Judaism in Kazakhstan

Jews in Kazakhstan have a relatively short history. The majority of them are Ashkenazi (Jews from Central and Eastern Europe ) whocame to Kazakhstanin the 17th century as conscripts in the tsarist army. According to official figures, around 3,300 Jews live in Kazakhstan (as of 2016). They are predominantly Russian-speaking and identify with Russian culture.

history

It is believed that the first Jews moved to Kazakhstan as traders on the Silk Road in the Middle Ages . In the city of Turkistan , for example, the development of Jewish settlements goes back to the 15th century, when historical sources in this area testified to the existence of a synagogue . One of the first written records about the Ashkenazi Jewish community in Kazakhstan dates back to 1825. It shows that 12 people of "Jewish faith" lived in the Semipalatinsk region .

During the Soviet era , Kazakhstan's Jewish life was largely concentrated in the cities of Alma-Ata , Tschimkent , Turkistan and Kyzylorda with functioning synagogues. However, there was a significant increase in the Jewish population in the 1930s and 1940s due to immigration from the former Pale of Settlement and the massive evacuation measures between 1941 and 1942, when hundreds of thousands of Jews were resettled from the European part of the USSR to Kazakhstan. As a result, the proportion of Jews grew from 3,600 in 1936 to 28,000 in 1959.

Modern

The most famous representative of the Kazakh Jewish community was Rabbi Levi Jitschak Schneerson of Chabad-Lubavitch, who was born in Dnepropetrovsk and exiled to Kazakhstan during the " Great Terror " for religious activities . Among other things, he was accused of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. But even in exile, Schneerson campaigned for the promotion of the Jewish faith. He died in Alma-Ata in 1944 and was not rehabilitated until 1989. On December 19, 1999, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev presented the 3-volume archive material on Schneerson's life's work to the Lubavitcher Rebben in New York . The Central Synagogue of Kazakhstan in Alma-Ata was named after him.

The modern active phase of the revival of Jewish life in Kazakhstan began in 1994 after Rabbi Eschai Kogen took over the leadership of the community. Since then, a total of five synagogues in Almaty, Nur-Sultan (Astana until 2019) , Karaganda , Pavlodar and Ust-Kamenogorsk have been reopened or rebuilt between 1997 and 2015 after extensive renovation work. However, up to 10,000 Kazakh Jews have emigrated to Israel since 1989 .

In December 1999, all of Kazakhstan's Jewish communities were integrated into the “ All-Kazakh Jewish Congress ”, the newly constituted umbrella organization. Out of the 20 Jewish associations active in Kazakhstan today, the Mitzvah Association , Chabad-Lubavitch, the Joint Distribution Committee , which covers remote Jewish towns and the like, stand out . a. supplied with food and the Jewish Agency for Israel out.

About 700 students attend 14 Jewish schools scattered across the country.

According to the National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry, there are no known cases of anti-Semitism in Kazakhstan, apart from a few isolated cases .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alden Oreck: Kazakhstan Virtual Jewish History Tour. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
2. ^ World Jewish Congress: Community in Kazakhstan. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Шломо Кук: Евреи в Казахстане. June 11, 2015, Retrieved June 6, 2018 (Russian). 
4. ↑ Ashley Baylen: A Jewish Culture Guide to Kazakhstan. Retrieved June 6, 2018 .