The Research Center was founded as a department of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East in 2008 and brings together a community of researchers engaged in the study the Jews of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Iranian Sphere. It serves as a platform for the study and preservation of history and heritage of the Bukharan, Caucasian, Georgian and other minor communities among scholars and a wider audience. The activities of the Center include studies on various subjects, support of research initiatives, organization of conferences, seminars and courses, and publication of books and articles. Learn more about the Center's activities on the home page and in our group on Facebook.
Jews in Central Asia and the Iranian Spheree
Jewish history in the region goes back several millennia. Over time, a few distinct Jewish communities were formed in the region: the Georgian, the Caucasian, the Afghan and the Central Asian (Bukharan) Jews.
The earliest references to Jews appear during the Persian rule over Central Asia (550-330 B.C.E.) and later on – in the Hellenistic (329-63 B.C.) and Sassanid period (the middle of the 4th century – the early 6th century C.E.) in the history of the region. With the Muslim conquest (673-751) and the subsequent growth of the significance of the Silk Road, Bukhara and other cities of Central Asia became important local trade and political centers. The economic prosperity that attracted many, including Jews, was succeeded by the devastating years of the Mongol invasion (1216-1224) that left the Central Asian cities in ruins, caused a significant decline in agriculture and had great consequences for the whole Bukharan community. Later on, Timur's reign (1370-1405) brought stability, economic growth and the revival of the Jewish community in Samarkand. In the Late Middle Ages, political power in Central Asia was divided between numerous local emirs, while the Jewish population began to concentrate in big cities of the recently emerged emirates. Jews preserved their identity and way of life, lived separately from the Muslim majority quarters and spoke their own dialect of Tajik. Islamic law, applied in Central Asia at the time , limited the rights of Jews as non-Muslims-dhimmi and defined their legal status in relation to Muslims.
Since the first half of the 19th century Russian army gained control over Caucasus, and in the second half of the century it advanced and established its rule in most of Central Asia. Those territories were annexed to the Russian Empire. This led to an improvement in the legal status of Jews, who found themselves under the direct jurisdiction of Russian law, and intensified contacts between the local Jewish communities and the Ashkenazi Jews. The second half of the 19th century was also marked by an improvement in the economic welfare of many Jewish communities across the Caucasus and Central Asia that was driven by various factors. First, it was related to the development of international trade and the abolition of many restrictions that were applied to the Jewish population during the Muslim rule. In addition, Russian anti-Jewish laws did not apply to the local Jewish communities, and the community itself showed willingness to cooperate with the new authorities. The economic prosperity and development of communication with Europe resulted in the establishment of links between the communities of the region and the Holy Land and encouraged Jews to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Thus in in the late 19th century, pilgrims who decided to stay in the Holy Landfounded their own quarters in Jerusalem: the Gurgi and the Bukharan quarters.
The October Revolution brought about fundamental changes in the life of Jews. Together with the rest of the peoples of the region, Jews had to adapt to the new Soviet society with its ideology and values. In the late 1930s, many religious, cultural and public figures fell victim to the Great Purge. Throughout seventy years of the Soviet rule, Jews were subject to a systematic destruction of their culture and religious institutes on the one hand, and were exposed to the influence of the Soviet educational system and secularization on the other.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, restrictions on religious practices and expressions of ethnic identity ceased. This led to the revival of community life, but could not stop the mass exodus of Jews from the region that began immediately after the abolition of limitations on emigration. Today from the once-prosperous Jewish communities, only a few remain.
The aim of the Research Center is to preserve the heritage of those los