From local to global: transformations of Bukharan Jewish community organization in the twentieth century

Abstract

This article is a review of the development of the Bukharan Jewish community organization. It describes the transformations it has undergone in the twentieth century and examines the changes that Bukharan Jews underwent from demographic, social, and organizational perspectives, and the far-reaching processes that have occurred later in community organizations, particularly in light of the establishment of the World Congress of Bukharan Jewry in 2000. Traditionally, when dealing with Jewish communities the term “diaspora” refers to different Jewish communities scattered away from the “promised land” (Diatlov 1999). Thus, the terminology of: “Jewish immigration” traditionally is considered as their return. In this article, which focuses on Bukharan Jews, I use “diaspora” to describe different Bukharan communities created due to immigration to the land of Israel and to other destinations from the cradle of Central Asia.