Jews in Kazakhstan
Encyclopedia
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
.
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.
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. Lubavitcher Jews from all over the world come to pray at his grave.
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." President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, presented Nazarbayev with a menorah on 7 September 2004.
, Mountain Jews
. There are synagogue
s 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, Petropavl
ovsk.
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 school
s attended by more than 700 students. There is a Jewish kindergarten in Almaty. Between 2005 and 2006 attendance in religious services and education in Almaty among Jews greatly increased. The Kazakh government registered eight foreign rabbi
s and "Jewish missionaries" (see Jewish outreach
.) It has also donated buildings and land for the building of new synagogues.
According to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry
, "Anti-Semitism is not prevalent in Kazakhstan and rare incidents are reported in the press"
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, less than 0.2% of the population.
Most Kazakh Jews are Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
and speak Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Jewish history in Kazakhstan
General SecretaryGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the title given to the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With some exceptions, the office was synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union...
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
forcibly moved thousands of Jews from other parts of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to the Kazakh SSR
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
. During the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
8,000 Jews fled to Kazakhstan.
A Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch is a Chasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's larger and best-known Chasidic movements, its official headquarters is in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York...
synagogue in Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
is named after Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson
Levi Yitzchak Schneerson
Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, , was a Chabad Hasidic rabbi in Yekatrinoslav, Ukraine. He was the father of the seventh and last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson....
, father of the Rebbe
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
, 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. Lubavitcher Jews from all over the world come to pray at his grave.
Yeshaya E. Cohen, the Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
of Kazakhstan, told Kazinform on January 16, 2004 that a new synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
would be built in Astana
Astana
Astana , formerly known as Akmola , Tselinograd and Akmolinsk , is the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 708,794 as of 1 August 2010...
. He thanked President Nazarbayev
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev has served as the President of Kazakhstan since the nation received its independence in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union...
for "paying so much attention to distinguishing between those who truly believe and those who want to hijack their religion." President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, presented Nazarbayev with a menorah on 7 September 2004.
Jewish life today
About 2,000 Jewish Kazakhs are Bukharian and JuhuroMountain Jews
Highland Jews, Mountain Jews or Kavkazi Jews also known as Juvuro or Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or less commonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part...
, Mountain Jews
Mountain Jews
Highland Jews, Mountain Jews or Kavkazi Jews also known as Juvuro or Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or less commonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part...
. There are synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
s and large Jewish communities in Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
where there are 10,000 Jews and in Astana
Astana
Astana , formerly known as Akmola , Tselinograd and Akmolinsk , is the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 708,794 as of 1 August 2010...
and Pavlodar
Pavlodar
Pavlodar is a city in northeastern Kazakhstan and the capital of Pavlodar Province. It is located 350 km northeast of the national capital Astana, and 400 km southeast of the Russian city of Omsk along the Irtysh River. , the city has a population of 331710...
. There are smaller communities in Karaganda
Karaganda
Karagandy , more commonly known by its Russian name Karaganda, , is the capital of Karagandy Province in Kazakhstan. It is the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty , Astana and Shymkent, with a population of 471,800 . In the 1940s up to 70% of the city's inhabitants were ethnic...
, Chimkent, Semey
Semey
Semey , formerly known as Semipalatinsk and Alash-kala , is a city in Kazakhstan, in the northeastern province of East Kazakhstan, near the border with Siberia, around north of Almaty, and southeast of the Russian city of Omsk, along the Irtysh River.-History:The first settlement was in 1718,...
, Kokchetav, Dzhambul, Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Petropavl
Petropavl
Petropavl is a city on the Ishim River in North Kazakhstan Province of Kazakhstan close to the border with Russia, about 261 km west of Omsk along the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is capital of the North Kazakhstan Province...
ovsk.
There are twenty Jewish Kazakh organizations, including the Mitzvah Association, Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch is a Chasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's larger and best-known Chasidic movements, its official headquarters is in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York...
, the Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Agency for Israel
Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel , also known as the Sochnut or JAFI, served as the organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews from the Diaspora into the state of Israel.-History:...
, 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
Richard Jones (U.S. Ambassador to Israel)
Richard Henry Jones is an American diplomat and the current Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.Jones is a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service...
.
There are fourteen Jewish day school
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
s attended by more than 700 students. There is a Jewish kindergarten in Almaty. Between 2005 and 2006 attendance in religious services and education in Almaty among Jews greatly increased. The Kazakh government registered eight foreign rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s and "Jewish missionaries" (see Jewish outreach
Jewish outreach
Jewish outreach is a term with mixed support sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word kiruv or keruv . Judaism usually does not actively seek converts, although all denominations do accept those with a sincere commitment...
.) It has also donated buildings and land for the building of new synagogues.
According to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry
NCSJ
National Conference on Soviet Jewry is a leading US organization advocating on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia. It was started in 1971 as a volunteer organization and played an important role in the Soviet Jewry movement, including such landmark legislations as...
, "Anti-Semitism is not prevalent in Kazakhstan and rare incidents are reported in the press"
See also
- Israel–Kazakhstan relationsIsrael–Kazakhstan relationsIsrael–Kazakhstan relations refers to the current and historical relations between Israel and Kazakhstan. Both countries established diplomatic relations on April 10, 1992. The embassy of Israel in Kazakhstan opened in August 1992. The embassy of Kazakhstan in Israel opened in May 1996...
- Bukharian Jews
- Christianity in KazakhstanChristianity in KazakhstanChristianity in Kazakhstan is the second most practiced religion after Islam. About one-third of the population of Kazakhstan identifies as Christian. The majority of Christian citizens are Russians, including Ukrainians and Belarusians, who belong to the Russian Orthodox Church...
- Hinduism in KazakhstanHinduism in KazakhstanHindus in Kazakhstan are mainly of the ISKCON sect and by expatriate Hindus from India.The Indian community in Central Asia, which comprises Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, numbers only 2732 out of a total population of 55.5 million...
- Islam in KazakhstanIslam in KazakhstanIslam is the largest religion practiced in Kazakhstan, as 70% of the country's population is Muslim according to a 2009 national census. Ethnic Kazakhs are predominantly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. From its Geography, Kazakhstan is the northernmost Muslim-majority country in the world...
- Roman Catholicism in KazakhstanRoman Catholicism in KazakhstanThe Roman Catholic Church in Kazakhstan is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Curia in Rome.-Demographics:...
- Baptist Union of KazakhstanBaptist Union of KazakhstanThe Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Kazakhstan is a fellowship of Baptist churches, also known as the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. The Union is composed of almost 200 churches with over 11,000 members, and is a member of the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World...