Jews and Judaism in Kazakhstan

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Jews and Judaism in Kazakhstan have a long history. There are approximately 12,000 to 30,000 Jews in Kazakhstan, less than 1% of the population.

Most Kazakh Jews are Ashkenazi and speak Russian.[1][2]

Contents

[edit] Jewish history in Kazakhstan

General Secretary Joseph Stalin forcibly moved thousands of Jews, including Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and Kabbalist Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, from other parts of the Soviet Union to the Kazakh SSR. During the Holocaust 8,000 Jews fled to Kazakhstan.[2]

In 1997 the Kazakh KGB arrested Jewish labor leader Leonid Solomin and others. Newspapers published antisemitic canards warning of an international conspiracy of "Zionists" and the "international Jewry." One newspaper called on citizens to kill Jews.[2]

Yeshaya Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, told Kazinform on 16 January 2004 that a new synagogue would be built in Astana. He thanked President Nazarbayev for "paying so much attention to distinguishing between those who truly believes and those who want to hijack their religion."[3] Cohen and Alexander Mashkevich, President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, presented Nazarbayev with a menorah on 7 September 2004.[4] The Chief Rabbi of Astana is Juda Kubalkin.[5]

[edit] Jewish life today

About 2,000 Jewish Kazakhs are Bukharan and Juhuro (Mountain Jews). There are synagogues and large Jewish communities in Almaty, where there are 10,000 Jews, and in Astana and Pavlodar. There are smaller communities in Karaganda, Chimkent, Semey, Kokchetav, Dzhambul, Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Petropavlovsk. There are twenty Jewish Kazakh organizations, including the Mitzvah Association, Chabad-Lubavitch, the Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Agency for Israel, and the All-Kazakhstan Jewish Congress. Jewish communities formed AKJC in December 1999 in a ceremony attended by Kazakh government officials and United States Ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Jones. There are fourteen Jewish day schools attended by more than 700 students. Between 2005 and 2006 attendance in religious services and education in Almaty among Jews greatly increased. The Kazakh government registered eight foreign rabbis and "Jewish missionaries". It has also donated buildings and land for the building of new synagogues.[1][2]

Rabbi Cohen has applauded the efforts of the Nazarbayev administration in protecting the Kazakh Jewish community from anti-Semitic attacks, saying he has not encountered anti-Semitism since he came to Kazakhstan ten years earlier. The only registered instances of anti-Semitism in 2005-2006 came from members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned as a terrorist organization in Kazakhstan.[1]

Habar television channel hosted an hour-long television series on Judaism and the history of the Jews on 8 February 2007. The program, airing twice a month, is hosted by Elka Gershovitz and Rabbi Menahem Mendel Gershovitz, the Chabad Lubavitch representative to Kazakhstan. The first half-hour discusses Shabbat and Jewish cuisine.[6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c International Religious Freedom Report 2006 U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan
  2. ^ a b c d The virtual Jewish history tour, Kazakhstan Jewish Virtual Library
  3. ^ Chief Rabbi Says Kazakhstan "Symbol" for Others Press Box
  4. ^ Chief Rabbi Says No Anti-Semitism in Kazakhstan, Explains Why Embassy of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
  5. ^ Kazakhstan’s Jews Celebrate National Conference on Soviet Jewry
  6. ^ Jewish Television Programming in Kazakhstan The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
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