moshe
11-01-2001, 04:53 AM
Hi,
Just wanted to say that Uzbekistan is a great country. President Karimov has been very kind to both Jews and Israel.
Bukharan Jews in Spotlight as Their Land Takes Center Stage
In a tiny kosher bakery in the Rego Park section of Queens last Friday morning, Kandov Mushiyakh stood behind a counter filled with sweet, nutty pastries and round breads and proudly pointed toward a poster on the wall.
It showed a city of sandy towers and fortress-like walls under a pristine blue sky: Bukhara, Uzbekistan. "My city," said Mr. Mushiyakh.
The cashier, who has lived in New York for six years, is one of thousands of Bukharans — Sephardic Jews hailing from the former Soviet states of central Asia — who have moved to Queens in the past two decades. Uzbekistan, with its mostly Muslim population, is a mountainous region that few Americans could correctly place on a map. Since the September 11 attacks, however, the country has been receiving Page One attention in newspapers around the world. The United States sent 1,000 troops to Uzbekistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, in the first deployment of American troops to a former Soviet state. Troops have also been sent to neighboring Tajikistan.
All over Queens last week, Bukharans were basking in the attention their homeland has been getting.
"It's exciting," said Nina Alaeva, 54, a native of Dushambe, Tajikistan, who moved to Queens in 1988. "Suddenly people start talking about your place, your former homeland."
"I feel it around me," said Ms. Alaeva, who has two children and teaches English as a second language at P.S. 99 in Queens. "People are asking me a lot of questions. They're trying to find out what's going on. We're kind of in the center of public opinion."
In the past 20 years, the leafy and unassuming neighborhoods of Rego Park and Forest Hills have become the core of the American Bukharan community, home to the largest concentration of Bukharan Jews anywhere outside central Asia or Israel. With a plethora of Bukharan shops, 108th Street between 63rd Road and 67th Avenue, has been dubbed "Bukharan Broadway."
The New York Bukharan community is estimated at 50,000 people, most hailing from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and others from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Families that were once neighbors in cities like Samarkand, Uzbekistan, now live within blocks of each other in Queens.
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan both border on Afghanistan and share common languages and ethnic groups. Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, is allowing the United States to use an air base for transferring troops, helicopters and supplies, but only for humanitarian missions.
"For years, you know, if you had an article about Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — it was rare," said Nahum Kaziev, a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who moved to New York in 1986. "Now you open the paper, every single day you see the maps of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, where the Russians are based, where the borders are."
"It's like a small secret that opened up to the whole world," he said. "People used to laugh, 'You're from Uzbekistan, where's this? What is this?'" said Mr. Kaziev, 31, who is the editor of Druzba, a Bukharan Jewish magazine whose name means "friendship" and whose pages are filled with photographs of engagements, weddings and obituaries.
In a bizarre role reversal, Mr. Kaziev said that his friends called him from Uzbekistan after the terrorist attacks to see if he was okay. However, he may soon be calling them again. The Taliban has threatened to attack Uzbekistan if it allows United States forces to strike Afghanistan from its borders, press reports said over the weekend.
"I think everyone's concerned about their family members, also concerned about the stability in the region," Mr. Kaziev said.
With many members fluent in Farsi, spoken in Iran, as well as Tajik, Uzbek and Russian, many in the Bukharan Jewish community are eager to offer their services to the government, said Rabbi Itzhak Yehoshua, the chief rabbi of the Bukharan community.
"We definitely want to be a part of this," said Rabbi Yehoshua. "This part of the world is very complicated." He said that some community leaders had contacted their members of Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to offer their language services.
Mr. Kaziev said that he had received numerous phone calls from members of the Bukharan community who wanted to help. "We have people familiar with the dialect and the mentality of Afghanistan, and shared borders," Mr. Kaziev said. "Some served in the Russian army when it occupied Afghanistan and had some kind of information."
Ms. Alaeva, for instance, speaks Dari, which is also spoken in northern Afghanistan and is akin to Farsi. "I hope we could be much more helpful because we know the region, the culture, how to speak," she said. "We're not big experts, but we know a little more than average Americans."
In Tajikistan, "We were close to Muslims much more than we were close to Russians," said Ms. Alaeva, who traces her family back 500 years in that country. "When people call us Russians we're really confused because we don't carry a lot of Russian traits," she said. "Now we're New Yorkers."
Indeed, for many, the September 11 attacks solidified an already deep love of America. "It was a dark day in my life," said Rafael Niktalov, a native of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. "That day, I understood I'm American."
An energetic musicologist who writes a column for the Russian Forward, Mr. Niktalev said that he began flying an American flag after the attacks. "I thank America 1,000 times," he said.
Just wanted to say that Uzbekistan is a great country. President Karimov has been very kind to both Jews and Israel.
Bukharan Jews in Spotlight as Their Land Takes Center Stage
In a tiny kosher bakery in the Rego Park section of Queens last Friday morning, Kandov Mushiyakh stood behind a counter filled with sweet, nutty pastries and round breads and proudly pointed toward a poster on the wall.
It showed a city of sandy towers and fortress-like walls under a pristine blue sky: Bukhara, Uzbekistan. "My city," said Mr. Mushiyakh.
The cashier, who has lived in New York for six years, is one of thousands of Bukharans — Sephardic Jews hailing from the former Soviet states of central Asia — who have moved to Queens in the past two decades. Uzbekistan, with its mostly Muslim population, is a mountainous region that few Americans could correctly place on a map. Since the September 11 attacks, however, the country has been receiving Page One attention in newspapers around the world. The United States sent 1,000 troops to Uzbekistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, in the first deployment of American troops to a former Soviet state. Troops have also been sent to neighboring Tajikistan.
All over Queens last week, Bukharans were basking in the attention their homeland has been getting.
"It's exciting," said Nina Alaeva, 54, a native of Dushambe, Tajikistan, who moved to Queens in 1988. "Suddenly people start talking about your place, your former homeland."
"I feel it around me," said Ms. Alaeva, who has two children and teaches English as a second language at P.S. 99 in Queens. "People are asking me a lot of questions. They're trying to find out what's going on. We're kind of in the center of public opinion."
In the past 20 years, the leafy and unassuming neighborhoods of Rego Park and Forest Hills have become the core of the American Bukharan community, home to the largest concentration of Bukharan Jews anywhere outside central Asia or Israel. With a plethora of Bukharan shops, 108th Street between 63rd Road and 67th Avenue, has been dubbed "Bukharan Broadway."
The New York Bukharan community is estimated at 50,000 people, most hailing from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and others from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Families that were once neighbors in cities like Samarkand, Uzbekistan, now live within blocks of each other in Queens.
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan both border on Afghanistan and share common languages and ethnic groups. Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, is allowing the United States to use an air base for transferring troops, helicopters and supplies, but only for humanitarian missions.
"For years, you know, if you had an article about Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — it was rare," said Nahum Kaziev, a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who moved to New York in 1986. "Now you open the paper, every single day you see the maps of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, where the Russians are based, where the borders are."
"It's like a small secret that opened up to the whole world," he said. "People used to laugh, 'You're from Uzbekistan, where's this? What is this?'" said Mr. Kaziev, 31, who is the editor of Druzba, a Bukharan Jewish magazine whose name means "friendship" and whose pages are filled with photographs of engagements, weddings and obituaries.
In a bizarre role reversal, Mr. Kaziev said that his friends called him from Uzbekistan after the terrorist attacks to see if he was okay. However, he may soon be calling them again. The Taliban has threatened to attack Uzbekistan if it allows United States forces to strike Afghanistan from its borders, press reports said over the weekend.
"I think everyone's concerned about their family members, also concerned about the stability in the region," Mr. Kaziev said.
With many members fluent in Farsi, spoken in Iran, as well as Tajik, Uzbek and Russian, many in the Bukharan Jewish community are eager to offer their services to the government, said Rabbi Itzhak Yehoshua, the chief rabbi of the Bukharan community.
"We definitely want to be a part of this," said Rabbi Yehoshua. "This part of the world is very complicated." He said that some community leaders had contacted their members of Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to offer their language services.
Mr. Kaziev said that he had received numerous phone calls from members of the Bukharan community who wanted to help. "We have people familiar with the dialect and the mentality of Afghanistan, and shared borders," Mr. Kaziev said. "Some served in the Russian army when it occupied Afghanistan and had some kind of information."
Ms. Alaeva, for instance, speaks Dari, which is also spoken in northern Afghanistan and is akin to Farsi. "I hope we could be much more helpful because we know the region, the culture, how to speak," she said. "We're not big experts, but we know a little more than average Americans."
In Tajikistan, "We were close to Muslims much more than we were close to Russians," said Ms. Alaeva, who traces her family back 500 years in that country. "When people call us Russians we're really confused because we don't carry a lot of Russian traits," she said. "Now we're New Yorkers."
Indeed, for many, the September 11 attacks solidified an already deep love of America. "It was a dark day in my life," said Rafael Niktalov, a native of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. "That day, I understood I'm American."
An energetic musicologist who writes a column for the Russian Forward, Mr. Niktalev said that he began flying an American flag after the attacks. "I thank America 1,000 times," he said.