Kazakh Jews have a long history. There are approximately 12,000 to 30,000 Jews in Kazakhstan, less than 0.2% of the population.
Most Kazakh Jews are Ashkenazi and speak Russian.[1][2]
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General Secretary Joseph Stalin forcibly moved thousands of Jews from other parts of the Soviet Union to the Kazakh SSR. During the Holocaust 8,000 Jews fled to Kazakhstan.[2]
A Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Almaty is named after Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Rebbe, who is buried at the city’s cemetery, close to the synagogue. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was exiled to Kazakhstan from Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk, where he was a chief rabbi. [3] Lubavitcher Jews from all over the world come to pray at his grave. [4]
Yeshaya E. Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, told Kazinform on January 16, 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 believe and those who want to hijack their religion."[5] President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, presented Nazarbayev with a menorah on 7 September 2004.[6]
About 2,000 Jewish Kazakhs are Bukharian 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 AKJC). The Jewish communities formed the 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. There is a Jewish kindergarten in Almaty[7]. 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" (see Jewish outreach.) It has also donated buildings and land for the building of new synagogues.[1][2]
According to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, "Anti-Semitism is not prevalent in Kazakhstan and rare incidents are reported in the press" [8]
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