Why Uzbekistan’s Jews already miss the iron fist of their late ruler
Numbering 13,000 in a Sunni-dominated country of 32 million, a minority learned to appreciate stability over freedom.
Uzbekistan
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Uzbek chief rabbi: No worries for Jewish community after death of country’s president
Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, who died last week, had excellent relations with the Jewish community, though he did place limitations on it, and this is expected to continue under an as-yet unnamed leader.
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Across the Former Soviet Union Rift over Root Differences Remains Unmended for Jews of Uzbekistan
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 ▸
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Jews in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan Live in Muslim World, but Feel at Ease
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 ▸
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Central Asia’s Jews in Uzbekistan, Community is Built Even As Students Think of Leaving
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 ▸
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Rabbi to Stay in Uzbekistan
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 ▸
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Uzbekistan Refuses to Renew Visa for U.S. Rabbi in Tashkent
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 ▸
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Uzbekistan Leaders Welcome Presidents Conference Mission
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 ▸
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Uzbekistan to Allow Jailed Jew to Go to Israel for Medical Help
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 ▸
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Elderly Jew Accused of Murder Released from Jail in Uzbekistan
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 ▸
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