Uzbekistan

UZBEKISTAN, one of the independent CIS republics from 1990, formerly a U.S.S.R. republic in Soviet Central Asia.

The Jews in Uzbekistan were affiliated with two communities: (1) the ancient one, the Jews of *Bukhara, who speak a Tajik-Jewish dialect; (2) the new one, of Eastern European origin.

According to their tradition, the Bukharan Jews emigrated from *Persia at the time of the persecutions of King Peroz (458–485), while some consider themselves descendants of the exiles of Samaria, on the assumption that "Habor" (II Kings 17:6) is Bukhara. Anthropological examinations undertaken by L.V. Usbanin in 1926–29 proved that they originated in the Middle East, although there is no information on their exact non-Jewish origin. Precise information on the spiritual works of the Jews of Uzbekistan is, however, available only from the 14^th century onward.

Jews of Uzbekistan emigrated to Khazaria and *China because of their location at the crossroads of the caravans that traveled there. The principal traffic between the Muslim world and Itil (*Atil), the capital of Khazaria, passed through northern Uzbekistan, and the information on "many Jews who came to the king of the Khazars from the towns of the Muslims" (the author al-Masʿūdī, of the tenth century) and the Jews who came "from Khurasan and strengthened the hands of the inhabitants of the country" (the anonymous "Cambridge Document") refers essentially to the Jews of Uzbekistan, which was considered an annexed territory of Iranian Eastern Khurasan.

There is a tradition concerning another wave of Jewish emigration from *Iran to Uzbekistan as a result of the Mongolian conquests of the 13^th century, and the surnames of the Jews of Uzbekistan show that even during subsequent periods emigrants from Iranian-speaking communities of the west and the south were integrated among them. In modern times, however, the fanatical Muslim domination severely prejudiced the growth and economic development of the community. The Russian conquest of the 19^th century came as a blessing, especially in those regions subjected to direct Russian rule, where the local Jews were granted complete judicial equality with the native Muslims and enjoyed rights which the Russian government withheld from the Jews of Eastern Europe (such as the freedom to acquire real estate). A migration from Bukhara to *Tashkent continued through several generations. The economic progress of these Jews was also reflected in their considerable contribution to the Jewish settlement of Ereẓ Israel. The Soviet regime, which liquidated private commerce, brought about the transfer of the more than 200,000 local Jews into administrative positions, industry and agriculture.

The Soviet regime did not bring about any considerable emigration of East European Jews to Uzbekistan because of linguistic difficulties and the warring gangs of Muslim insurgents (Basmachi) of the 1920s and 1930s. World War II, however, suddenly converted Uzbekistan into an important Jewish center. The Jews of the western and central European U.S.S.R. found refuge there, and Tashkent accommodated some of the Jewish institutions of Moscow. Many Jews who had been deported by the Soviet regime between 1939 and 1941 from the annexed eastern parts of Poland and the Baltic states to labor camps or exile in Siberia because of "bourgeois" class origin or political affiliations (Zionist or socialist) also migrated to Uzbekistan upon their release from the camps or places of exile. Some succeeded in continuing on to Palestine through *Persia, either as Polish soldiers in General Anders' army or as orphaned children (the so-called "Teheran children"). With the retreat of the German army from Eastern Europe, many of the refugees and evacuees returned to their places of origin, but a considerable number of East European Ashkenazi Jews settled in Uzbekistan and became integrated into administration, industry and education there. A certain rapprochement between them and the local Jews resulted from the propagation of the Russian language within both communities and the feeling of the common Jewish fate, which was emphasized by the events of the war. The census of 1959 registered 94,344 Jews (1.2 percent of the total population) in Uzbekistan; 50,445 of them lived in the capital of the republic, Tashkent. Only 19,266 of them declared Tajik to be their native language; about 27,560 Yiddish; and the remainder Russian. The 1970 Soviet census showed 103,000 Jews in Uzbekistan.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.