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bukharan JewsDeep in the heart of Central Asia, Bukharan Jews occupied the geographical edges of the Jewish world. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the population (some 50,000) left their homes en masse. In a historical instant, a two-millenia-long chapter in diaspora history came to an end.
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I traveled to Uzbekistan for the first time in 1993. There, I encountered people who were on the move, packing their bags, selling their homes and leaving. Living among them - in Central Asia and in their immigrant homes - provided me with a rich and intimate understanding of what they left behind, and the lives they rebuilt for themselves in the Israel and the United States.
Part ethnography, part history, and part memoir, my book Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism (Indiana University Press 2012) chronicles the past and dynamic present of this ancient community. Its lively narratives is organized around three dramatic encounters between Bukharan Jews and Jews from other parts of the world, which illuminate the tensions inherent in maintaining Judaism as coherent, transnational religion over the course of its long and varied diaspora history.
For reviews of the book, other resources, and links to my other publications on Bukharan Jews visit my website BukharanJews.com
My other publications on Bukharan Jews include:
"A Murder in Queens," Jewish Review of Books, No. 8. Winter 2012.
“Where have all the Jews Gone?: Mass Migration and Uzbekistan’s Independence” in The Divergence of Judaism and Islam: Interdependence, Modernity and Political Turmoil (ed. Michael Laskier and Yaakov Lev), Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011.
“Rituals of Mourning Among Central Asia’s Bukharan Jews: Remembering the Past and Addressing the Present” in Jewish Cultural Studies Vol. 3, Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition (ed. Simon Bronner), Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford, UK, 2011
"Rituals in Flux: Courtship and Marriage among Bukharan Jews” in Bukharan Jews in the 20th Century: History, Experience and Narration. Wiesbaden: Reichert-Verlag, 2008.
“Reconsidering the Tale of Yosef Maman and the Bukharan Jewish Diaspora” Jewish Social Studies, 10.2., 2004
“Emergence of Bukharan Jewish Identity” Irano-Judaica V, 2003
“Looking Out for One’s own Identity: Central Asian Jews in the Wake of Communism” in New Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe. Zvi Gitelman, ed. Central European University Press, 2003.
“Feasting, Memorializing, Praying and Remaining Jewish in the Soviet Union: The Case of the Bukharan Jews” in: Jewish Life After the USSR. Zvi Gitelman, ed. Indiana University Press, 2002.
Cooper, Alanna E. “The Bukharan Jews in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: A Case of Fractured Identity” Anthropology of East Europe Review 16:2, 1998.
Part ethnography, part history, and part memoir, my book Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism (Indiana University Press 2012) chronicles the past and dynamic present of this ancient community. Its lively narratives is organized around three dramatic encounters between Bukharan Jews and Jews from other parts of the world, which illuminate the tensions inherent in maintaining Judaism as coherent, transnational religion over the course of its long and varied diaspora history.
For reviews of the book, other resources, and links to my other publications on Bukharan Jews visit my website BukharanJews.com
My other publications on Bukharan Jews include:
"A Murder in Queens," Jewish Review of Books, No. 8. Winter 2012.
“Where have all the Jews Gone?: Mass Migration and Uzbekistan’s Independence” in The Divergence of Judaism and Islam: Interdependence, Modernity and Political Turmoil (ed. Michael Laskier and Yaakov Lev), Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011.
“Rituals of Mourning Among Central Asia’s Bukharan Jews: Remembering the Past and Addressing the Present” in Jewish Cultural Studies Vol. 3, Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition (ed. Simon Bronner), Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford, UK, 2011
"Rituals in Flux: Courtship and Marriage among Bukharan Jews” in Bukharan Jews in the 20th Century: History, Experience and Narration. Wiesbaden: Reichert-Verlag, 2008.
“Reconsidering the Tale of Yosef Maman and the Bukharan Jewish Diaspora” Jewish Social Studies, 10.2., 2004
“Emergence of Bukharan Jewish Identity” Irano-Judaica V, 2003
“Looking Out for One’s own Identity: Central Asian Jews in the Wake of Communism” in New Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe. Zvi Gitelman, ed. Central European University Press, 2003.
“Feasting, Memorializing, Praying and Remaining Jewish in the Soviet Union: The Case of the Bukharan Jews” in: Jewish Life After the USSR. Zvi Gitelman, ed. Indiana University Press, 2002.
Cooper, Alanna E. “The Bukharan Jews in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: A Case of Fractured Identity” Anthropology of East Europe Review 16:2, 1998.
