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Bukharan Jews

Men gather for Friday evening prayers at Bukhara's oldest synagogue, one of just two still functioning, in the old city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, October 17, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
December 12, 2025, 3:50 pm
In an ancient oasis in Bukhara, a tiny Jewish community relies on its Muslim neighbors
Once an influential Jewish hub on Central Asia’s Silk Road, urban center in Uzbekistan is now home to just several hundred Jews, unthreatened by antisemitism, struggling to keep tradition alive
By Sue Surkes
Edward Ilyasov, 29, left his job in finance to pursue opening a pickle store full time after years of feeling unfulfilled. (Courtesy/ via JTA)
January 22, 2022, 12:59 pm
Meet the 29-year-old Bukharian Jew who quit Wall Street to open a pickle shop
Edward Ilyasov is using his already-successful venture to show others in his community that unusual or riskier careers can pay off big – in both money and fulfillment
By julia GERGELY
The Forest Hills Jewish Center has been a fixture on Queens Boulevard since the late 1940s. (Jewish Week)
November 6, 2021, 4:08 am
Queens fixture the Forest Hills Jewish Center to sell its building and relocate
Congregants vote overwhelmingly in favor of selling the building, which dates back to the 1940s, and upgrading to newer facilities that will better suit a modern crowd
By Stewart Ain
New York City Council candidate David Aronov superimposed on a Bukharian supermarket in the Rego Park section of Queens (davidforqueens.com; Lauren Hakimi. Jewish Week montage by Janice Hwang)
April 17, 2021, 9:10 am
24-year-old aims to be NYC’s first Bukharian City Council member
As a Democrat who seeks to represent a community he describes as ‘very conservative,’ David Aronov has his work cut out for him
By Lauren Hakimi
Jura Abaev in Khujand, Tajikistan. (Courtesy/Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty via JTA)
January 23, 2021, 2:42 am
After 3-time aliya, last Jew in Tajikistani city’s centuries-old community dies
Jura Abaev was the final member of the Bukharan community in Khujand; he’d immigrated to Israel three times, but ‘felt like a nobody’ and went home
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Chef Max Malkiel at home in Berlin's Wilmersdorf neighborhood, January 2020. (Yaakov Schwartz/ Times of Israel)
October 24, 2020, 9:10 am
From line cook to YouTube star, a Berlin chef dishes out his recipe for success
Max Malkiel’s homestyle cooking tutorials have earned him well over 100,000 subscribers across Israel, Russia and the US, but he claims his wife is the better cook
By Yaakov Schwartz
Arnold Zeligman, left, teaching Hebrew to Bella Regimov, wearing head cover, and other students at The Jewish House in Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
August 19, 2018, 2:41 am
Sale of Azerbaijan’s Jewish center is a painful blow to a dwindling community
As a shrinking population forces the JDC to consolidate resources, the seniors who use the facility ask if it’s worth the savings to deprive a cohort that will soon be gone anyway
By Cnaan Liphshiz
A general view of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, taken from the legendary Kalyan minaret with the Mir-I-Arab Madrassa in the foreground, November 21, 2001 (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
From the WebApril 8, 2018, 3:32 am
In Bukhara, 10,000 Jewish graves but just 150 Jews
New York Times travels to Uzbek city that used to house one of the world’s oldest and biggest Jewish communities
Efrat Assaf-Shapira shows off a Bukharan women’s coat from the Jewish clothing collection at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, September 27, 2017. (Andrew Tobin)
September 29, 2017, 6:39 am
From burkas to belts, exhibit shows how Jewish fashion was all about fitting in
Challenging the idea that communities rejected outside influences, New York museum display of Jewish clothes from past centuries reflects those who lived around them
By Andrew Tobin
The ladies of the congregation - Tikvah (Orna Banai) , Yaffa (Yafit Asulin) , Ettie (Evelin Hagoel), Ora (Sharona Elimelech), and Margalit (Einat Sarouf) discover the women’s balcony in their synagogue has been removed in 'The Women's Balcony.' (Menemsha Films)
May 26, 2017, 2:07 am
Following Israeli success, ‘The Women’s Balcony’ aims high with NY premiere
Sleeper hit depicts middle-aged women standing up to religious extremism in storied Jerusalem neighborhood
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Illustrative: Dancers performing at a celebration at the Ohr Natan congregation of Bukharian Jews in the Rego Park section of Queens, New York. (Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images/via JTA)
April 19, 2017, 3:26 am
Now Americans, Bukharian Jews face new set of challenges
In 30 years, this Jewish enclave in Queens, NY, went from one synagogue to 40; but what will the next generation look like?
By Rachel Delia Benaim
A Bukharian Jewish woman presenting her cooking at a community event in Kiryat Gat, Israel, November 3, 2014. (Courtesy of Bukharim.com/JTA)
October 25, 2016, 3:01 am
Dwindling at home, Central Asia’s Bukharian Jews thrive in Diaspora
Tight-knit communities, strong identity and lack of intermarriage keep the culture alive and prospering in the US, Europe and Israel
By Cnaan Liphshiz
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