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101-641: Bukharan Jews are one of the oldest Jewish diaspora groups, dating back to the Babylonian exile , and are a branch of Persian-Jewry . They are also one of the oldest ethno-religious groups in Central Asia. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the great majority have immigrated to Israel or the United States , with others immigrating to Europe or Australia . The term Bukharan

202-468: A Tilpak, and had their belts made of rope, while the leather belts were reserved for Muslims. 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. 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,

303-610: A delegate to the World Zionist Congress claimed that an estimated 40,000 Bukharan Jews had been killed or starved to death. 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

404-573: A dream, or as others claim, from the pearl earrings worn by the royal guard of Nadir Shah. The Abdali Pashtuns were known thereafter as the Durrani, and the name of the Abdali confederation was changed to Durrani. Ahmad Shah began his campaign by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilji Pashtuns, and wresting Kabul and Peshawar from Mughal-appointed governor Nasir Khan, conquering the area up to

505-586: A few books were written in Persian and many of them were old and incomplete. Hakham decided to change this situation by translating religious books into Bukhori. But since there was no printing in Bukhara at that time, he went to Jerusalem to print his books. In 1865, Russian colonial troops took over Tashkent and established the Russian Turkestan region, as part of their expanding empire. Unlike

606-473: A large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews. 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, but

707-639: 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. Upon arriving and his first days of meeting the Bukharan Jews, he stated in his writings: "As I arrived in Bukhara in 1793, I found my co-religionists in a state of utter ignorance. Only a few of them could read. I found serious deviations in Jewish observance. The local community did not have leaders who could competently govern their people. In addition, there weren't enough religious literature,

808-564: A number of serious effects on Judaism and Jewish culture. For example, the current Hebrew alphabet was adopted during this period, replacing the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . This period saw the last high point of biblical prophecy in the person of Ezekiel , followed by the emergence of the central role of the Torah in Jewish life. According to many historical-critical scholars, the Torah

909-584: A reasonable price. 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. 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

1010-572: A special fund for the Quarter's improvement and this was tied with Prime Minister Menachem Begin 's urban revitalization program, Project Renewal. Johannesburg was twinned with the Bukharan Quarter, and Johannesburg Jewry raised enormous funds for its rehabilitation. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Casper traveled to Jerusalem in 1981 to resolve the hurdles. He consulted with community organizer Moshe Kahan and suggested that they present

1111-564: A surviving member of the royal family assassinated Gedaliah and his Babylonian advisors, prompting many refugees to seek safety in Egypt. By the end of the second decade of the 6th century BCE, in addition to those who remained in Judah, there were significant Jewish communities in Babylon and in Egypt; this was the beginning of the later numerous Jewish communities living permanently outside Judah in

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1212-589: A war against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes and 25,000 Baloch warriors joined his army under the command of Khan of Kalat Mir Noori Naseer Khan Baloch . Early skirmishes were followed by victory for the Afghans and Baloch against the smaller Maratha garrisons in Northwest India and by 1759 Ahmad and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760,

1313-586: A year of siege and bloody conflict, as did Mashad (in present-day Iran). Ahmad Shah next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush mountains. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen , Uzbek , Tajik and Hazara tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over

1414-582: Is a landlocked country located between Central Asia and South Asia, 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." 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

1515-529: The Holocaust , large migrations of Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe came to various countries in Central Asia. Bukharan and Ashkenazi Jews largely remained separate from one another, and intermarriage between the two was practically non-existent. Bukharan Jews ranged from religious to traditional, and clustered together (particular those who lived in

1616-595: The Indus River in 1747. In 1749, the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh , the Punjab region and the important trans Indus River to Ahmad Shah in order to save his capital from Afghan attack. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Herat , which was ruled by Nader Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh of Persia . Herat fell to Ahmad after almost

1717-738: The Jewish Diaspora . According to the book of Ezra , the Persian Cyrus the Great ended the exile in 538 BCE, the year after he captured Babylon. The exile ended with the return under Zerubbabel the Prince (so-called because he was a descendant of the royal line of David ) and Joshua the Priest (a descendant of the line of the former High Priests of the Temple) and their construction of

1818-502: The Jewish people , and ultimately had a far-reaching impact on the development of Judaism . Archaeological studies have revealed that, although the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, other parts of Judah continued to be inhabited during the period of the exile. Historical records from Mesopotamia and Jewish sources indicate that a significant portion of the Jewish population chose to remain in Mesopotamia. This decision led to

1919-630: The Kingdom of Judah was a client state of the Assyrian empire. In the last decades of the century, Assyria was overthrown by Babylon, an Assyrian province. Egypt , fearing the sudden rise of the Neo-Babylonian empire , seized control of Assyrian territory up to the Euphrates river in Syria, but Babylon counter-attacked. In the process Josiah , the king of Judah, was killed in a battle with

2020-721: The Pentateuch took place in the Persian period following the exile, and the Priestly source , one of its main sources, is primarily a product of the post-exilic period when the former Kingdom of Judah had become the Persian province of Yehud. In the Hebrew Bible, the captivity in Babylon is presented as a punishment for idolatry and disobedience to Yahweh in a similar way to the presentation of Israelite slavery in Egypt followed by deliverance. The Babylonian captivity had

2121-569: The Shia branch of Islam, while Central Asia retained their allegiance to the Sunni branch of Islam. Due to the hostile relationship between the neighboring states 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 here, a distinct point of origin of the ethnonym and cultural identity of "Bukharan Jews" began to take formation. A similar event happened in

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2222-583: The Timurid Empire , Jewish weavers and dyers contributed greatly to his effort to rebuild Central Asia following Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasions . In the centuries following Timur's demise, Jews came to dominate the region’s textile and dye industry. Until the start of the 16th century, the Jews of Iran and Central Asia constituted one community. However, during the Safavid dynasty , Iran adopted

2323-701: The destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 587 BCE. In the biblical account, after the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem, which resulted in tribute being paid by the Judean king Jehoiakim . In the fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar II's reign, Jehoiakim refused to pay further tribute, which led to another siege of the city in Nebuchadnezzar II's seventh year (598/597 BCE) that culminated in

2424-484: The missing years in the Jewish calendar , rabbinic sources place the date of the destruction of the First Temple at 3338 AM (423 BCE) or 3358 AM (403 BCE)). The first governor appointed by Babylon was Gedaliah , a native Judahite; he encouraged the many Jews who had fled to surrounding countries such as Moab , Ammon and Edom to return, and he took steps to return the country to prosperity. Some time later,

2525-761: The " Jewish diaspora ", unless this is considered to have begun with the Assyrian captivity . In Rabbinic literature , Babylon was one of a number of metaphors for the Jewish diaspora. Most frequently the term "Babylon" meant the diaspora prior to the destruction of the Second Temple. The post-destruction term for the Jewish Diaspora was " Rome ", or " Edom ". The following table is based on Rainer Albertz's work on Israel in exile , itself based mainly on biblical texts. (Alternative dates are possible.) Durrani dynasty The Durrani dynasty ( Persian : سلسله درانیان ; Pashto : د درانيانو کورنۍ )

2626-456: 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 of over one-third of Bukharan Jews, under a threat of torture and agonizing execution. These Jews who forcibly converted were known as Chala 's, an Uzbek term meaning "neither this nor that." On top of this, isolation from

2727-500: The 5th to 4th centuries BCE. A 2017 exhibition in Jerusalem displayed over 100 cuneiform tablets detailing trade in fruits and other commodities, taxes, debts, and credits accumulated between Jews forced or persuaded to move from Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BCE. The tablets included details on one exiled Judean family over four generations, all with Hebrew names. Most Jews who returned were poor Jews and either saw

2828-633: The Bukharan Jews viewed Tsarist Russia rule: "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." Dubbed the "Golden Age" for Bukharan Jews, from 1876 to 1916 they were no longer restricted in their autonomy and had

2929-469: The City of Judah and on the ninth day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice and taking heavy tribute brought it back to Babylon. Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets , describing ration orders for a captive King of Judah, identified with King Jeconiah, have been discovered during excavations in Babylon, in the royal archives of Nebuchadnezzar. One of

3030-528: The Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo (609 BCE) . After the defeat of Pharaoh Necho's army by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim began paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. Some of the young nobility of Judah were taken to Babylon. In the following years, the court of Jerusalem was divided into two parties, one supporting Egypt, the other Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar

3131-624: The Great , which became part of the Persian Empire . In the opinion of some scholars, Jews settled in Central Asia in the sixth century, but it is certain that during the eighth to ninth centuries they lived in Central Asian cities such as Balkh , Khwarezm , Samarkand , and Merv . At that time, and until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a homogeneous group with the Jews of Iran and Afghanistan. The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates to

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3232-621: The Jewish Quarters), while most Ashkenazi Jews living in Central Asia were secular, and assimilated into the general populace. However, Bukharan Jewry had good relations with the 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 . Rabbi Eliezrov accepted a temporary rabbinical position in Uzbekistan and helped organize

3333-440: The Jewish men would be ritually slapped in the face by Muslim authorities. Despite these prohibitions and humiliations, the Jews were able to achieve financial success primarily as merchants and established lucrative trade businesses. 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. During

3434-402: The Jewish religion resumed after stopping 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. Several religious and prominent Bukharan Jews were arrested and sentenced to 25 years on charges of "Zionist propagation." Even those who uttered

3535-409: The Jews of Eastern Europe , Tsarist Russia was largely favorable towards the Jews living there, due to years of trade relations with the Bukharan Jews, and they were viewed as potential allies in the region to act as interpreters with the local authorities. As a Russian official explained in 1866: "Whatever we know of the interior of Bukhara we are chiefly indebted for its Jewish inhabitants..... Upon

3636-501: 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

3737-522: The Maratha groups had coalesced into a big enough army under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a confrontation between two warring contenders for control of northern India . The Third Battle of Panipat (January 1761), fought between largely Muslim and largely Hindu armies was waged along a twelve-kilometre front. Despite decisively defeating the Marathas, what might have been Ahmad Shah's peaceful control of his domains

3838-507: The Muslim majority, with the 1967 war leading to a rise in Jewish patriotism . The Soviet Union forbade Jews to make aliyah to Israel, though these restrictions loosened in the 1970s and were dropped in the 1980s. After the Russian conquest of Central Asia, a small amount of Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe and the European part of Russia to Turkestan. After World War II and

3939-560: The Persian rite their practices were aggressively rejected as incorrect by Maimon. 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

4040-624: The Persians conquered Babylon. Exiled Jewish commoners were nostalgic about Judah and, due to circumstance, were forced to abandon temple-based worship. They mostly worshipped in private homes and kept some religious traditions such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, reading of the Psalms and Law . The Cyrus Cylinder , an ancient tablet on which is written a declaration in the name of Cyrus referring to restoration of temples and repatriation of exiled peoples, has often been taken as corroboration of

4141-527: The Punjab and Kashmir regions. Then, early in 1757, he sacked Delhi , but permitted the Mughal dynasty to remain in nominal control of the city as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty over Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. Leaving his second son Timur Shah to safeguard his interests, Ahmad Shah left Hindustan (India) to return to Afghanistan. Alarmed by the expansion of China's Qing Dynasty up to

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4242-641: The Sadozai. This upset the delicate balance of Durrani tribal politics that Ahmad Shah had established and may have prompted Painda Khan and other Durrani chiefs to plot against the shah. Painda Khan and the chiefs of the Nurzai and the Alizai Durrani clans were executed, as was the chief of the Qizilbash clan. Painda Khan's son fled to Iran and pledged the substantial support of his Barakzai followers to

4343-532: The Second Temple in the period from 521 to 516 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem, his capture of its king, his appointment of another in his place, and the plundering of the city in 597 BCE are corroborated by a passage in the Babylonian Chronicles : In the seventh year, in the month of Kislev, the king of Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Hatti-land, and encamped against

4444-719: The Sikhs permanently, but failed. In early 1771, ten years after the collapse of Maratha supremacy in north India in the Third Battle of Panipat, Marathas under Mahadji Shinde recaptured Delhi and restored the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II to the throne in 1772. Ahmad Shah also faced other rebellions in the north, and eventually he and the Uzbek Emir of Bukhara agreed that the Amu Darya would mark

4545-535: 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. Beginning from 1872, Bukharan Jews began to move into the region of Ottoman Palestine , motivated by religious convictions and the desire to return to their ancestral homeland. The land on which they settled in Jerusalem

4646-472: The authenticity of the biblical decrees attributed to Cyrus, but other scholars point out that the cylinder's text is specific to Babylon and Mesopotamia and makes no mention of Judah or Jerusalem. Professor Lester L. Grabbe asserted that the "alleged decree of Cyrus" regarding Judah, "cannot be considered authentic", but that there was a "general policy of allowing deportees to return and to re-establish cult sites". He also stated that archaeology suggests that

4747-415: The beginning of the 4th century CE. It is recalled in the Talmud by Rabbi Shmuel bar Bisna, a member of the Talmudic academy in Pumbeditha , who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv in Turkmenistan ). The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956. In the 14th century under the rule of Timur in

4848-469: The chiefs of the Afghans met at a loya jirga (grand council) in Kandahar to select a new ruler for the Abdali confederation, the young 25-year-old Ahmad Khan was chosen. Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad Khan had several overriding factors in his favour: One of Ahmad Khan's first acts as chief was to adopt the title Padshah durr-i durrān (King, "pearl of the age" or "pearl of pearls"). The name may have been suggested, as some claim, from

4949-421: The city's destruction in 587 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city wall and the Temple, together with the houses of the most important citizens. Zedekiah and his sons were captured and the sons were executed in front of Zedekiah, who was then blinded and taken to Babylon with many others (Jer 52:10–11). Judah became a Babylonian province, called Yehud , putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah (Because of

5050-489: The communities petitioned Jewish communities in Europe and the United States for support. In total, some 60,000 refugees had fled from the Soviet Union and reached Afghanistan. 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. In 1935,

5151-423: The community owned only two copies of the Holy Scripture, and even then, they only had the first three books of the Pentateuch". Prior to Maimon's arrival, the native Jews of Bukhara followed the Persian religious tradition. Maimon staunchly demanded that the native Jews of Bukhara adopt Sephardic traditions. Many of the native Jews were opposed to this and the community split into two factions. The followers of

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5252-418: The community still attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government. During this time, both Jews and Muslims suffering 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. In 1950 the "Black Years of Soviet Jewry" began where suppression of

5353-403: The community) to make room for the new 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

5454-460: 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 emigration of Jews. According to various Bukharan Jews, the Uzbek and Tajik locals would come to Jewish homes and would often say things in line with "Go back to where you came from. You don't belong here." Because of this, they also found it difficult to sell their homes at

5555-455: The death of Jehoiakim and the exile to Babylonia of his successor Jeconiah , his court, and many others; Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and others were exiled when Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem in his 18th year (587 BCE), and a later deportation occurred in Nebuchadnezzar II's 23rd year (582 BCE). However, the dates, numbers of deportations, and numbers of deportees vary in the several biblical accounts. The Bible recounts how after

5656-569: The division of their lands. Ahmad Shah retired to his home in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died on 14 April 1773. He had succeeded to a remarkable degree in balancing tribal alliances and hostilities, and in directing tribal energies away from rebellion. He earned recognition as Ahmad Shah Baba, or " Father of Afghanistan ." By the time of Ahmad Shah's ascendancy, the Pashtuns included many groups whose origins were obscure; most were believed to have descended from ancient Aryan tribes. They had in common, however, their Pashto language . To

5757-412: The dormant agencies with concrete evidence of what could be done. 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. The quarter borders Tel Arza on the west, the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood on the north, Arzei HaBira on the east, and Geula on

5858-470: The early half of the 19th century. Ahmad Shah and his descendants were from the Sadozai subclan of Popalzai line of the Durranis (formerly known as Abdalis ), making them the second Pashtun rulers of Kandahar after the Hotak dynasty . The Durranis were notable in the second half of the 18th century mainly due to the leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani. Nader Shah 's rule ended in June 1747 after being murdered by his Persian soldiers. In July 1747, when

5959-425: The east, the Waziris and their close relatives, the Maseed , had lived in the hills of the central Sulaiman Mountains since the 14th century. By the end of the 16th century and the final Mughal invasions, tribes such as the Shinwari , Yusufzai , and Mohmand had moved from the upper Kabul River Valley into the valleys and plains west, north, and northeast of Peshawar . The Afridi had long been established in

6060-405: The emergence of scribes and sages as Jewish leaders (see Ezra ). Prior to exile, the people of Israel had been organized according to tribe. Afterwards, they were organized by smaller family groups. Only the Tribe of Levi continued in its temple role after the return. After this time, there were always sizable numbers of Jews living outside the Land of Israel ; thus, it also marks the beginning of

6161-411: The empire began to unravel. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the Sikhs . He assaulted Lahore and, after taking their holy city of Amritsar , massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroying their revered Golden Temple . Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again and rebuilt their holy city of Amritsar. Ahmad Shah tried several more times to subjugate

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6262-412: The establishment of a sizable Jewish community in Mesopotamia known as the golah (dispersal), which persisted until modern times. The Iraqi Jewish , Persian Jewish , Georgian Jewish , Bukharian Jewish , and the Mountain Jewish communities are believed to derive their ancestry in large part from these exiles; these communities have now largely emigrated to Israel . In the late 7th century BCE,

6363-420: The exile as "spiritual regeneration" or "divine punishment for sins". One reason why wealthy Jews stayed in Mesopotamia includes economic opportunities, which were relatively uncommon in Judah. The exilic period was a rich source for Hebrew literature. Biblical depictions of the exile include Book of Jeremiah 39–43 (which saw the exile as a lost opportunity); the final section of 2 Kings (which portrays it as

6464-429: The fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire to the Achaemenid Empire at the Battle of Opis in 539 BCE, exiled Judeans were permitted by the Persians to return to Judah . According to the biblical Book of Ezra , construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem began c.  537 BCE in the new Persian province of Yehud Medinata . All of these events are considered significant to the developed history and culture of

6565-517: The hills and mountain ranges south of the Khyber Pass . By the end of the 18th century, the Durranis had blanketed the area west and north of Kandahar Province . The efforts of the Sadozai heirs of Timur to impose a true monarchy on the truculent Pashtun tribes, and their efforts to rule absolutely and without the advice of the other major Pashtun tribal leaders, were ultimately unsuccessful. The Sikhs became particularly troublesome, and after several unsuccessful efforts to subdue them, Zaman Shah made

6666-448: 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 . Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had

6767-434: 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

6868-410: The middle of the 18th century with the Jews of Afghanistan, which saw the creation of the Afghani kingdom, ruled by the Durrani dynasty , while the Emirate of Bukhara was ruled by the Manghud dynasty. 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. Over the centuries, whether it

6969-510: The mistake of appointing a forceful young Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh , as his governor of Lahore . This "one-eyed" warrior would later become an implacable enemy of Pashtun rulers in Afghanistan. Zaman's downfall was triggered by his attempts to consolidate power. Although it had been through the support of the Barakzai chief, Painda Khan Barakzai, that he had come to the throne, Zaman soon began to remove prominent Barakzai leaders from positions of power and replace them with men of his own lineage,

7070-408: The neighborhood also became one of the centers of the Zionist movement with many of its leaders and philosophers living there. 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. After his appointment as Chief Rabbi in South Africa he set up

7171-418: The northwest of India. Ahmad Shah sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted. To counter the Afghans, Peshwa Balaji Bajirao sent Raghunathrao . He defeated the Rohillas and Afghan garrisons in Punjab and succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India and brought Lahore, Multan, Kashmir and other subahs on the Indian side of Attock under Maratha rule. Ahmad Shah Abdali declared

7272-430: The organizers of the quarter where Bukharan homes, synagogues, schools, libraries, and a bath house were established. 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 , gemstones , and tea from Central Asia . After World War I and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution , however,

7373-450: The prophet Ezekiel ) back to Babylon. Jehoiakim's uncle Zedekiah was appointed king in his place, but the exiles in Babylon continued to consider Jeconiah as their Exilarch , or rightful ruler. Despite warnings by Jeremiah and others of the pro-Babylonian party, Zedekiah revolted against Babylon and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra . Nebuchadnezzar returned, defeated the Egyptians, and again besieged Jerusalem , resulting in

7474-656: The provision of kosher meat in surrounding cities where Jews lived. Over the decades, other emissaries from Chabad would come to support the Bukharan community as well. Some Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq , Yemen , Syria , and Morocco migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road ), and were absorbed into the Bukharan Jewish community. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were approximately 50,000 Bukharan Jews in Central Asia. In

7575-473: The quarter fell into decline as overseas sources of income were cut off and residents were left with just their homes in Jerusalem, forcing them to subdivide and rent out rooms to bring in income. From being lauded as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods of Jerusalem, the Bukharian Quarter earned the opposite sobriquet, of being one of the poorest neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In the 1920s and 1930s,

7676-592: The reign of Aurangzeb , who died in 1707; In 1751–52, Ahamdiya treaty was signed between the Marathas and Mughals , when Balaji Bajirao was the Peshwa . Through this treaty, the Marathas controlled virtually the whole of India from their capital at Pune and Mughal rule was restricted only to Delhi (the Mughals remained the nominal heads of Delhi). Marathas were now straining to expand their area of control towards

7777-541: The rest of the Jewish world reached a point where the Jews of Bukhara began to lack knowledge and practice of their Jewish religion. By the middle of the 18th century, practically all Bukharan Jews lived in the Bukharan Emirate . In the early 1860s, Arminius Vambery , a Hungarian-Jewish traveler, visited the emirate disguised as a Sunni dervish , writing in his journals that the Jews of Bukhara "live in utmost oppression, being despised by everyone." In 1793,

7878-402: The return was a "trickle" taking place over decades, rather than a single event. As part of the Persian Empire , the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of Judah ( Yehud Medinata ) with different borders, covering a smaller territory. The population of the province was greatly reduced from that of the kingdom; archaeological surveys suggesting a population of around 30,000 people in

7979-437: The same rights as their Muslim neighbors. 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

8080-544: The sole known Jew in Afghanistan. Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire . The deportations occurred in multiple waves: After the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, around 7,000 individuals were deported to Mesopotamia . Further deportations followed

8181-651: The south. Today, most of the residents are Haredi Jews . Following the Soviet capture of Bukhara and the creation of the Soviet Social Republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan , synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions. Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West . Stalin's decision to end Lenin's New Economic Policy and initiate the First five-year plan in

8282-468: The tablets refers to food rations for "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu" and five royal princes, his sons. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian forces returned in 589 BCE and rampaged through Judah, leaving clear archaeological evidence of destruction in many towns and settlements there. Clay ostraca from this period, referred to as the Lachish letters , were discovered during excavations; one, which

8383-606: The temporary end of history); 2 Chronicles (in which the exile is the "Sabbath of the land"); and the opening chapters of Ezra, which records its end. Other works from or about the exile include the stories in Daniel 1–6, Susanna , Bel and the Dragon , the "Story of the Three Youths" ( 1 Esdras 3:1–5:6), and the books of Tobit and Judith . The Book of Lamentations arose from the Babylonian captivity. The final redaction of

8484-644: The time before deportations. In Mesopotamia, the exiled Judeans were relocated to agricultural settlements, with one notable settlement being Tel-Abib near the city of Nippur . Biblical scholar Niels Peter Lemche suggests that the exiled Judeans experienced a lifestyle scarcely less prosperous than what they were accustomed to in their homeland. However, there is evidence for hardship. For example, exiled Jewish leaders were suspected of national disloyalty and were reduced to peasantry, where they worked in agriculture and building projects and performed simple tasks such as farming, shepherding and fishing. This ended when

8585-521: The traditional phrase said by Jews on the Passover holiday, "Next Year in Jerusalem" , were subject to arrests. These arrests were all part of the Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaign , where antisemitism was often disguised under the banner of anti-Zionism . After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and later the Six-Day Arab–Israeli War of 1967, antisemitism intensified amongst

8686-417: The tribes of Naphtali and Issachar during the Assyrian captivity , basing this assumption on a reading of "Habor" at II Kings 17:6 as a reference to Bukhara. However, modern day scholarship associate this telling with European myths, where stories about the " Ten Lost Tribes " had been propagated in Europe. Historians associate their establishment in the region following the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus

8787-672: The western border of Kazakhstan, Ahmad Shah attempted to rally neighbouring Muslim khanates and the Kazakhs to unite and attack China, ostensibly to liberate its western Muslim subjects. Ahmad Shah halted trade with Qing China and dispatched troops to Kokand . However, with his campaigns in India exhausting the state treasury, and with his troops stretched thin throughout Central Asia, Ahmad Shah lacked sufficient resources to do anything except to send envoys to Beijing for unsuccessful talks. The Mughal power in northern India had been declining since

8888-534: 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." 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. An 1884 report by Vasily Radlov described how

8989-565: 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. As of the 2010 census, there are 36 Jews left in Tajikistan. All but two are Ashkenazi Jews, while the others are Bukharan. On January 15, 2021, Jura Abaev, the last Jew in the city of Khujand , Tajikistan died. As Afghanistan

9090-440: Was burnt to rubble in 587 BCE and utterly destroyed. Archaeological excavations and surveys have enabled the population of Judah before the Babylonian destruction to be estimated to have been approximately 75,000. Taking the different biblical numbers of exiles at their highest, 20,000, this would mean that perhaps 25% of the population had been deported to Babylon, with the remaining majority staying in Judah. Although Jerusalem

9191-594: Was coined by European travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Khanate of Bukhara , they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is Bnei Israel. Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or Bukhori , a Judeo-Persian language most similar to the Tajik and Dari dialect of Farsi, with linguistic elements of Hebrew , to communicate among themselves. This language

9292-467: Was defeated in battle in 601 BCE by Egypt, Judah revolted against Babylon, culminating in a three-month siege of Jerusalem beginning in late 598 BCE. Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, died during the siege and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah ) at the age of eighteen. The city fell on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE, and Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and its Temple and took Jeconiah, his court and other prominent citizens (including

9393-468: Was destroyed, with large parts of the city remaining in ruins for 150 years, numerous other settlements in Judah continued to be inhabited, with no signs of disruption visible in archaeological studies. Archaeologist Avraham Faust suggests that between the deportations and executions caused by the Babylonians, plus the famines and epidemics that occurred during the war, the population of Judah may have been reduced to as little as 10% of what it had been in

9494-529: Was disrupted by many challenges. As far as losses are concerned, Afghans too suffered heavily in the Third Battle of Panipat. This weakened his grasp over Punjab which fell to the rising Sikh misls . There were rebellions in the north in the region of Bukhara . The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah. The Durrani was the second largest Islamic empire in the world, behind the Ottoman Empire at that time. However, even prior to his death,

9595-513: Was employed to design the neighborhood. The streets were three times wider than even major thoroughfares in Jerusalem at the time, and spacious mansions were built with large courtyards. 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. Rabbi Shimon Hakham and Rabbi Shlomo Moussaieff were some of

9696-589: Was founded in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani at Kandahar , Afghanistan . He united the different Pashtun tribes and created the Durrani Empire . which at its peak included the modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan , as well as some parts of northeastern Iran , eastern Turkmenistan , and northwestern India including the Kashmir Valley . The Durranis were replaced by the Barakzai dynasty during

9797-547: Was named the Bukharan Quarter (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today. In 1890, seven members of the Bukharan Jewish community formed the Hovevei Zion Association of the Jewish communities of Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent . 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. Architect Conrad Schick

9898-400: Was probably written to the commander at Lachish from an outlying base, describes how the signal fires from nearby towns were disappearing: "And may (my lord) be apprised that we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given, because we cannot see Azeqah." Archaeological finds from Jerusalem testify that virtually the whole city within the walls

9999-407: Was redacted during this time, and began to be regarded as the authoritative text for Jews. This period saw their transformation into an ethno-religious group who could survive without a central Temple. Israeli philosopher and Biblical scholar Yehezkel Kaufmann said "The exile is the watershed. With the exile, the religion of Israel comes to an end and Judaism begins." This process coincided with

10100-458: Was to escape political turmoil, persecution, or to purse economic opportunities, Jews from Iran and Central Asia would frequently migrate to each other's communities. In the Khanate of Bukhara, Bukharan Jews lived under the status of Dhimmi , and experienced persecution from the Muslim majority. They were forced to wear clothing that identified them as Jews, such a yellow patch , a hat called

10201-674: Was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until Central Asia was " Russified " by the Soviet Union and the dissemination of "religious" information was halted, as the Soviet Union wanted Russian as the dominant language in the region. During the Soviet era, the two main languages spoken by Bukharan Jews were Bukhori and Russian. The younger generation today either born outside Central Asia or who left as children use Russian as their secondary language, but sometimes do understand or speak Bukharian . According to one legend, Bukharan Jews are exiles from

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