Lev Gulden knew he was different from most of the Jews in this ancient city. Growing up after World War II in a Jewish neighborhood in Bukhara, Gulden said he would occasionally catch a disapproving glance from some Jewish neighbors on the streets. “They thought we were not proper Jews,” recalls Gulden, now 57. Years… More ▸
At a time when some Jews despair at the apparent depth of Muslim hatred for Jews around the world, perhaps the warmest Muslim-Jewish relations can be found, surprisingly, in the former Soviet Union. To illustrate how devoted they are to ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, the country’s “Mountain Jews” cite the heroism of Jewish soldier Albert Agarunov —… More ▸
It was on her initial visit to Tel Aviv a few years ago that Oksana Gulden first saw street lights. There simply aren’t any in her hometown, a city in this former Soviet republic in Central Asia. Gulden, 20, is president of B’Yachad, or Together, a youth club housed in a baby-blue, single-story wood home… More ▸
A Lubavitch rabbi in Uzbekistan who had been threatened with expulsion will be allowed to stay in the former Soviet republic until the end of the year. Intervention by a Lubavitch rabbi in the United States, Levi Shemtov, with the Uzbek ambassador to the United States, and by the Israeli ambassador to Uzbekistan led to… More ▸
Uzbekistan has refused to renew the visa of an American rabbi who serves as the head of the Jewish community in the former Soviet republic’s capital of Tashkent. Rabbi Abba David Gurevitch, who was born in Russia and holds a U.S. passport, has worked in Uzbekistan since 1990. His visa was regularly renewed until it… More ▸
The leader of Uzbekistan told a group of visiting American Jewish leaders that his country was committed to countering the threats of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism from neighboring Afghanistan and Iran. “We are against any kind of fundamentalism,” Uzbekistan’s president, Islam Karimov, told members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations during… More ▸
A Tashkent Jew, imprisoned for some ten months for a murder he said he did not commit, was to be released this week by the government of Uzbekistan and allowed to go to Israel for medical treatment. Dimitrii Fattakhov, 24, was expected to depart for Israel Thursday, along with his mother, Frieda. “We are very… More ▸
A 76-year-old Bukharam Jew has been released from a prison in Uzbekistan after an outcry of protest from Jews around the world. Iosif Koinov of Tashkent, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, stands accused of killing his 17-year-old tenant, who was found murdered in bed Sept. 29. According to the Union of… More ▸
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres paid a three-day visit to the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan earlier this month. Arriving first in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, Peres remarked on parallels between the two countries. “Like Uzbekistan, Israel is fighting fundamentalism, poverty and war,” he said. Peres’ visit to Central Asia, where Islam… More ▸
The Union of Councils and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry do not always see eye to eye on the situation in the former Soviet Union. That was made clear last week when the Union of Councils protested a diplomatic reception co-sponsored by the National Conference. But when it comes to the human rights situation… More ▸
