Kosher and Jewish Life in Bishkek

Though Jews were present in the Kyrgz region starting in the 4th century, little is definitively known about their presence in Kyrgyzstan before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Today, there are approximately 500 Jews still living in Kyrgyzstan. Until 1915, Kyrgyzstan had no synagogues. The country's small Jewish community congregated in the homes of local rabbis for services. For Jewish funerals, officials from the hevra kadisha, funeral association, were brought from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The only Jewish cemetery was located in Osh; in Bishkek, the Jews had their own section of the Muslim cemetery. Since independence, the Jewish community, concentrated in Bishkek, has rebuilt itself. The Menorah Center in Bishkek, which is supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), is the center of Jewish life. It maintains a Sunday school, an Aish HaTorah education center, a Jewish theater and dance group, and a library. It publishes the Ma'ayan newspaper and organizes Maccabi youth sports activities. The center also provides aid to the community's elderly. Bishkek is home to an Ashkenazi synagogue and several small Bukharan services. A new rabbi came to Kyrgyzstan from Israel in 2000 to head the Ashkenazi synagogue. A number of Bukharan prayer houses are scattered around the Ferghana Valley.