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BUKHARAN JEWS 
and the Dynamics of Global Judaism

Photos that did not make it in

12/30/2013

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Below are photos to accompany my essay, "Muslims Couple Preserves Remnants of Jewish Life in Uzbekistan" published in this week's Jewish Daily Forward.
TOP ROW (1) Home dedication painted on the wall.  "David excelled in all that he did.  Built in Kislev, 1898." (2) Mastura speaks to her guests (3) Selling her wares
BOTTOM ROW (1) Courtyard (2) Upside-down Torah scroll and other Judaica (3) Sign drawing tourists to the Akbar House
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New Review of Bukharan Jews in Choice Magazine

9/7/2013

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 [T]his is a readable, illuminating, and in many ways pathbreaking book. Highly recommended. 

This ambitious volume, the product of 20 years of research and writing, explores Bukharan Jews on three continents to shed light on centers and peripheries in Jewish life and on the complexities of defining Jewish peoplehood. Part history, part ethnography, part memoir, the volume ranges expertly over two centuries of Bukharan Jewish life, from the community's "discovery" by Western Jews to its dispersion following the fall of the Soviet Union. In addition to casting light on an exotic community, now largely relocated to Israel and the US, Cooper uses her case study to illuminate two contrasting paradigms of Jewish peoplehood, one that posits a controlling "center" of Jewish life and the other ("the edah paradigm") that celebrates multiplicity. The analysis would have benefited from more attention to non-Jewish studies of phenomena like "ethnicization," and its use of edah will be confusing to those familiar with Daniel Elazar's use of that term in a political science context. Nevertheless, this is a readable, illuminating, and in many ways pathbreaking book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. -- J. D. Sarna, Brandeis University 
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New Review of Bukharan Jews in Choice Magazine

9/7/2013

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Picture
 [T]his is a readable, illuminating, and in many ways pathbreaking book. Highly recommended. 

This ambitious volume, the product of 20 years of research and writing, explores Bukharan Jews on three continents to shed light on centers and peripheries in Jewish life and on the complexities of defining Jewish peoplehood. Part history, part ethnography, part memoir, the volume ranges expertly over two centuries of Bukharan Jewish life, from the community's "discovery" by Western Jews to its dispersion following the fall of the Soviet Union. In addition to casting light on an exotic community, now largely relocated to Israel and the US, Cooper uses her case study to illuminate two contrasting paradigms of Jewish peoplehood, one that posits a controlling "center" of Jewish life and the other ("the edah paradigm") that celebrates multiplicity. The analysis would have benefited from more attention to non-Jewish studies of phenomena like "ethnicization," and its use of edah will be confusing to those familiar with Daniel Elazar's use of that term in a political science context. Nevertheless, this is a readable, illuminating, and in many ways pathbreaking book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. -- J. D. Sarna, Brandeis University 

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Jews of Bukhara Helped Me to Understand Personal History

5/10/2013

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I did not follow a trail of evidence to discover that the editor of this brittle dictionary was a distant forebear. No. The connection between this little book and my own family is obtuse and indirect. Yet it is also vast and profound."  To read more, click here.

From my article in the Jewish Daily Forward. "Jews of Bukhara Helped Me To Understand Personal History: A Trip to Central Asia Informed Scholar's Research." 


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"The Outliers"

4/6/2013

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Allan Arkush has published a review of Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism in Jewish Ideas Daily.  To read click here.

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Upcoming Lectures in New York

3/18/2013

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Please join me on Thursday, April 4, 6:30 PM.  I will be speaking at the Center for Jewish History in New York.  Get your free tickets here.


In May, I'll be at the 92nd Street Y, and at the Queens Y.  For schedule details, see here.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements in the Boston Area (Feb 3, 6, 9)

1/31/2013

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What is "Global Judaism" and where do Boston's Jewish communities fit in?  What ties America's Ashkenazi Jewish population to Central Asia's Bukharan Jews? Please join me this week at one (or more)  of my speaking engagements in the Boston area!  For details, click here.

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What Happened to Michelle in Forest Hills?

12/11/2012

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"Until the fall of 2007, Michelle Malakova’s family life was much like that of other children whose parents hate each other and have separated," writes journalist Janet Malcolm.  Then Michelle witnessed her father's murder at the hands of a hit-man hired by her own mother.
 
In her 2011 book, Iphigenia in Forest Hills, Malcolm tells the story of Daniel Malakov's murder, which shook the Bukharan Jewish community in Queens, NY.  Now in the New York Review of Books, Malcolm focuses on the aftermath.  Tension between the Malakov and Borokhova families remains charged, and the question of custody has still not been resolved.  What will happen to Michelle? 



For the first of three articles, read here.

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Bukharan Jews International Gathering Marks 40 Years

10/16/2012

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International gathering of Bukharian Jews to mark 40 years since the start of their en masse migration from Soviet Central Asia. 

Sunday, October 21 in Queens, NY

Roshnoyi (Light), the Bukharian Jewish Community Academic Association in New York will be hosting a public event to mark forty years since the community’s mass migration from the former Soviet Union.  Prior to 1972, over 50,000 Jews lived in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, who traced their back their history in the region for well over a millenium.  The community’s deep local roots loosened in the 1970s when migration restrictions were eased, and when the USSR dissolved their history in the region came to a rapid end.  Today the community maintains global ties that stretch across North America, Israel and Europe.

Over sixty lecturers will address the Bukharian Jews immigrant community’s achievements, challenges, and prospects for the future in their new homes.   Speakers come from Israel, Austria, Germany and Canada, as well as from cities across the United States including Cambridge, San Diego, Baltimore, Miami and Phoenix.  They include scholars, artists, representatives of Bukharan Jewish community associations, as well as leaders from American Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee, JCRC and Jewish Child Care Association.

WHEN:                       
Sunday, October 21
9:30 – 7:00 PM
Conference schedule available here

WHERE:                     
Bukharian Jewish Community Center
106-16 70-th Avenue
Queens, Forest Hills

CONTACT:               
Iosif Kalantarov, Program Organizer
Kalontar2@gmail.com



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