</ref> [[Russian language|Russian]], [[English language|English]] ([[North America]], United Kingdom), [[Mizrahi Hebrew|Hebrew]] (Israel), and [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] (Uzbekistan)
| religions        = [[File:Star of David.svg|15px]] [[Judaism]]
| related          = [[Persian Jews|Iranian Jews]], [[Iraqi Jews]], [[History of the Jews in Afghanistan|Afghan Jews]], [[Mountain Jews]], [[Kurdish Jews]], [[History of the Jews in Georgia|Georgian Jews]], [[Mizrahi Jews]], [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union|Soviet Jews]]
| native_name      = {{Script/Hebrew|יהודים בוכרים}}
| native_name_lang = bhh
}}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar |Communities}}

'''Bukharan Jews''',{{efn|{{langx|tg|яҳудиёни Бухоро|yahudiyoni Buxoro}}, {{small|[[Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik dialect)|Bukharian dialect]]:}} יהודיאני בוכארא, {{small|[[Persian alphabet]]:}} یهودیان بخارا, {{IPA|tg|jɐɦudiˈjɔnɪ bʊχɔˈɾo|IPA}}; {{langx|he|יְהוּדֵי־בּוּכָרָה|yehudi Bucharah}}, {{IPA|he|jehuˈdi buχaˈʁa|IPA}}; {{langx|uz|Бухоро яҳудийлари|Buxoro yahudiylari}}, {{IPA|uz|bʊχɒˈɾɒ jæhuˌdijlæˈɾɪ̆|IPA}}; {{lang-rus|бухарец|r=buharec|p=bʊˈxarʲɪts}}}} also known as '''Bukharian Jews''',{{efn|{{langx|tg|яҳудиёни Бухорӣ|yahudiyoni Buxoriy}}, {{small|[[Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik dialect)|Bukharian]]:}} יהודי בוכרה, {{small|[[Persian alphabet]]:}} یهودیان بخارى, {{IPA|tg|jɐɦudiˈjɔnɪ bʊχɔˈɾij|IPA}}; {{langx|he|יְהוּדִים־בּוּכָרִים|yehudim Bucharim}}, {{IPA|he|jehuˈdim buχaˈʁim|IPA}}; {{langx|uz|Бухорий яҳудийлари|Buxoriy yahudiylari}}, {{IPA|uz|bʊχɒˈɾij jæhuˌdijlæˈɾɪ̆|IPA}}; {{lang-rus|Бухарские евреи|r=Buharskije jevrei|p=bʊˈxarskʲɪje jɪˈvrʲeɪ}}}} are the [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi Jewish]] sub-group of [[Central Asia]] that dwelt predominantly in what is today [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], and [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="ABC-CLIO">{{cite book |editor1-last=Ehrlich |editor1-first=M. Avrum |title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture |date=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=1124 |chapter=Caucasus and Central Asia |quote=Bukharan Jews spoke a dialect of Tajik referred to as Bukhori or Judeo-Tajik, which is still used by Bukharan Jews today.}}</ref><ref name="IranicaBukhara" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ido |first1=Shinji |title=The Vowel System of Jewish Bukharan Tajik: With Special Reference to the Tajik Vowel Chain Shift |journal=Journal of Jewish Languages |date=2017 |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=85 |doi=10.1163/22134638-12340078 |quote=The term 'the Jewish dialect of Tajik' is often used interchangeably with such terms as Judeo-Tadzhik, Judeo-Tajik, Bukhori, Bukhari, Bukharic, Bukharan, Bukharian, and Bukharit (Cooper 2012:284) in the literature.|doi-access=free}}</ref> The group's name is derived from the [[Emirate of Bukhara]], a polity that once had a sizable Jewish population.

Bukharan Jews are one of the oldest [[Jewish diaspora]] groups, dating back to the [[Babylonian exile]], and comprise a branch of [[Judeo-Persian|Persian-speaking Jewry]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moreen |first1=Vera |title=Contracts and Controversies between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire and Pre-Modern Iran |date=2010 |publisher=Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft |pages=397–411}}</ref> They are also one of the oldest [[ethnoreligious group]]s in Central Asia.<ref name="IranicaBukhara" /><ref name="bjews.com">Goodman, Peter. "Bukharian Jews find homes on Long Island", ''[[Newsday]]'', September 2004.</ref><ref name="ABC-CLIO" />

Since the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], most Bukharan Jews have emigrated to [[Bukharan Jews in Israel|Israel]], the [[American Jews|United States]], [[History of the Jews in Canada|Canada]], [[History of the Jews in Europe|Europe]], and [[Australian Jews|Australia]].

==Name==
The name used by the community to refer to themselves originally was Bnei Israel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OsllDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA228|title=Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan|first=Kamoludin|last=Abdullaev|date=August 10, 2018|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The term ''Bukharan'' was coined by [[Europe]]an travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. The Jewish community at the time lived in the [[Khanate of Bukhara]], the [[Khanate of Khiva]], and the [[Khanate of Kokand]], with the term "Bukharan" likely being coined as the Bukharan Emirate was the largest of the three khanates.<ref>Ochildiev, D; R. Pinkhasov, I. Kalontarov. ''A History and Culture of the Bukharian Jews'', p. 161. Roshnoyi-Light, New York, 2007.</ref>

The local populace referred to them as ''Yahudi'' ({{Lang|fa|یهودی}}) or ''Juhood'' ({{Lang|fa|جهود}})—the latter of which was a pejorative term.<ref name="auto9">Ochildiev, D; R. Pinkhasov, I. Kalontarov. ''A History and Culture of the Bukharian Jews'', Roshnoyi-Light, New York, 2007.</ref>

== Language ==

The Jews in the [[Achaemenid Empire]] spoke [[Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], and [[Persian language|Persian]]. Persian would become the prominent language for Jews in Central Asia and Iran, though Jews who were educated in Jewish [[cheder]]s spoke fluently in Hebrew, the latter of which{{Clarify|reason=Can't this be said more simply?|date=February 2025}} lasted until the early 20th century.{{cn|date=June 2025}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yehoshua-Raz |first=Benzion |last2=Sadjed |first2=Ariane |date=2025 |title=The use of Hebrew among the Jews of Afghanistan From the 19th to the mid- 20th centuries |journal=https://persianjews.org/publications/}}</ref>

Up until the 19th century, Persian speakers in Central Asia (including Jews) had no name for the dialect/language and simply regarded themselves as speaking Farsi. By then, Bukharan Jews had dubbed their [[Judeo-Persian]] language "Bukharian" or ''[[Bukhori dialect|Bukhori]]'', which is most similar to the [[Tajik language|Tajiki]] and [[Dari]] dialects of Farsi, with linguistic elements of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic]] to communicate among themselves.<ref name="IranicaBukhara"/>

This language—along with Hebrew—was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until Central Asia was "[[Russification|Russified]]" by the [[Soviet Union]] and the dissemination of religious information was halted, as the Soviet Union wanted Russian as the [[lingua franca]] in the region.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

During the Soviet era, the two main languages spoken by Bukharan Jews were [[Bukhori dialect|Bukharian]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] (some also spoke [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], depending on where they worked or lived). The younger generation, those born outside Central Asia or who left the region as children, generally use Russian as their secondary language, some do understand or speak ''[[Bukhori dialect|Bukhori]]''.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

==History==
{{further|History of the Jews in Central Asia|History of the Jews under Muslim rule|Soviet Jews}}
According to legend, Bukharan Jews are exiles from the tribes of [[Tribe of Naphtali|Naphtali]] and [[Tribe of Issachar|Issachar]] during the [[Assyrian captivity]], basing this assumption on a reading of "Habor" at II Kings 17:6 as a reference to Bukhara.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/food-index/the-jewish-palate-the-bukharian-jews|title=The Jewish Palate: The Bukharian Jews|newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]]}}</ref> However, modern day scholarship associate this telling with [[Europe]]an myths, where stories about the "[[Ten Lost Tribes]]" had been propagated in Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaye |first1=Maïra |title=Memory and Commemoration across Central Asia |date=25 May 2023 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-54099-6 |pages=161}}</ref>

Historians trace their establishment in the region to the period following the conquest of [[Babylonia]] by [[Cyrus the Great]], when it became part of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]]. Cyrus granted all Jews citizenship and permitted them to return to the [[Yehud Medinata|province of Judah]], however a significant number chose to remain in [[Mesopotamia]] and later dispersed throughout the Persian Empire.<ref>[[Abraham Polak|Abraham N. Poliak]], ''Uzbekistan,'' [[Encyclopedia Judaica]], 2nd ed., 2007, volume 20 pp.447–448,447.</ref> According to some scholars, Jews may have settled in Central Asia as early as the sixth century, though it is certain that by the eighth to ninth centuries they lived in Central Asian cities such as [[Balkh]], [[Khwarazm|Khwarezm]], and [[Merv]]. During this time, until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a culturally and religiously cohesive group with the Jews of Iran and Afghanistan.<ref name="auto4">{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bukharan-jews | title=Bukharan Jews}}</ref>

The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates back 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]]).<ref>Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboda Zara, 31b, and Rashi</ref> The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on [[Ossuary|ossuaries]] from the 5th and 6th centuries, which were uncovered between 1954 and 1956.<ref name="auto9"/>

===Under the Kara-Khanid Khanate===
In the 12th century, [[Benjamin of Tudela]], a Jewish traveler from [[Spain]], wrote of the populous Jewish community in [[Samarkand]] and claimed that there were about 50,000 "Israelites" in that city, among them "very wise and rich men".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Botticini |first1=Maristella |title=The Chosen Few |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Educated Wandering Jews, 800–1250}}</ref>

===Under the rule of Tamerlane===
In the 14th century, in the [[Timurid Empire]] ruled by [[Timur|Tamerlane]], Jewish weavers and dyers contributed greatly to his effort to rebuild Central Asia following [[Genghis Khan]] and the [[Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol invasions]]. In the centuries following Timur's demise, Jews came to dominate the region's textile and dye industry.<ref name="auto4"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allsen |first=Thomas T. |date=1990 |title=Beatrice Forbes Manz. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. xi, 227 pp. $39.50. |journal=Russian History |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=101–102 |doi=10.1163/187633190x01182 |issn=0094-288X}}</ref>

===Splintering of the Judeo-Persian communities===
[[File:Iranian_Jews_and_Bukharian_Jews_in_Bukhara,_c_1930s.jpg|270px|thumb|Jews from [[Mashad]], [[Iran]] and Jews from [[Soviet Uzbekistan]] meeting in [[Bukhara]], {{c.|1930s}}]]
Until the start of the 16th century, the Jews of Iran and Central Asia constituted one community. However, during the [[Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam|Safavid dynasty]], Iran adopted the [[Shia Islam|Shia]] branch of Islam, while Central Asia retained their allegiance to the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] branch of Islam. Due to the hostile relationship between the neighboring states that developed 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 this point, the ethnonym and cultural identity of "Bukharan Jews" began to form.<ref name="auto9"/>

A similar event happened to the Jews of Afghanistan in the middle of the 18th century.  The [[Durrani dynasty]] took control of the Afghani kingdom while the [[Manghud]] dynasty ruled the Emirate of Bukhara. 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.<ref name="auto4"/>

Over the centuries, whether it was to escape political turmoil, persecution, or to pursue economic opportunities, Jews from Iran and Central Asia would frequently migrate to each other's communities. Notable instances that spurred such migrations include persecution under the Safavid dynasty in the mid 17th century which caused Jews to flee Iran and  forced conversion to Islam in the mid 19th century which resulted in Jewish flight from the Afghan cities of [[Kabul]] and [[Herat]] .<ref>{{cite book |last1=Calmard |first1=J |title=Cultural and Religious Cross-Fertilization between Central Asia and the Indo-Persian World. |publisher=UNESCO |location=2003 |pages=557–561}}</ref> Other Jews from Iran and Afghanistan migrated during the Russian conquest of Central Asia as the Russians had extended greater freedoms and economic opportunities for Jews. However,  when [[Joseph Stalin]] and Soviet authorities consolidated their hold over the borders in Central Asia in the mid 1930s, living conditions for the Bukharan Jews deteriorated drastically, forcing a significant number of them to migrate to Iran or Afghanistan.<ref name="Cross-border biographies: represent">{{Cite book |last=Koplik |first=Sara |title=A political and economic history of the Jews of Afghanistan |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-28866-9 |series=Brill's Series in Jewish Studies |location=Leiden}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Rapport|first1=Evan|title=Greeted With Smiles: Bukharian Jewish Music and Musicians in New York|date=2014|isbn=978-0-19-937903-3|page=8|publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr1oBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT33|ref=ER}}</ref>

===Under Sunni Muslim rule===
[[File:A young bukharian-jewish girl. 1871-1872 years.jpg|thumb|180px|Bukharan Jewish girl, c.&nbsp;1860s]]
In the Khanate of Bukhara, Bukharan Jews lived under the status of ''[[Dhimmi]],'' and experienced a series of discriminatory practices from the Muslim majority. They were forced to wear clothing that identified them as Jews, such as a [[Yellow badge|yellow patch]], a hat called a ''Tilpak,'' and belts made of rope while the leather belts were reserved for Muslims.<ref name="auto6">{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna |title=Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism |date=December 7, 2012 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00655-4}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto6"/> 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/06/arts/design-review-when-russia-uncovered-exotic-jewish-cultures.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917121000/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/06/arts/design-review-when-russia-uncovered-exotic-jewish-cultures.html | archive-date=2017-09-17 | title=DESIGN REVIEW; when Russia Uncovered Exotic Jewish Cultures – the New York Times | work=The New York Times | date=6 August 1999 | last1=Glueck | first1=Grace }}</ref> Despite these prohibitions and humiliations, the Jews were able to achieve financial success primarily as merchants and established lucrative trade businesses.<ref name="auto6"/>

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.<ref>Iran & the Caucasus Vol. 9, No. 2 (2005), pp. 257–272</ref>

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 Jews (over one-third, according to one estimate), under a threat of torture and agonizing execution. Some were killed for refusing to convert.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ochildiev |first1=David |title=A history of the Bukharan Jews |publisher=MIR |page=75}}</ref> Jews who forcibly converted were known as ''[[Chala (Jews)|Chala]]s,'' a term meaning "neither this nor that".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union|last=Akiner|first=Shirin|publisher=Routledge|year=1986|isbn=0-7103-0188-X|location=London|page=370}}</ref>

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]]'' and noted in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone."<ref>Malikov A. Arminius Vambery and the urban culture of Samarkand In: Orpheus Noster, Vol. 14, no. 4, 2022, p.97-108</ref>

===Adopting Sephardic liturgy===
[[File:רבי שמעון חכם.jpg|thumb|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.  It was during his search for funds that he chose to stay, in order to strengthen Judaism within the local Jewish population, who were said to be in a state of disarray.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meindorf |title=The Travel from Orenburg to Bukhara |date=1975 |pages=96–97}}</ref>

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 Jew|Sephardic]] traditions.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bukharan Jews of Central Asia|url=https://www.geni.com/projects/Bukharan-Jews-of-Central-Asia/15684|website=Geni|access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=SHNIDMAN|first=RONEN|date=October 19, 2011|title=Jews far and wide|url=https://www.geni.com/projects/Bukharan-Jews-of-Central-Asia/15684|website=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref> Many of the native Jews were opposed to this and the community split into two factions. The opposing faction was led by Rabbi Zacchariah ben Mashiah, who was originally from [[Sanaa]], [[Yemen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Audrey |title=Bukharan Jews, ancient and modern |date=1997 |publisher=Jewish Historical Society of England |page=7}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna |title=Bukharian Jews |date=2012 |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=60}}</ref>

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 language|Persian]] and many of them were old and incomplete. Hakham decided to change this situation by translating religious books into Bukhori.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dymshits |first1=Valery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbRtAAAAMAAJ&q=Shimon+Hakham |title=Facing West: Oriental Jews of Central Asia and the Caucasus |last2=Zwolle |first2=Waanders Uitgevers |last3=Emelyanenko |first3=Tatjana |last4=Netherlands) |first4=Joods Historisch Museum (Amsterdam |date=1998 |publisher=Antique Collectors Club Limited |isbn=978-90-400-9216-9 |language=en}}</ref> However, since there was no printing in Bukhara at that time, he went to [[Jerusalem]] to print his books.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thrower |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFXuAAAAMAAJ&q=Shimon+Hakham |title=The Religious History of Central Asia from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |date=2004 |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press |isbn=978-0-7734-6417-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Harvey E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YEnq2cYMTwYC&dq=Shimon+Hakham&pg=PA37 |title=Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture in the Modern Era |date=1996 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21041-8 |language=en}}</ref>

===Under Imperial Russia rule===
[[File:XXth Century Citizen's Atlas map of Central Asia.png|thumb|The [[Russia]]n 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.  This was due to years of trade relations with the Bukharan Jews, resulting in their being viewed as potential allies in the region and as interpreters with the local authorities.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Audrey |title=Bukharan Jews, ancient and modern |date=1997 |publisher=Jewish Historical Society of England |page=57}}</ref> As a Russian official explained in 1866:<ref name="auto" />

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

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.<ref name="auto"/>

An 1884 report by [[Vasily Radlov]] described how the Bukharan Jews viewed Tsarist Russia rule:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Radloff |first1=Wilhelm |title=From Siberia. Loose Leaves from the Diary of a Travelling Linguist |journal=Band 2. Leipzig |date=1884 |page=446}}</ref>

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna |title=Who Are the Bukharan Jews? |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/who-are-the-bukharan-jews/ |website=MyJewishLearning}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=LIPHSHIZ |first1=CNAAN |title=Dwindling at home, Central Asia's Bukharian Jews thrive in Diaspora |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/dwindling-at-home-central-asias-bukharian-jews-thrive-in-diaspora/ |website=The Times of Israel}}</ref> 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.<ref>Pinkhasov, Peter. [http://bjews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2&page=2 "The History of Bukharian Jews"], Bukharian Jewish Global Portal website, p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2009.</ref>

===Hibbat Zion and immigrating into Ottoman Palestine ===
[[File:Bukharian Jewish family in Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Bukharan Jewish family in Jerusalem, 1909]]
[[File:Bukharian Jews in Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|250px|Bukharan Jewish men in Jerusalem, 1927]]
{{Multiple image
| align             = right
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| image1            = Bukharian woman in Jerusalem.jpg
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| footer            = Bukharan Jewish women in Jerusalem, 1927
}}

Beginning from 1872, Bukharan Jews began to move into the region of [[Palestine (region)|Ottoman Palestine]], motivated by religious convictions and the desire to return to their ancestral homeland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rapport|first1=Evan|title=Greeted With Smiles: Bukharian Jewish Music and Musicians in New York|date=2014|isbn=978-0-19-937903-3|page=33|publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr1oBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT33|ref=ER}}</ref> The land on which they settled in [[Jerusalem]] was named the [[Bukharim quarter|Bukharan Quarter]] (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today.<ref name="Wager">{{cite book |last=Wager |first=Eliyahu |title=Bukharan Quarter |series=Illustrated guide to Jerusalem |publisher=The Jerusalem Publishing House |year=1988 |pages=207–201}}</ref><ref name=Eylon>{{cite web |last= Eylon |first= Lili |title= Focus on Israel: Jerusalem: Architecture in the late Ottoman Period: The Bukharan Quarter |year=2011 |publisher=[[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] |url= https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1999/pages/focus%20on%20israel-%20jerusalem%20-%20architecture%20in%20the%20l.aspx |access-date= 10 May 2021}}</ref> In 1890, seven members of the Bukharan Jewish community formed the [[Hovevei Zion]] Association of the Jewish communities of Bukhara, [[Samarkand]] and [[Tashkent]].<ref name=Wager/><ref name=Eylon/> 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.<ref name=Eylon/> Architect [[Conrad Schick]] was employed to design the neighborhood.<ref name=Wager/> The streets were three times wider than even major thoroughfares in Jerusalem at the time, and spacious mansions were built with large courtyards.<ref name=Wager/> 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.<ref name=Eylon/>

Rabbi [[Shimon Hakham]] and Rabbi [[Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi)|Shlomo Moussaieff]] were some of the organizers of the quarter where Bukharan homes, synagogues, schools, libraries, and a bath house were established.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLptAAAAMAAJ&q=rehovot+habukharim  |page=199 |title=איראנו-יודאיקה, כרך ה: לחקר פרס והיהדית |trans-title=Irano-Judaica, Part V: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture Throughout the Ages |last1=Shaked |first1=Shaul |last2=Netzar |first2=Amnon |year=2003 |publisher= מכון בן צבי לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח|isbn=978-965-235-095-4 }}</ref><ref name="muni">{{cite web |url=http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/Toursite_form_atarEng.asp?site_id=2242&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9&type_id=197 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120802121958/http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/Toursite_form_atarEng.asp?site_id=2242&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9&type_id=197 |archive-date=2 August 2012 |title=Bukharim &ndash; Beit Yisrael |publisher=Jerusalem Municipality |access-date=12 April 2012 }}</ref>

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]], [[gemstone]]s, and [[tea]] from Central Asia. Following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, the quarter fell into decline as sources of income from foreign trade became cut off leaving many residents with little more than just their homes in Jerusalem, forcing them to subdivide and rent out rooms to bring in income.<ref name="muni"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8SySAAAAIAAJ&q=bucharim+quarter |page=26 |title=Housing in Jewish Palestine |year=1938 |publisher=[[Jewish Agency for Israel]]}}</ref> From being lauded as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, the Bukharian Quarter earned the opposite sobriquet, of being one of the poorest neighborhoods of Jerusalem.<ref name="arieh">{{cite book |last=Ben-Arieh |first=Yehoshua |script-title=he:עיר בראי תקופה: ירושלים החדשה בראשיתה|trans-title=A City Reflected in its Times: New Jerusalem&nbsp;– The Beginnings |language=Hebrew|publisher=Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Publications |location=Jerusalem |year=1979|page=253}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Toursite form atar Eng |url=http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/Toursite_form_atarEng.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120802121958/http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/Toursite_form_atarEng.asp |archive-date=August 2, 2012 |access-date=March 14, 2025 |website=www.jerusalem.muni.il}}</ref>

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.<ref name=jpost/> 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.<ref name=jpost/> [[Johannesburg]] was twinned with the Bukharan Quarter, and Johannesburg Jewry raised enormous funds for its rehabilitation.<ref name=jpost/> Frustrated by the lack of progress, Casper traveled to Jerusalem in 1981 to resolve the hurdles.<ref name=jpost/> He consulted with community organizer Moshe Kahan and suggested that they present the dormant agencies with concrete evidence of what could be done.<ref name=jpost/> 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.<ref name=jpost>[https://www.jpost.com/local-israel/in-jerusalem/grace-under-fire Grace under fire] ''The Jerusalem Post''. 8 January 2009</ref>

The quarter borders [[Tel Arza]] on the west, the [[Shmuel HaNavi (neighborhood)|Shmuel HaNavi]] neighborhood on the north, [[Arzei HaBira]] on the east, and [[Geula]] on the south. Today, most of the residents are [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi Jews]].<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/travel/moussaieff-synagogue-bukhara-in-jerusalem-1.5383319 The Moussaieff Synagogue, a Relic of Bukhara in Jerusalem], [[Haaretz]]</ref>

===Under Soviet Union rule===
[[File:Bukharian family in front of their Sukkah.jpg|thumb|Family of David Kalontarov, head of [[Samarkand]]'s Bukharan Quarter, in front of their [[Sukkah]], 1902]]
[[File:Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_FOUR_GENERATIONS_OF_THE_KALANTAROV_FAMILY_LIGHT_THE_HANNUKAH_CANDLES.jpg|thumb|Bukharan Jewish family celebrate [[Hanukkah]] in [[Tel Aviv]], 1959]]
[[File:Bukharian Jews celebrating Passover.jpg|thumb|Bukharan Jewish family celebrate Passover in [[Jerusalem]], c. 1970s]]
Following the [[Bukhara operation (1920)|Soviet capture of Bukhara]] and the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republics of [[Uzbekistan]] and [[Tajikistan]], synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions.<ref name="Journal">{{cite journal |last1=Loy |first1=Thomas |title=Cross-border biographies: representations of the "Bukharan" Jewish self in changing cultural and political settings |journal=Journal of Modern Jewish Studies |date=2022 |volume=22 |issue=3 |page=4|doi=10.1080/14725886.2022.2090240|s2cid=250232378 }}</ref> As a result, many Bukharan Jews fled to [[Western world|the West]].

Stalin's decision to end Lenin's [[New Economic Policy]] and initiate the [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|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]].<ref name="Cross-border biographies: represent"/>

Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews.<ref name="Journal"/> 

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.  Nevertheless, the community still attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government.<ref name="Cross-border biographies: represent" />

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.<ref name="PoU">{{Cite book |author=Arto Luukkanen |title=The Party of Unbelief |date=1994 |publisher=Studia Historica 48 |isbn=951-710-008-6 |location=Helsinki |oclc=832629341 |ol=25433417M |author-link=Arto Luukkanen}}</ref>
 
In 1950, the "Black Years of Soviet Jewry" began when suppression of the Jewish religion resumed after having paused 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.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |last1=Gitelman |first1=Zvi |title=A Century of Ambivalence, Second Expanded Edition: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present |date=Apr 22, 2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=144–145 |isbn=978-0-253-01373-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dsl5CgAAQBAJ}}</ref> Several religious and prominent Bukharan Jews were arrested and sentenced to 25 years on charges of "Zionist propagation".<ref name="auto2"/> Even those who uttered the traditional phrase said by Jews on the [[Passover]] holiday, [[L'Shana Haba'ah|"Next Year in Jerusalem"]], were subject to arrests.<ref name="auto2"/> These arrests were all part of the Soviet [[anti-cosmopolitan campaign]], where antisemitism was often disguised under the banner of [[Soviet anti-Zionism|anti-Zionism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Laqueur |author-link=Walter Laqueur |title=Dying for Jerusalem: the past, present and future of the Holiest City |location=Naperville |publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc. |date=2006 |isbn=1-4022-0632-1 |page=55}}</ref>

After the creation of the state of [[Israel]] in 1948, and later the [[Six-Day War|Six-Day Arab–Israeli War]] of 1967, antisemitism intensified amongst the Muslim majority, with the 1967 war leading to a rise in [[Zionism|Jewish patriotism]]. The Soviet Union forbade Jews to make [[aliyah]] to Israel though these restrictions loosened in the 1970s and ceased in the 1980s.<ref name="KB">{{cite book |last1=Blady |first1=Ken |title=Jewish Communities in Exotic Places |date=2000 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-283-69576-3 |page=185 |ol=35782737M}}</ref>

===Relationship between other Jewish communities===
After the Russian conquest of Central Asia, a small number of [[Ashkenazi]] Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe and the European part of the Russian Empire to [[Russian Turkestan]]. During [[World War II]], tens of thousands of Ashkenazi Jews from the European regions of the Soviet Union headed eastward to various Soviet republics in Central Asia, either as [[Jewish refugees|refugees]], or were forcefully deported there by [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Landé |first1=Peter |title=Jewish Refugees in Tashkent |url=https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/0136_uzbek.html}}</ref> In [[Soviet Uzbekistan]], 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ochildiev |first1=David |title=A history of the Bukharan Jews |publisher=MIR |pages=154–155}}</ref>

Despite this, Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews largely remained separate from one another, and intermarriage between the two was extremely rare.<ref name="auto3">{{cite web | url=https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-features/rift-over-root-differences-remains-unmended-for-uzbek-jews | title=Rift over root differences remains unmended for Uzbek Jews | date=31 December 2006 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Krastev |first1=Nikola |title=U.S.: Bukharian Jews Seek To Preserve Identity |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1096232.html |newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=9 April 2008 }}</ref> Some Bukharan Jews viewed Ashkenazi Jews as inauthentic Jews, and looked down on them for their lack of Jewish identity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna |title=Where Have All the Jews Gone? Mass Migration from Independent Uzbekistan |date=December 2011 |publisher=University Press of Florida |pages=199–224}}</ref> Both groups are also buried in separate cemeteries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna E. |title=Where Have All the Jews Gone? Mass Migration from Independent Uzbekistan |date=December 2011 |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=978-0-8130-3751-6 |editor-last=Laskier |editor-first=Michael M. |pages=199–224 |editor-last2=Yaacov |editor-first2=Lev}}</ref>

However, Bukharan Jewry had good relations with the [[Chabad|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]].<ref name="auto10">{{cite web |last1=Zaltzman |first1=Hillel |title=Early Chabad Presence in Bucharia |url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2961927/jewish/Early-Chabad-Presence-in-Bucharia.htm |website=Chabad}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto10"/>

Amongst other ''[[Mizrahim]]'', there were numerous migrations of Jews from [[Iraq]] and [[Yemen]] who migrated into Central Asia (by way of the [[Silk Road]]), and were absorbed into the Bukharan Jewish community.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/travel/travel-news/wandering-jew-bukhara-the-ancient-silk-way-city|title=Wandering Jew: Bukhara, the ancient silk way city|newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]]}}</ref> Some Bukharan Jews also have Sephardic ancestry, similarly from various migrations of Jews from [[Syria]], [[Morocco]], and [[Turkey]] in the late 18th through 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abramov |first1=Markiel |title=Bukharian Jews: history and people |date=2020 |pages=124–125}}</ref>

===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 Jewish emigration. According to various Bukharan Jews, the Uzbek and Tajik locals would come to Jewish homes and say things in line with "Go back to where you came from. You don't belong here." Because of this, Jewish citizens also found it difficult to sell their homes at a reasonable price.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Manyuk |first1=Grigory |title=Short documentary of the migration of Bukharian Jews, filmed by Russian filmaker in the mid 1990's |url=https://vimeo.com/54323123 |website=Vimeo}}</ref> 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.<ref name="KB" />

==Immigrant populations==
===Tajikistan===
[[File:Dushanbe_Synagogue_Entrance.jpg|thumb|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, Dushanbe|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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/New_Synagogue_Opens_In_Dushanbe/1621721.html|title=New Synagogue Opens In Dushanbe|newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=5 May 2009 |access-date=19 November 2017}}</ref>

As of the 2010 census, there are 36 Jews left in Tajikistan. Two are Bukharan Jews while the other 34 are Ashkenazi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Tajikistan.html#u |title=Tajikistan: Virtual Jewish History Tour |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |date=2006-03-01 |access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref> On January 15, 2021, Jura Abaev, the last Jew in the city of [[Khujand]], Tajikistan died.<ref>{{cite web |last1=LIPHSHIZ |first1=CNAAN |title=After 3-time aliya, last Jew in Tajikistani city's centuries-old community dies |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/last-jew-in-tajikistani-city-dies-after-community-thrived-there-for-centuries/ |website=Times of Israel |access-date=22 November 2024}}</ref>

===Afghanistan===
{{Main|History of Jews in Afghanistan}}

[[File:Zablon Simintov.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Zablon Simintov]], known as the last Jew of Afghanistan]]
As [[Afghanistan]] is a landlocked country located between Central Asia and South Asia, [[History of the Jews in Afghanistan|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".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aharon |first1=Sara Y. |url=https://archive.org/details/fromkabultoqueen0000ahar |title=From Kabul to Queens: the Jews of Afghanistan and their move to the United States |date=2011 |publisher=American Sephardi Federation: Decalogue Books |isbn=978-0-692-01070-9 |location=New York |page=128}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Koplik 2015 p.85–87">{{cite book | last=Koplik | first=S. | title=A Political and Economic History of the Jews of Afghanistan | publisher=Brill | series=Brill's Series in Jewish Studies | year=2015 | isbn=978-90-04-29238-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOh5DwAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-03-03 | pages=85–87}}</ref> In total, some 60,000 refugees had fled from the [[Soviet Union]] and reached Afghanistan.<ref name="Koplik-2003">{{Cite journal|last=Koplik|first=Sara|date=2003|title=The demise of Afghanistan's Jewish community and the soviet refugee crisis (1932–1936)|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=36|issue=3|pages=353–379|doi=10.1080/021086032000139131|s2cid=161841657|issn=0021-0862}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1935/05/15/archive/ghetto-code-enacted-by-afghanistan |title=Ghetto Code Enacted by Afghanistan &#124; Jewish Telegraphic Agency |publisher=Jta.org |date=15 May 1935 |access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref> In 1935, a delegate to the [[World Zionist Congress]] claimed that an estimated 40,000 Bukharan Jews had been killed or starved to death.<ref name="Koplik-2003" />

Due to [[Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)|decades of warfare]], [[antisemitism]], and [[religious persecution]], Afghanistan's Jewish population continued to dwindle as many emigrated to other countries. 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Fletcher|first1=Martin|author-link1=Martin Fletcher (TV reporter)|title=The last Jew in Afghanistan|url=http://worldblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2008/06/14/4376492-the-last-jew-in-afghanistan|access-date=12 April 2017|work=[[NBC News]]|date=14 June 2008|archive-date=13 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413073104/http://worldblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2008/06/14/4376492-the-last-jew-in-afghanistan}}</ref>

In 2021, Simintov left Afghanistan amidst the [[2021 Taliban offensive|Taliban takeover]], and there are officially no Jews remaining in Afghanistan today.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/last-jew-afghanistan-en-route-us-report |title=Last Jew in Afghanistan en route to US: report |author=<!--Not stated--> |work=The New Arab |date=7 September 2021 |access-date=17 September 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/kabul-with-jewish-population-of-1-still-suffers-from-widespread-anti-semitism/|first=Ezzatullah|last=Mehrdad|access-date=9 September 2021|date=16 July 2019|work=The Times of Israel|title=Kabul, with Jewish population of 1, still suffers from widespread anti-Semitism}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Last member of Afghanistan's Jewish community leaves country |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 September 2021 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/08/afghanistans-last-jew-leaves-country |archive-date=9 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909030556/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/08/afghanistans-last-jew-leaves-country }}</ref>

===United States===
[[File:Union_Tpke_180_St_td_(2018-07-23)_01_-_Congregation_Beth-El.jpg|thumb|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]].<ref name="bjews.com"/> In [[Forest Hills, Queens]], 108th Street, often referred to as "Bukharan Broadway"<ref name="Bukharan Broadway">"Bukharan Broadway":
* Foner, Nancy. ''New immigrants in New York", ''[[Columbia University Press]], 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-231-12415-7}}, p. 133. "Since the 1970s, more than 35,000 "Bukharan" émigrés have created a bustling community in Forest Hills, with restaurants, barbershops, food stores and synagogue that together have given 108th street the nickname 'Bukharan Broadway'".
* Morel, Linda. [http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/18505/bukharan-jews-now-in-queens-recreate-their-sukkot-memories/ "Bukharan Jews now in Queens recreate their Sukkot memories"], ''[[J. The Jewish News of Northern California]]'' (''[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]''), September 20, 2002. "... 108th Street, recently dubbed 'Bukharan Broadway,'..."
* Victor Wishna, [http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/oct03_5.html "A Lost Tribe...Found in Queens"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821050226/http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/oct03_5.html |date=August 21, 2008 }}, ''[[San Diego Jewish Journal]]'', October 2003. "Leaving the bakery, we walk along what has been dubbed 'Bukharan Broadway,' where an abundance of restaurants and gift shops sit side by side."</ref> or "Bukharian Broadway",<ref name=nyt>Moskin, Julia. [http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/18rego.html "The Silk Road Leads to Queens"] ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 18, 2006.</ref> is filled with Bukharan restaurants and gift shops. Furthermore, Forest Hills is nicknamed "Bukharlem" due to the majority of the population being Bukharan.<ref>{{Cite web
| url = http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/buharlem_or_bukharlem_bukhara_harlem
| title = Buharlem or Bukharlem (Bukhara + Harlem)
| last = Popik
| first = Barry
| website = www.barrypopik.com
| access-date = 2017-01-29
}}</ref> They have formed a tight-knit enclave in this area that was once primarily inhabited by [[Ashkenazi Jews]]. [[Congregation Tifereth Israel (Queens)|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bucharianlife.blogspot.com/p/heritage.html|title=Heritage|website=bucharianlife.blogspot.com|access-date=19 November 2017}}</ref> In 2007, Bukharan-American Jews initiated lobbying efforts on behalf of their community.<ref name="thejewishweek.com">Ruby, Walter.[http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a738/News/New_York.html "The Bukharian Lobby"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221175639/http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a738/News/New_York.html |date=February 21, 2008 }}, ''[[The Jewish Week]]'', October 31, 2007.</ref> 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."{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}} During a speech, Senator [[Joseph Lieberman]] stated, "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."<ref name="thejewishweek.com" />

==Culture==
===Dress codes===
[[File:Bukharan kippah.jpg|thumb|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 wore as their daily attire until the [[Soviet Union]], though was still worn during communal events. Today, the traditional [[kaftan]] (Jomah-ҷома-ג'אמה in Bukhori and Tajik) is worn during weddings and [[Bar Mitzvah]]s.<ref>For examples see men and women coats as well as children's clothing from Bukhara, ["Dress Codes: Revealing the Jewish Wardrobe" {{cite web |url=http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/home/ |title=שפת לבוש |access-date=2014-07-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703023811/http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/home/ |archive-date=2014-07-03 }}] exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, March 11, 2014 – October 18, 2014</ref>

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]].<ref name="FOR">[http://www.forward.com/articles/4778/ Kippah Couture], [[The Forward]], Angela Himsel, September 29, 2006.</ref>

===Music===
[[File:Nozanin Jewish ensemble in Bukhara.jpg|thumb|250px|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 [[Spain|Spanish]] [[Chord (music)|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thewanderingmuse.net/musicians/shashmaqam |title=Shashmaqam |publisher=The Wandering Muse |access-date=2012-01-05 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008132400/http://www.thewanderingmuse.net/musicians/shashmaqam |archive-date=2011-10-08 }}</ref>

An account from explorer [[Henry Lansdell]] in 1885, upon visiting [[Samarkand]] and hearing the music of the Bukharan Jews:
<blockquote>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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lansdell |first1=Henry |title=Russian Central Asia, including Kuldja, Bokhara, Khiva and Merv |date=1885 |publisher=Hansebooks}}</ref></blockquote>

===Weddings and marriage traditions===
[[File:Preparation of a Bukharian Jewish bride before the wedding ceremony.jpg|thumb|170px|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.<ref name="auto7">{{cite book |last1=Ochildiev |first1=David |title=A history of the Bukharan Jews |date=2005 |publisher=MIR |page=191}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto7"/>

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.<ref name="auto8">{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Alanna |title=Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism |date=December 7, 2012 |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=153}}</ref> Girls in Central Asia were taught that they should not manicure their facial hair until they got married. The smooth, clean face served as a mark of womanhood.<ref name="auto8"/> This ceremony was done a few days before the wedding, and after the bride had immersed herself in the [[Mikveh]].<ref name="auto8"/>

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.<ref name="auto8"/>

===Cuisine===
[[File:bukharianbread.jpg|thumb|Central Asian style [[dumpling]] soup called ''shurboi dushpera'' or ''tushpera'' (left) along with traditional [[Tandoor bread|tandoor style bread]] called ''[[Obi non|non]]'' in Bukharan, Tajik, and Uzbek (right)|alt=]]

The cooking of Bukharan Jews is based on traditional [[Central Asian cuisine]], along with some uniquely Bukharan Jewish dishes such as bakhsh and osh savo, subject to the restrictions of [[Kashrut|Jewish dietary laws]].<ref name=Roden>Claudia Roden, ''The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York'', Alfred Knopf, New York (1996).</ref>

<blockquote>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."<ref>NYT,1-18-2006 [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/18rego.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 The Silk Road Leads to Queens]</ref></blockquote>

Authentic Bukharan Jewish dishes include:<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |author=BJews.com |url=http://www.bukharianjews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=123&page=1&POSTNUKESID=f877022a45d0d113ba2b9e33bd74a40c |title=Bukharian Jewish Global Portal: Cuisine |publisher=Bukharianjews.com |access-date=2012-01-05 |archive-date=2013-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729061740/http://bukharianjews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=123&page=1&POSTNUKESID=56011e9b9beff0041159fe54dd419c64 |url-status=live }}</ref>

* ''Osh palov'' – a Bukharan Jewish version of [[Pilaf|palov]] for weekdays, includes both beef and [[Chicken as food|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;<ref name=atlas>[http://www.library.cjes.ru/files/pdf/ethno-atlas-uzb.pdf ''Ethnographic Atlas of Uzbekistan'': Central Asian Jews] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007180449/http://www.library.cjes.ru/files/pdf/ethno-atlas-uzb.pdf |date=2009-10-07 }}, p. 93 {{in lang|ru}}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3040677,00.html Oshi sabo recipe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311092151/http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3040677,00.html |date=2008-03-11 }} {{in lang|he}}; recipe in '''English''' from [http://www.jwmag.org/site/c.fhLOK0PGLsF/b.2440999/k.5B09/Apples_and_Honey_and_More.htm ''Jewish Woman''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929063752/http://www.jwmag.org/site/c.fhLOK0PGLsF/b.2440999/k.5B09/Apples_and_Honey_and_More.htm |date=2008-09-29 }}, Fall 2005.</ref>  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).<ref name=Roden/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bjews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=printpage&artid=58|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202230119/http://www.bjews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=printpage&artid=58|title=This site is temporarily unavailable|archive-date=February 2, 2023|website=www.bjews.com}}</ref>
* ''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 [[Shabbat|Friday night dinner]].<ref name=Roden/>
* ''Kov roghan'' – fried pieces of chicken with fried potatoes piled on top.<ref>[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Kov_roghan Kov roghan recipe and photo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014130141/http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Kov_roghan |date=2012-10-14 }} in Wiki Cookbook</ref>
* ''Serkaniz'' (''Sirkoniz'') – garlic rice dish, another variation of [[Pilaf|palov]].<ref name="auto1"/>
* ''Oshi piyozi'' – stuffed onion.<ref name=atlas/>
* ''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.<ref name=Roden/>
* ''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 [[samosa]]s.
* ''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 [[Shabbat|Friday night dinner]]):<ref name=atlas/> "Every Bukharian Sabbath ... is greeted with a dish of fried fish covered with a pounded sauce of garlic and cilantro".<ref>[http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/18rego.html?pagewanted=1 "The Silk Road Leads to Queens"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202230108/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/the-silk-road-leads-to-queens.html |date=2023-02-02 }}, Brief culinary history of Central Asia from [[New York Times]], 18 January 2006, accessed 13 September 2008.</ref> In the Bukharan dialect, the dish is called {{Transliteration|bhh|mai birion}} or in full {{Transliteration|bhh|mai birion ovi sir}}, where {{Transliteration|bhh|mai birion}} is fried fish and {{Transliteration|bhh|ovi sir}} is garlic sauce (literally "garlic water").<ref name=Roden/> Bread is sometimes fried and then dipped in the remaining garlic water and is called {{Transliteration|bhh|noni-sir}}.
*''[[Chak-Chak|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 ==
{{further|Genetic studies of Jews}}
In autosomal analyses, Bukharan Jews form a close genetic cluster with [[Iranian Jews]], [[Iraqi Jews]], [[Mountain Jews]], [[Georgian Jews]], and [[Kurdish Jews]], and are genetically completely distinct to their local neighbors.<ref name="auto5">{{Cite journal |last1=Behar |first1=Doron |last2=Metspalu |first2=Mait |last3=Baran |first3=Yael |last4=Kopelman |first4=Naama |last5=Yunusbayev |first5=Bayazit |last6=Gladstein |first6=Ariella |last7=Tzur |first7=Shay |last8=Sahakyan |first8=Havhannes |last9=Bahmanimehr |first9=Ardeshir |last10=Yepiskoposyan |first10=Levon |last11=Tambets |first11=Kristiina |date=2013-12-01 |title=No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews |url=https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol_preprints/41 |journal=Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints |volume=85 |issue=6}}</ref> This cluster plots between Levantine and Northern West Asian populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=Iosif |last2=Patterson |first2=Nick |last3=Mittnik |first3=Alissa |last4=Renaud |first4=Gabriel |last5=Mallick |first5=Swapan |last6=Kirsanow |first6=Karola |last7=Sudmant |first7=Peter H. |last8=Schraiber |first8=Joshua G. |last9=Castellano |first9=Sergi |last10=Lipson |first10=Mark |last11=Berger |first11=Bonnie |last12=Economou |first12=Christos |last13=Bollongino |first13=Ruth |last14=Fu |first14=Qiaomei |last15=Bos |first15=Kirsten I. |date=2014 |title=Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=513 |issue=7518 |pages=409–413 |doi=10.1038/nature13673 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=4170574 |pmid=25230663|arxiv=1312.6639 |bibcode=2014Natur.513..409L }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Martiniano |first1=Rui |last2=Haber |first2=Marc |last3=Almarri |first3=Mohamed A. |last4=Mattiangeli |first4=Valeria |last5=Kuijpers |first5=Mirte C.M. |last6=Chamel |first6=Berenice |last7=Breslin |first7=Emily M. |last8=Littleton |first8=Judith |last9=Almahari |first9=Salman |last10=Aloraifi |first10=Fatima |last11=Bradley |first11=Daniel G. |last12=Lombard |first12=Pierre |last13=Durbin |first13=Richard |date=2024 |title=Ancient genomes illuminate Eastern Arabian population history and adaptation against malaria |journal=Cell Genomics |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |article-number=100507 |doi=10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100507 |pmc=10943591 |pmid=38417441}}</ref>

Among non-Jewish populations, Bukharan Jews also form a cluster with other West Asian people including [[Kurds]], [[Iranian peoples|Iranians]], [[Armenians]], [[Assyrians]], and [[Arabs|Levantine Arabs]].<ref name="auto5"/>

Research on the [[Y chromosome|Y chromosomes]] of Bukharan Jews similarly shows their West Asian ancestry, and some Bukharan Jewish men belong to the [[Y-chromosomal Aaron|Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brook |first=Kevin Alan |url=https://view.flipdocs.com/?ID=10010717_220922 |title=Bukharian Jews in the Mizrahi Jewish DNA Project |work=Bukharian Jewish Link |issue=181 |date=2024-08-29 |page=15 |access-date=2025-10-31}}</ref>

== Notable Bukharan Jews ==
===Israel===
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
* [[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, General Director of [[Israel Broadcasting Authority]]
* [[Amnon Cohen]], politician, member of the [[Knesset]] for [[Shas]]
* [[Oded Davidoff]], film and TV director
* [[Guy Haimov]], professional [[Professionalism in association football|football]] player 
* [[Shimon Hakham]], Bukharan rabbi, writer, one of the founders of the Bukharan Quarter
* [[Robert Ilatov]], politician,  member of the Knesset for [[Yisrael Beiteinu]]
* [[Avi Issacharoff]], journalist and creator of the series ''[[Fauda]]''
* [[Lev Avnerovich Leviev|Lev Leviev]], billionaire businessman, investor, philanthropist, president of the World Congress of Bukharian Jews
* [[K-KOV|Nitzan Kaikov]], songwriter and music producer
* [[Rinat Matatov]], actress
* [[Moshe Mishaelof]], professional football player
* [[Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi)|Shlomo Moussaieff]], co-founder of the Bukharan Quarter in Jerusalem
* [[Shlomo Moussaieff (businessman)|Shlomo Moussaieff]], businessman
* [[Dorrit Moussaieff]], former [[List of spouses and partners of Icelandic presidents|First Lady of Iceland]]
* [[Rafael Pinhasi]], politician; 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 (Israel)|New Hope]]
* [[Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich]], politician who served as a member of the Knesset for [[Kadima]]
* [[Esther Roth-Shahamorov]], national athlete 
* [[Idan Yaniv]], singer, "2007 Israeli Artist of the Year"
* [[Benjamin Yusupov]], [[Classical music|classical]] composer, conductor and pianist

===United States===
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
* [[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 (service)|Vine]]
* [[Iosef Yusupov]], designer

===United Kingdom ===
* [[Yvonne Green]] (née Mammon), poet and translator<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/silk-road-in-a-london-taxi-1.5364802 | title=A Silk Road Bride Rides a London Taxi| newspaper=Haaretz| date=2015-01-27}}</ref>
* [[Jeremy Issacharoff]], diplomat and ambassador for Israel 
* [[Anthony Yadgaroff]], businessman, Jewish community leader

===Other===
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
* [[Alexandre Reza]], Jeweler known for his diverse and rare collection of precious gemstones
* [[Ari Babakhanov]], musician from [[Uzbekistan]]
* [[Eson Kandov]], singer, [[People's Artist of the USSR|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 [[Shashmaqam|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 Mullojonova|Shoista Mullodzhanova]], Shashmakon singer, "People's Artist of Tajikistan" (Queen of [[Shashmaqam|Shashmakom]] music)
* [[Gavriel Mullokandov]], popular Shashmakom artist, "People's Artist of Uzbekistan"
* [[Suleiman Yudakov]], [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] composer and musician, "People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR"
* [[Yakhiel Sabzanov]], [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] composer, "People's Artist of the Tajik SSR"
* [[Zablon Simintov]], widely regarded as the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, evacuated to Israel in 2021

==See also==
{{Portal|Uzbekistan|Judaism}}
* [[Bukharan Jews in Israel]]
* [[Bukhori dialect]]
* [[Africa Israel Investments]]
* [[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]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==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==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* [https://archive.today/20130122175504/http://www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Bukharan-Jews-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html Bukharian Isralites]
* [https://www.japanpsychiatrist.com/Burt's/AminoffEscape.html The Great Aminoff Escape Saga]
* [http://www.mammon.net Joseph Mammon. My Story] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040328160151/http://mammon.net/ |date=2004-03-28 }}
* [https://bukhariancommunity.com/ Official World Wide Bukharian Community Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080511233422/http://www.bjews.com/ BJews.com], Bukharian Jewish Global Portal
* Cooper, Alanna E. ''[https://iupress.org/9780253006431/bukharan-jews-and-the-dynamics-of-global-judaism/ Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism]''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
* [http://www.kikayon.com/bukharan-jews.html "Alanna's Cooper's publications on Bukharan Jews"], kikayon.com
* Elena Neva, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140725172034/http://www.artwis.com/articles/heavenly-frogs-in-the-art-of-bukharian-jewelers/ "Heavenly Frogs in the Art of Bukharian Jewelers"]}}, Kunstpedia, March 19, 2009.
* [https://www.haaretz.com/2009-10-21/ty-article/bukharian-jews-protect-their-culture-in-a-n-y-enclave/0000017f-e8ad-dea7-adff-f9ff62ea0000 "Bukharian Jews protect their culture in a N.Y. enclave"], ''[[Haaretz]]'' ([[Reuters]]), October 21, 2009.
* {{youTube|RLTNc-SuFV4|AVRAM TOLMAS, RUSTAM, YASHA BARAEV}}
* {{youTube|lSZ_wZ1UJXc|Lazgi Malika Kalontarova Dushanbe Малика Калонтарова Лазги Душанбе}}
* [https://shiur.com/search.php?keywords=%D0%91%D1%83%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC Bukharian Torah Lectures] by Bukharian Rabbis
{{Asia topic|History of the Jews in}}
{{Ethnic groups in Uzbekistan}}
{{Mizrahi Jews topics}}
{{Jews and Judaism}}

[[Category:Bukharan Jews|Bukharan Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Mizrahi Jews topics]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Tajikistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Turkmenistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Uzbekistan]]