Bakersfields oldest Jewish congregation sells downtown synagogue; developer will raze it and build new high-density housing – KGET 17
Posted By admin on December 13, 2022
Read this article:
Why Is Naftali Bennett Suing This Rabbi for Defamation? – Israel News – Haaretz
Posted By admin on December 13, 2022
- Why Is Naftali Bennett Suing This Rabbi for Defamation? - Israel News Haaretz
- Bennett sues rabbi for spreading false claims his parents were not Jewish The Times of Israel
- Naftali Bennett sues rabbi who claimed ex-PM's mother is not Jewish The Jewish Chronicle
- Bennett demands apology, compensation from Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi Arutz Sheva
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Read more:
Why Is Naftali Bennett Suing This Rabbi for Defamation? - Israel News - Haaretz
NJ Synagogue Threat: FBI Says Credible Information Developed NBC New York
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
BREAKING UPDATE: FBI Identifies Suspect in NJ Synagogues Threat Case
The FBI's Newark office issued a stark warning Thursday as it announced it had received "credible information" about a nonspecific but widescale threat to synagogues in New Jersey.
The FBI described the threat, shared by the bureau's Newark office on Twitter around 3 p.m., as "broad." However, a senior law enforcement official told News 4 New York that warning the public was done in "an abundance of caution."
"We ask at this time that you take all security precautions to protect your community and facility," FBI Newark tweeted in part. "We shall share more information as soon as we can. Stay alert. In case of emergency call police."
Although there is no specific plot or action underway, according to the source, because the internet threat was deemed credible, the FBI felt it was important to alert the public via social media so communities and synagogues could take security precautions. Synagogues across the state were asked to remain vigilant, and police in some communities were stepping up patrols.
The FBI's investigation is underway to determine who was behind the threat, which was posted online. Numerous law enforcement officials said the alert was issued because of a general threat to New Jersey temples. Officials stressed there was no specific plot nor a specific temple mentioned as a possible target.
Following the FBI's precautionary warning, Gov. Phil Murphy said he is "closely monitoring the situation and working with local law enforcement." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had also been briefed, adding that there was no related threat in New York.
In a statement, the NYPD said the department's intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus were "working diligently alongside the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI to ensure the safety and well-being of every area that encompasses our Jewish citizens and synagogues here in New York City and the tri-state area."
Despite the warning from law enforcement, some law enforcement officials were left scratching their heads as to why this threat was deemed more credible than many others posted every day. But with a major increase in antisemitic incidents, officials in New Jersey said the warning was sent as a reminder for vigilance.
"It was a non-specific threat.We have a system in place for making sure the word is out and that all the players are involved and mobilized.But in that environment you have to be careful," New York/New Jersey Anti-Defamation League Director Scott Richman said of the warning and spike in antisemitic incidents.
The investigation into the threat continues.
See the article here:
NJ Synagogue Threat: FBI Says Credible Information Developed NBC New York
Video shows man making bigoted remarks at Bloomfield Twp. synagogue – Detroit Free Press
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
- Video shows man making bigoted remarks at Bloomfield Twp. synagogue Detroit Free Press
- Michigan man charged after threatening synagogue-goers attacks magistrate verbally as well St. Louis Jewish Light
- Man charged with synagogue threats held on $1M bond - flips off judge, makes anti-Semitic remarks FOX 2 Detroit
- Local synagogue leaders on threats after Bloomfield Township weekend arrest: 'It's really stressful' Detroit News
- Dearborn man charged with ethnic intimidation at Bloomfield Township synagogue, preschool C&G Newspapers
- View Full Coverage on Google News
More here:
Video shows man making bigoted remarks at Bloomfield Twp. synagogue - Detroit Free Press
Two men, one a descendant of Holocaust survivor, indicted in connection with threat to attack NYC synagogue – CNN
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
- Two men, one a descendant of Holocaust survivor, indicted in connection with threat to attack NYC synagogue CNN
- Manhattan judge releases man accused of plotting to attack NYC synagogues New York Post
- LI Man Charged With Terroristic Threat For Shoot Up Synagogue Tweet Riverhead, NY Patch
- NYC judge REFUSES to put anti-Semitic thug accused of plotting attacks on synagogues back in jail Daily Mail
- Christopher Brown, Matthew Mahrer appear in court over alleged plan to attack the Jewish community in Manhattan CBS New York
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Read the original here:
Hasidic School Is Breaking State Education Law, N.Y. Official Rules
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
New York State officials have determined that a private Hasidic Jewish boys school in Brooklyn is violating the law by failing to provide a basic education, a ruling that could signal profound challenges for scores of Hasidic religious schools that have long resisted government oversight.
The ruling marks the first time that the state has taken action against such a school, one of scores of private Hasidic yeshivas across New York that provide robust religious instruction in Yiddish but few lessons in English and math and virtually none in science, history or social studies.
It also served as a stern rebuke of the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, whose Education Department this summer reported to the state that, in its judgment, the yeshiva was complying with a law requiring private schools to offer an education comparable with what is offered in public schools.
The decision, issued last week by the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, stemmed from a 2019 lawsuit brought by a parent against the school, Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem, which enrolls about 500 boys in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The ruling requires the yeshiva to work with city education officials to come up with an improvement plan. The New York State Education Department will have final say over that plan, putting pressure on city officials who have previously avoided intervening in yeshivas.
A spokesman for the New York City Department of Education said the city conducted a thorough investigation of the school, visiting multiple times, reviewing instructional materials and interviewing staff members.
We stand by our investigation and recognize that our recommendation was just that a recommendation and that the state had ultimate authority to make the determination, said the spokesman, Nathaniel Styer.
The potential ramifications of Ms. Rosas decision extend beyond a single school. The ruling could be a harbinger of significantly tougher oversight of Hasidic yeshivas, and could open the door for lawsuits or complaints about other schools.
The state did right, said Beatrice Weber, a mother of 10 who brought the suit against her youngest childs school and has since left the Hasidic community. Hopefully now things will actually change.
The ruling came a month after the The New York Times reported that more than 100 Hasidic boys schools in Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley have collected at least $1 billion in taxpayer money in the past four years, but many have denied students secular instruction.
The Times found that Hasidic boys yeshivas that administer state standardized tests perform worse than any other schools in New York State, and that religion teachers in many of the schools have frequently used corporal punishment to enforce order, hindering learning.
Ms. Rosas decision will also provide the first test of a new set of state rules aimed at regulating private schools, which have largely been allowed to operate without oversight for decades. Those regulations, which went into effect two weeks ago, hold that schools that do not follow state law could lose their public funding.
Hasidic leaders fought to block the new rules before they were approved by the State Board of Regents last month, casting them as a dire threat to the community. Earlier this week, a group of yeshivas and their supporters sued New York education officials over the rules in state court. Many of the plaintiffs in the suit were non-Hasidic yeshivas that provide extensive secular education and would likely not be affected by the regulations.
Yeshivas are the central and irreplaceable pillar of the Orthodox Jewish life in New York, reads the lawsuit, which seeks to have the regulations overturned.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, the Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools, defended Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem.
Educators from the citys Department of Education visited the school several times and determined that it met the substantial equivalence standard, said the spokesman, Richard Bamberger, referring to the state law. It is disappointing that political appointees at the state education department wont accept the citys findings.
In her ruling, Ms. Rosa sharply criticized the citys oversight of the school, saying that its own inspections of the yeshiva did not support its conclusion that the school was providing an adequate education.
She said that observations she received from city officials in fact indicated that the yeshiva does not offer sufficient instruction in English, social studies or science. The schools math instruction appeared to be better but was still not on par with what is offered in public schools, Ms. Rosa said. The commissioner wrote that the yeshiva administers state tests in English and math, but she added that the vast majority of its students failed the exams and scored much lower than the average student in city public schools.
The commissioner wrote that she found shortcomings in the citys review, including an apparent failure by officials to investigate the specific claims detailed in Ms. Webers lawsuit. Ms. Rosa said the deficiencies in the review did not promote confidence in the findings.
The commissioner also wrote that the school declined to allow a visit that state education department officials requested last month and repeatedly declined to provide evidence that it was complying with state education law, even after Ms. Rosa warned that there was insufficient proof that the school was in compliance.
Beyond finding fault with the citys inspection of the Brooklyn school, the ruling also raises questions about City Halls willingness to intervene in Hasidic schools. Mr. Adams has long enjoyed the political support of the Hasidic Jewish community, which tends to vote as a bloc.
In response to the Times investigation, he said that his administration would complete an inquiry into dozens of schools that was started under former mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 but was put on hold amid the pandemic. In 2019, an interim report found that only two of 28 Hasidic yeshivas the city had visited were complying with state education law.
Mr. Adams is not the only New York politician who has sought to avoid criticizing Hasidic yeshivas. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took over after her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo resigned, is facing her first general election as governor next month, and has deflected questions about the schools.
People understand that this is outside the purview of the governor, Ms. Hochul said last month when asked about the Times investigation into Hasidic yeshivas.
The governor was endorsed by Hasidic groups ahead of the Democratic primary this summer, and one group wrote on Twitter that the governor had promised a hands-off approach to the yeshivas in a post that was deleted soon after.
Many Hasidic groups have not yet endorsed a candidate in the general election. Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, has sought to capitalize on the Hasidic communitys outrage over increased government oversight into the yeshivas.
Some Hasidic leaders have openly declared that they would never change how their schools operate.
Ms. Webers 2019 lawsuit against her sons yeshiva represented a major challenge to the Hasidic community.
The school at the center of her complaint, Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem, is a longstanding institution in the community with a reputation for providing more secular education than many other Hasidic boys schools.
Nevertheless, a Times analysis of state test score data available for three grades at the school showed that while 122 students took reading and math exams in 2019, just one of them passed.
Records obtained by The Times showed that the school received about $4.5 million in government funding in the last full year before the pandemic.
In her complaint, Ms. Weber alleged that her then-6-year-old son, Aaron, had yet to receive any secular education. She also said that materials from the school indicated that students who received English-language instruction only got it for about 90 minutes a day, four days a week.
Ms. Weber filed a petition with the state education department asking Ms. Rosa to intervene. The commissioner dismissed the petition in 2021, citing a lack of jurisdiction. But Ms. Weber successfully challenged that decision in state court, securing a judges order that the state issue a final determination on her sons school.
As the state prepared to make its ruling, city officials filed their required recommendation in July. In saying they believed the school was complying with the law, officials said they had observed English-language instruction, including in social studies, on topics like time zones and the U.S. Postal Service, and in science, on subjects like hurricanes and satellites, according to a copy of their report obtained by The Times.
That is more instruction in those areas than is typically provided in Hasidic boys schools, records and interviews show.
City officials also said in the report that the schools Judaic studies curriculum taught additional key skills.
David Shapiro, a lawyer for Ms. Weber, said the ruling from Ms. Rosa was especially notable because it countered the notion that private schools could claim to be satisfying state secular education requirements through religious instruction.
No longer can a Hasidic yeshiva use its Jewish studies program to argue that through such parochial studies it is complying with the states education law, Mr. Shapiro said, adding: This is an historic, brave and correct determination.
Ms. Weber, who was recently named executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education, a group that has pushed for more secular education in Hasidic yeshivas, has spent years sounding alarms about deficiencies in Hasidic boys schools.
On at least one occasion, she showed up at the school to observe classroom instruction, but said she was asked to leave the building after 45 minutes.
Her filings also cited letters written by the rabbi in charge of the schools English department that displayed an apparent lack of fluency in English.
Bus changes can only be made in the office of Transpiration, the rabbi wrote in a 2019 letter. Elsewhere, he added: Any misbehavior will be dealt with in a firm manor.
Alex Lemonides contributed reporting.
Originally posted here:
Hasidic School Is Breaking State Education Law, N.Y. Official Rules
Zeldin Sees a Path to Becoming Governor. It Runs Through Brooklyn.
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
As for Mr. Zeldins outreach: Its a little late.
Democrats are making their own large investments in many of the same communities, along with more reliable segments of the partys base that could offset Mr. Zeldins gains.
Ms. Hochuls campaign said it would spend six figures on ads aimed at Jewish voters and another $1 million on Spanish-language ads. Many will tout her work on gun control and mental health while hammering Mr. Zeldin for opposing abortion rights and supporting Mr. Trump, who remains broadly unpopular here.
Despite Mr. Zeldins optimism about Orthodox Jewish groups, some estimates suggest that the Hasidic vote typically represents less than 2 percent of statewide turnout, while other religious Jewish groups, including the modern Orthodox, account for another 2 to 3 percent. And Ms. Hochul, who made a series of cold calls last week seeking to shore up ties with prominent Jewish allies, is still expected to win Jewish voters overall, running up the score among non-Orthodox voters.
From Borough Park to the South Bronx, Governor Hochul has built a broad coalition of New Yorkers who are supporting her campaign because of her effective leadership and ability to get things done, said a Hochul spokesman, Jerrel Harvey.
Still, Mr. Zeldin may have good reason to think he can notch gains.
In southern Brooklyn, Russian and Ukrainian immigrants many of them Jewish helped flip a City Council seat for Republicans last year. The large population of immigrants who fled the former Soviet Union voted enthusiastically for Mr. Trump and have increasingly rejected Democrats even moderates like Mayor Eric Adams and Ms. Hochul for their ties to a party that harbors a small minority of democratic socialists.
Even if its a centrist Democrat, they will select a Republican at this point, said Inna Vernikov, a Democrat-turned-Republican who won the Council seat.
Republicans also believe opposition to the states new congestion pricing plan, which would make commuting into Manhattan more expensive for middle-class New Yorkers at a time of sharp inflation, could help motivate turnout.
Continued here:
Zeldin Sees a Path to Becoming Governor. It Runs Through Brooklyn.
Jeff Wilbusch left his Hasidic community at 13. Now he’s exploring his …
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
There must be hundreds of New York City detectives across the last century of film and television from Dan Muldoon in Naked City to Jake Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine but few are as unusual as Avraham Avraham.
It goes beyond the quirky name: Avraham, the protagonist of David E. Kelleys new Peacock series, The Calling, has become more religious as hes aged, but hes not specifically Orthodox or even kosher. Hes a spiritual seeker who quotes the Talmud in conversation and the Bible in interrogation; he prays over murder victims, but he also sometimes conjures up visual images of victims while trying to use his extraordinary sense of empathy as a weapon in his fight against crime.
Still more unusual, though, is the backstory of the actor playing him, Jeff Wilbusch.
Wilbusch, 34, was born in Israel, the eldest of 14 siblings in a Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish family; he spoke only Yiddish and Hebrew and didnt see television or movies until he left his family and the community for good at age 13. Hes not fully comfortable discussing the reasons and circumstances behind his departure, but Wilbusch eventually found his way to Europe as well as to college and then graduate school, earning a masters degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam. At 23 he discovered a new passion and moved to Munich to study acting.
Now also fluent in English, German and Dutch, Wilbusch began earning screen time in 2018 in The Little Drummer Girl and in a German series called Bad Banks. But he started gaining attention here two years ago with his performance in the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox as Moishe, a gun-toting Hasidic Jew who is sent from Brooklyn to Europe to retrieve a woman who had fled the community. Last year he co-starred in HBOs Oslo, playing the director general of Israels foreign affairs department during the secret negotiations with Palestine in the 1990s. And he recently starred in Schacten, a German film about a Jewish man in 1960s Europe who decides to seek personal vengeance against the Nazi commandant who had tortured his parents.
So although Wilbusch left his family, religious community and country behind, he clearly is not done examining them and The Calling, premiering Thursday, is, in a way, of a piece with those projects. Wilbusch spoke about the series and his life experience in a recent video interview with The Times, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Were you wary at all that Avis religious and spiritual self was a gimmick that would fall by the wayside as the procedural stuff took over?
I spoke to David E. Kelley about those things, and to [executive producer] Jonathan Shapiro. The amount of passion and the way Jonathan was very exacting about the details like the difference between Sephardic and Ashkenazi tefillin [black leather boxes holding portions of the Torah] was very reassuring. They really were concerned about the characters backstory too.
I read the scripts hundreds of times. I was always asking so many questions and pushing for a lot of details and demanding clarity about everything. I cant do otherwise.
There is diversity within your recent roles, but youre still portraying the sort of Jewish characters who arent normally portrayed onscreen. Do you seek that out or did you do one and now everyone says, Hes that guy?
Thats the question Im asking myself. Its both, I think. They choose me and then I choose whether I want that role or not.
Its extremely, extremely, extremely important to play complex characters who have not been represented. Im always thinking about Moishe, and when I meet people from the Hasidic community, I still want to hear what they think. Moishe still lives with me.
With The Calling, I never saw such a character like this who is Jewish and whose superpower is empathy let alone played one. And it felt very important in these times were in now.
Do you plan to seek other types of characters?
I am drawn to characters haunted by their past, for sure. But I love comedy, and when I started in theater I got to do comedy. In this series theres dry, dark humor. And I think I can be funny in real life. Sometimes people now say, Youre funny and theyre surprised.
Avrahams emotional certainty at least once leads the detectives in the wrong direction; hes also called an arrogant man in sheeps clothing at one point. Do his religious beliefs, spirituality and empathy make him arrogant or prevent him from being more so?
I dont see him as arrogant. He just has a blind spot. I dont think we have just good or bad in us there are so many shades of gray. Avraham is far from perfect. There are such contradictions in him. He believes in humanity and loves people but is a loner and has no family. He is a master of psychology but knows so little about himself. He solves everyone elses cases but there are unsolved mysteries in his own life. He is reading philosophers but is attracted to his religion but isnt so dogmatic about it. All thats fascinating to me.
How much do you draw on your own background and self for a character like this?
Everything. Everything and more. This character is so complex that I need to do a lot of research and then work hard and then learn the lines and then put everything I am inside. And then he becomes Avi.
What made you leave your family and community, especially at such a young age?
Thats a long story and Im trying to answer that myself. I still dont have an answer.
Was there a sense, conscious or not, that there was more out there in the world to see and experience?
Thats a big part of it. But like Avi, a lot of actors know a lot about their characters but very little about themselves, so
Youve said you got your masters in economics because you didnt know you could become an actor. What led to that transformation?
I remember the moment I found acting. I was 23, and the father of my then-girlfriend was a choreographer and asked me to perform music and so I ended up onstage. That feeling of being onstage led me to audition for an acting school. Rehearsing the monologues for the school felt like drinking water after being thirsty for years. Everything clicked.
Looking now at my life, Im so grateful for everything that happened. Everything now makes sense, even the detours. Im so happy I studied economics. Being a student or working in a supermarket all those experiences are who I am and I can use it in my characters for telling stories.
Performing and expressing yourself is such a beautiful gift. We all have it. Im passionate about telling stories through characters. People tell me Im so disciplined and I work so hard. But I found my passion and I love being an actor. I cant stop.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
View post:
Jeff Wilbusch left his Hasidic community at 13. Now he's exploring his ...
Bukharan Jews – Wikipedia
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
Jewish sub-group of Central Asia
Bukharan Jews (Bukharian: / , Yahudiyoni Bukhoro; Hebrew: , Yehudey Bukhara), in modern times also called Bukharian Jews (Bukharian: / , Yahudiyoni Bukhor; Hebrew: , Yehudim Bukharim), are an ethnoreligious Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that historically spoke Bukharian, a Judeo-Tajik[4][3][5] dialect of the Tajik language, in turn a variety of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara (now primarily Uzbekistan), which once had a sizable Jewish population. Bukharan Jews comprise Persian-speaking Jewry along with the Jews of Iran, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus Mountains.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great majority have immigrated to Israel or to the United States while others have immigrated to Europe or Australia. Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews.[6]
The Bukharan Jews originally called themselves Bnei Israel (children of the northern Kingdom of Israel), which relates specifically to the Israelites of Assyrian captivity. The term Bukharan was coined by European travellers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Emirate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is "Bnei Isro'il" (Israelites of the Northern Kingdom of Israel). Their Muslim neighbors would call them Yahudi, which is misidentification, since it is specific to the southern Kingdom of Judah, but the Bnei Israel self-designation emphasizes their Israelite origins from the northern Kingdom of Israel.[7]
Bukharan Jews used Bukharian or Bukhori, a Jewish dialect of the Tajik language (in turn a variety of Persian) with linguistic elements of Hebrew, to communicate among themselves.[3] This language was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until Central Asia was "Russified" by the Russians and the dissemination of "religious" information was halted. The elderly Bukharian generation used Bukhori as their primary language but largely speak Russian (sometimes with a slight Bukharian accent). The younger generation use Russian as their primary language, but often do understand or speak Bukharian.
The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates 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).[8] 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.[9]
According to ancient texts, Israelites began traveling to Central Asia to work as traders during the reign of King David of Jerusalem as far back as the 10th century B.C.E.[10] When Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC, he encouraged the Jews he liberated to settle in his empire, which included areas of Central Asia. In the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish settlement in Central Asia was in the Emirate of Bukhara.
Bukharan Jews relate their own ancestry to the members of the Ten Tribes of Israel who, after the seizure of Israel in 733/732722 B.C. by the Assyrians, were driven deep into the Assyrian empire. These lost Israelite tribes include the Tribe of Naphtali and the Tribe of Issachar of the Ten Lost Tribes,[11] who were exiled during the Assyrian captivity of Israel in the 7th century BCE.[12] Isakharov (in different spellings) is a common surname.[13] Bukharan Israelites associate one particular place in Assyria in which they settled, Habor, mentioned in the Bible (2 Kings 17:6), with Bukhara; the identity of consonants in the two names is offered as proof of this. 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, and Merv. At that time, and until approximately the sixteenth century, Bukharan Jews formed a group continuous with Jews of Iran and Afghanistan.[14][15]
The Bukharan Jews are considered one of the oldest ethno-religious groups of Central Asia and over the years they have developed their own distinct culture. Throughout the years, Jews from other Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Morocco migrated into Central Asia (by way of the Silk Road).[citation needed]
During the 18th century, Bukharan Jews faced considerable discrimination and persecution. Jewish centers were closed down, the Muslims of the region usually forced conversion on the Jews, and the Bukharan Jewish population dramatically decreased to the point where they were almost extinct.[16] Due to pressures to convert to Islam, persecution, and isolation from the rest of the Jewish world, 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 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. 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 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.[17] Maimon is an ancestor of Shlomo Moussaieff, author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and the former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff.
In 1843 the Bukharan Jews were visited by the so-called "Eccentric Missionary", Joseph Wolff, a Jewish convert to Christianity who had set himself the broad task of finding the Lost Tribes of Israel and the narrow one of seeking two British officers who had been captured by the Emir, Nasrullah Khan. Wolff wrote prolifically of his travels, and the journals of his expeditions provide valuable information about the life and customs of the peoples he travelled amongst, including the Bukharan Jews. In 1843, for example, they collected 10,000 silver tan'ga and purchased land in Samarkand, known as Makhallai Yakhudion, close to Registon.
In the middle of the 19th century, Bukharan Jews began to move to Palestine. The land on which they settled in Jerusalem was named the Bukharan quarter (Sh'hunat HaBucharim) and still exists today.
In 1865, Russian troops took over Tashkent, and there was a large influx of Jews to the newly created Turkestan Region. From 1876 to 1916, Jews were free to practice Judaism. Dozens of Bukharan Jews held prestigious jobs in medicine, law, and government, and many Jews 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". Jews succeeded in the world of sport also, with several Bukharan Jews in Uzbekistan becoming renowned boxers and winning many medals for the country.[18] Still, Bukharan Jews were forbidden to ride in the streets and had to wear distinctive costumes. They were relegated to a ghetto, and often fell victim to persecution from the Muslim majority.[19]
By the time of the Russian revolution, the Bukharan Jews were one of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world.[20]
Following the Soviet capture of Bukhara, synagogues were destroyed or closed down, and were replaced by Soviet institutions.[21] Consequently many Bukharan Jews fled to the West. The route they undertook went through Afghanistan, as the neighbouring country had many possibilities to the west. Consequently, Central Asian Jews in Paris had an Afghan nationality while a minority of them were born in Afghanistan. For instance many Jewish families with the Afghan nationality were born in Kokand.[22] Soviet doctrines, ideology and nationalities policy had a large impact on the everyday life, culture and identity of the Bukharan Jews.[21] The remaining community attempted to preserve their traditions while displaying loyalty to the new government.
Stalin's decision to end Lenin's New Economic Policy and initiate the First five-year plan in the late 1920s resulted in a drastic deterioriation 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 (comprising about one tenth of the total number of Bukharan Jews in Central Asia), who were heading towards Palestine.[23]
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.[24]
World War II and the Holocaust brought a lot of Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from the European regions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through Uzbekistan.
Starting in 1972, one of the largest Bukharan Jewish emigrations in history occurred as the Jews of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan immigrated to Israel and the United States, due to looser restrictions on immigration. In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, almost all 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.
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and foundation of the independent Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991, some feared growth of nationalistic policies in the country. The resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan prompted an increase in the level of emigration of Jews (both Bukharan and Ashkenazi). Before the collapse of the USSR, there were 45,000 Bukharan Jews in Central Asia.[25]
Today, there are about 150,000 Bukharan Jews in Israel (mainly in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area including the neighborhoods of Tel Kabir, Shapira, Kiryat Shalom, HaTikvah and cities like Or Yehuda, Ramla, and Holon) and 60,000 in the United States (especially Queensa borough of New York that is widely known as the "melting pot" of the United States due to its ethnic diversity)with smaller communities in the USA like Phoenix, South Florida, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver. Only a few thousand still remain in Uzbekistan. About 500 live in Canada (mainly Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec). Almost no Bukharan Jews remain in Tajikistan (compared to the 1989 Jewish population of 15,000 in Tajikistan).
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. 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 centre or a place to pray. As a result, the majority of Bukharan Jews from Tajikistan living in Israel and the United States have very negative views towards the Tajik government and many have cut off all ties they had with the country. In 2009, the Tajik government reestablished the synagogue in a different location for the small Jewish community.[26]
Currently, Bukharan Jews are mostly concentrated in the U.S. in New York City.[6] In Forest Hills, Queens, 108th Street, often referred to as "Bukharan Broadway"[27] or "Bukharian Broadway",[20] is filled with Bukharan restaurants and gift shops. Furthermore, Forest Hills is nicknamed "Bukharlem" due to the majority of the population being Bukharian.[28] They have formed a tight-knit enclave in this area that was once primarily inhabited by Ashkenazi Jews. 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. Author Janet Malcolm has taken an interest in Bukharan Jews in the U.S., writing at length about Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and, in Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial, about the 2007 contract murder of Daniel Malakov organized by his ex-wife Mazoltuv Borukhova. 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.[29] In 2007, Bukharan-American Jews initiated lobbying efforts on behalf of their community.[30] 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] Senator Joseph Lieberman intoned, "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."[30]
Bukharan Jews had their own dress code, similar to but also different from other cultures (mainly Turco-Mongol) living in Central Asia. On weddings today, one can still observe the bride and the close relatives donning the traditional kaftan (Jomah--' in Bukhori and Tajik).[31]
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 Spanish 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."[32] Ensemble Shashmaqam was one of the first New York-based ensembles created to showcase the music and dance of Bukharan Jews. The Ensemble was created in 1983 by Shumiel Kuyenov, a dayereh player from Queens.
Bukharan cuisine consists of many unique dishes, distinctly influenced by ethnic dishes historically and currently found along the Silk Road and many parts of Central and even Southeast Asia. Shish kabob, or shashlik, as it is often referred to in Russian, are popular, made of chicken, beef or lamb. Pulled noodles, often thrown into a hearty stew of meat and vegetables known as lagman, are similar in style to Chinese lamian, also traditionally served in a meat broth. 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 samosas.
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.[33]
Plov is a very popular slow-cooked rice dish spiced with cumin and containing carrots, and in some varieties, chick peas or raisins, and often topped with beef or lamb. Another popular dish is baksh which consists of rice, beef and liver cut into small cubes, with cilantro, which adds a shade of green to the rice once it's been cooked. Most Bukharan Jewish communities still produce their traditional breads including non (lepyoshka in Russian), a circular bread with a flat center that has multiple pattern of designs, topped with black and regular sesame seeds, and the other, called non toki, bears the dry and crusty features of traditional Jewish matzah, but with a distinctly wheatier taste.
After Sabbath synagogue service, Bukharan Jews often eat steamed eggs and sweet potatoes followed by a dish of fish such as carp. Next comes the main meal called oshesvo.
A 2013 genetic study of multiple Jewish groups, including Bukharan Jews, found that Bukharan Jews clustered closely with Jewish communities from the Middle East and the Caucasus such as Iranian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Kurdish Jews and Iraqi Jews, as well as other Middle Eastern and West Asian people including Kurds, Iranians, Armenians, Syrians, Druze and others; and did not cluster with their former neighbours.[34]
Notes
Bibliography
See more here:
Spanish rabbi shares story of bridging religions with Mandel JDS – Cleveland Jewish News
Posted By admin on December 11, 2022
Spanish rabbi shares story of bridging religions with Mandel JDS Cleveland Jewish News
Originally posted here:
Spanish rabbi shares story of bridging religions with Mandel JDS - Cleveland Jewish News
