History of Jews in Central Asia
After attending Lausanne4 Congress in Incheon, Korea in September 2024 Theresa Newell travelled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan to explore the history of Jews in Central Asia. Here is a brief report of what she found there.
On September 29, I boarded an UzbekAir jet in Seoul, Korea and arrived at Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. On this first time in the country, I had questions – about history, geopolitical realities, how the Jews got there and how many were still there. My hosts were an American couple who worked there and their friend, an indigenous guest house owner, a travel guide and Bible translator.
“Show me the major areas where Jewish people lived and worked,” I texted ahead of my arrival. The answer was three major cities in eastern Uzbek: Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, all Central Asian cities on the Old Silk Road where trade and commerce happened for centuries. I had dropped into unknown territory.
The Jews there are sometimes referred to as Mizrahi Jews, Judeo-Persian, but they call themselves Bnei Israel. One legend says that Bukharan Jews are of the “lost tribes” of Naphtali or Issachar. Records show that they came in the 14th century to work as weavers and dyers and helped rebuild the area following the destruction by Genghis Khan and his Mongol invaders. They were classified as dhimmi under majority Islamic rule. There were forced conversions in the 18th Century where it is said a third converted to avoid torture or death. But it is said that they drifted north and east from Israel long before that.
Two books were helpful: one by a secular Jewish anthropologist and another by CMJ’s Kelvin Crombie who documented the first CMJ worker to get to Bukhara in the 1800s which I will cite below.
About my Adventure
Our first stop was a synagogue in Tashkent. There we were met by two security guards who informed us that the 7 AM service had finished, and the gates locked. About 20 men had come to morning prayer they said. We raced by cab to the only other synagogue in this bustling modern city with lots of morning traffic. When we arrived, a tour was in progress with a small group from New York City. A man in a fedora was explaining Jewish religious practices to the group and demonstrating the laying on of tefillin as we entered the modern sanctuary. A stained glass featuring the twelve tribes of Israel was on a side wall with names etched in Hebrew. Among the NY visitors was a fine arts shop owner and a curator at the Metropolitan Museum. Perhaps Uzbekistan was not so far off the travel map as I imagined.
From Tashkent, we took the “fast train” to Samarkand. I texted Joseph Steinberg that we left from the Tashkent North Terminal. He wrote back, “My great grandfather helped build that train station. His name was Jacob Talushkin who came from Dnepepetroskv, Ukraine but went to Tashkent as a carpenter to help build the railway station so he could use the money he earned there to escape pogroms at home and immigrant to the USA where he was naturalized in 1907”! Another surprise.
Our guide Dennis in Samarkand said, “Jewish history here dates back 2750 years to the 8th century BC.” Some believed the Jews moved east after the Assyrian capture of Israel in 722 BC or later following the Babylonian captivity of the southern tribe of Judah in 6th century BC or from Persia from the days of Queen Esther. The next shock was that we were taken to the tomb of the prophet Daniel in Samarkand and later, in Bukhara, to the “Spring of Job.” Both places drew Moslem groups to the water fountains at each site where they filled bottles with the “holy water.” “Neither Daniel nor Job are mentioned in the Qur’an, so why are they revered here?” I asked. “They are considered holy men from this area,” was the answer.
After a lunch of Osh, the national rice pilaf dish with beef and vegetables, Dennis mentioned that there was a Jewish Museum in Samarkand, so we took a cab to find it. The woman guide, an archeologist, showed us around. The large house became a museum in 1981 but had been built in 1902-1914 by a wealthy Jewish merchant who held a monopoly on the local copper business. The architect was from Vienna, and the fine furnishings came from various European countries. The owner never lived in the home we were told. Upstairs were displays of Judaica though the guide knew little of what the objects in the display cases were. For example, behind a glassed wall display were items pertaining to Chanukkah and Purim, but she confessed she didn’t know the meaning of them. I was asked to explain via my host/interpreter.
The next day, October 3, was Rosh Hashanah 5785. We arrived at a second synagogue in Samarkand where a service was in progress. At the gate, I asked the security guards why they were there. “Only since October 7, 2023,” they answered. Even this far from Israel, Jewish property must be protected. About 20 or so men in prayer shawls and holding prayer books were gathering inside praying in an area about the size of a large classroom.
Soon after we arrived, the men took a break and came into the paved side yard where we stood. They were cordial and welcoming as my hosts explained who we were. I asked, “How many belong to this synagogue?” “About 80 and there are now only about 200 Jews left in Samarkand; some are intermarried. In the 1970s many went to Israel or to the US. They went for a better life.” Among the worshippers, I met a young man with a thin, light-colored beard from Ukraine and a visitor from New York. As they turned to resume the service, the leader invited us to stay for the blowing of the shofar.
From there we rushed to the train station to take the “slow” train to Bukhara, the third of the major cities on the Silk Road where Jews had settled over the centuries. We grabbed Samas, traditional filled pastries, in the train station shop before joining a crowd on the train platform.
In Bukhara, I learned that the Jewish population had been 20,000 but was now only 200. The synagogue was built there in the 17th century. There was one Jewish school and a 1,250-year-old Jewish cemetery which we visited. Many famous Jewish actors and actresses were buried there with their portraits carved into stone upright tombstones.
The synagogue in what had been the Jewish Quarter of Bukhara is still open. We were given a tour by the “president and acting rebbe” since the rabbi died three years ago and had not been replaced. This affable man proudly showed the Torah scroll which he said was from Israel and over one thousand years old. Preaching had been done there in Tajik, Persian, and Bukharan. He said that 165,000 Bukharan Jews have gone to Israel and 65,000 to the USA. Most of the homes in Jewish Quarter were sold as the Jews left the country and are now shops or residences.
The Modern Geopolitical Story of Uzbekistan
Russia took over the country in the 1920s and imposed Soviet atheistic communism until 1990 when Uzbekistan became independent. I found in these major cities what I term “soft Islam” as opposed to what I had experienced in the Middle East since first travelling there in 1976. When radical groups began to infiltrate the southern border from Afghanistan, the first president did not allow them to come into the country. “He said, ‘We are not Arabs; we are Uzbeks with our own culture and history. We are Moslems, yes, but you are not allowed here,’” I was told. A second president is now in office and is bringing modern industry and jobs into the country. Russian is still a second language along with Uzbeki. I saw the president’s “white house” situated in Independence Park in Tashkent before I left.
Believers in Uzbekistan
I met and interviewed several believers while I was there – all from Moslem backgrounds except for one Jewish believer, an academic. Her family originated in Lithuania in the mid-19th century, moved to Poland, was commanded by the Czar that all must convert to Russian Orthodoxy. Her family protested, she said, and were sent to Siberia and from there came to Uzbekistan! Those from Moslem backgrounds told stories of how someone in their family heard the gospel sometimes while outside the country, came to faith and “gossiped the gospel” to other family members. “How many are in your churches now?” I asked. Some said 30-50, but one church in Tashkent has over 150 members, I was told.
As mentioned above, Kelvin Crombie’s book, Three Sons of Abraham, documents the story of Jewish believer, CMJ missionary Joseph Wolff who went twice to “Bokhara” – the first in March 1832. The route was known for marauding murderers who sometimes captured travelers to sell as slaves. Thanks to the influence of Prince Abbas Mirza of Persia, Wolff received safe passage and presented his credentials to the local Amir, King Nasrallah Khan. In his three months there, Wolff stated his purpose “in order to preach Jesus Christ to the Jewish nation, and to find out about the ten tribes of Israel.” He was beaten but released to return home. Wolff returned to Bokhara in April 1844 to confirm that two of his English countrymen had in fact been executed by the Amir. He learned they were, and he was put under house arrest assuming he too would be executed. After 100 days of confinement, Wolff was released when a Persian ambassador interceded for him. Wolff preached the gospel wherever he went and was the first Jewish believer to preach to the Jews of Bokhara. Dr. Cooper mentions only the first of Wolff’s trips to Bukhara. Reading about the courage and determination of Josef Wolff who suffered trials similar to the ones Paul writes about as he ministered challenges my determination to take the gospel to our Jewish people today.
Pray for continued protection and peace for the Jews remaining in Central Asia. Pray for workers to be thrust into this ripe harvest field to not only the Jews but to the Moslems of Uzbekistan. Pray for the Bukharan Jews (a generic term for all Central Asian Jews) who now live in Israel or New York, some of whom have come to faith in Messiah Yeshua but many others who have yet to hear.
For more details of the history of the Jews of Central Asia and the earliest mission work there read:
Three Sons of Abraham by Kelvin Crombie (Australia: Heritage Resources) 2013. Crombie worked 25 years with CMJ in Jerusalem and is the author of many books of the history of CMJ work since the ministry’s founding in 1809 in London by Jewish believer, Joseph Frey.
Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism by Alanna E. Cooper (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press) 2012. Dr. Cooper is an anthropologist and cultural historian who is Jewish and has taught at major US universities.
