Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Atheists, coexisting in peace

 

Uzbekistan is a diverse country, with Jews, Russians, Germans, and Koreans calling it home, apart from the dominant Uzbeks and other Suni Muslim ethnic groups. A good place to see this diversity are the cemeteries, where among the religious headstones you'll also find the red stars of the atheist Communists. People get along well in life as well; Central Asia is still a region of remarkable, peaceful coexistence.

While there were pogroms and other atrocities against Jewish people in Europe, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in peace for centuries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and in some places, like Uzbekistan, they still do. In Europe and North America synagogues are protected by police and/or armed guards, but in this Muslim-majority country it is unnecessary even in these tense times. I visited a synagogue in Bukhara at sunset on a Friday, as Shabbat was coming in, and the doors were open, there was no security personnel at all. Little later I visited another synagogue, too, and it was the same. Everyone I spoke to said the two communities get along well, and no problems exist between them whatsoever. Only a few Jewish people remained in Uzbekistan, but there was a time when hundreds of thousands lived there. Zionism brought tragedy not only for the Palestinians but also for the Jewish diaspora. After the establishment of the Jewish state, they got ethnically cleansed from most of the countries they called home for centuries. (Encouraged, even in brutal ways, by Zionists - see Haaretz: Now It Can Be Told) And in the melting pot of Israel, they've lost their diverse cultures, their different dialects and unique traditions. Most of their synagogues and other buildings around the world are now abandoned, ruined or repurposed. The following photos were taken in Samarkand and Bukhara, proof of a once-flourishing Jewish culture that is now almost gone.