Synagogue of the Bukharan Jews

The story

At 4 Aviya HaShofet Street, in Neighborhood Dalet, there is registered in the associations registry of the Ministry of Justice an association by the name "Abramov Daniel Synagogue of the Bukharans Beer Sheva", from 27 April 1999. Its registered purpose is four words: to run a synagogue. The Jewry of Bukhara has its origin in Central Asia, mainly in the territories of today's Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and its name comes from the city of Bukhara — the former capital of the Emirate of Bukhara, in which a large community lived. Over the years the community spread over cities, towns and villages throughout Uzbekistan, and also in Tajikistan and mainly in Dushanbe. Its traditional language is Bukhari, a Judeo-Persian dialect close to Tajik. And in their rite of prayer there is an exact date. Until the year 1793 the Jews of Bukhara prayed in an ancient Persian rite, which was based on the prayer book of Rav Saadia Gaon of the tenth century, and in their hands was kept the tradition that they are descendants of the ten tribes. In that year there came to Bukhara from Safed the emissary Rabbi Yosef Maman, who settled there and became the spiritual leader of the community for sixty-one years — and in his days the community passed to the Sephardi rite. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union most of the Jews of Bukhara have emigrated to Israel and to the United States; in Israel they are estimated today at some one hundred and sixty thousand people.

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