Sasha Baron Cohen portrays Borat, a bumbling Kazakh who’s racist, sexist and virulently anti-Semitic. He jokes about Kazakhstan being a nation where Jews are hated. Yet the reality is very different. Long abused by the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan today is a pluralistic country with a small but flourishing Jewish life. Here are six facts about Kazakhstan and Jews.
Early Russian Army Conscripts
Kazakhstan is a massive country in Central Asia. For years, it was sparsely inhabited by nomadic tribes; in fact, the word Kazakh comes from the Turkic word “Kaz,” meaning wander. In ancient times, much of today’s Kazakhstan was ruled by Persia; in the Middle Ages it was governed by Genghis Khan. Jewish merchants settled in the town of Turkestan in this period, and built a synagogue whose remains can still be seen today.
In the 1700s, Russia began advancing into Kazakh territory. The atmosphere in Russia was full of change: Czar Nicolas I fancied himself a reformer and wanted to make sweeping changes to Russia’s large Jewish community. In 1827 he instituted a brutal draft forcing Jewish communities to provide boys for the Russian army. Numbers varied in different communities, but averaged about four boys each year per 1,000 Jews. Service in the Russian army was all-consuming; conscripts had to serve for 25 years. Unlike other soldiers who didn’t have to join the army until age 18, for Jews the draft age was lowered to 12.
Though Jewish conscripts were technically allowed to practice their religion, the reality was very difficult. Taken from home, brought up among anti-Semitic soldiers and denied contact with Jewish communities, most Jewish soldiers in the Czar’s army lost their connection to Jewish life. Even worse, if any soldier married and had children, their offspring became property of the Russian state and were mandated to attend Russian military schools.
Despite these incredible hardships, some Jewish Russian recruits who found themselves stationed in Kazakhstan did form Jewish communities. Clusters of Jews lived in several towns across Kazakhstan, praying in private homes and living low-profile Jewish lives. In Almaty (then known as Verniy), the largest town in Kazakhstan, local Jews opened a synagogue in 1884 – Kazakhstan’s first since the Middle Ages. Located in a small wooden building, it served about a hundred Jews, most soldiers and veterans.
Exiled to Kazakhstan for Practicing Judaism
Under Soviet rule, Kazakhstan was exploited, starved and used as a dumping ground for political prisoners. Kazakhstan is a vast land, encompassing mountainous areas as well as inhospitable deserts and steppes. The harsh terrain of Kazakhstan’s interior was soon dotted with a vast system of gulags, political prisons where millions of dissenters and ethnic minorities were imprisoned, tortured, and often died. One of the gulags, at the Karaganda coal mine in Kazakhstan, was 300,000 square miles – about the size of France – and processed over a million political prisoners. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, who wrote The Gulag Archipelago, was imprisoned in Kazakhstan.
Among the dissenters sent to gulags in Kazakhstan and elsewhere were Jews who insisted on clinging to their religious observance in defiance of Soviet law. One of these Jews was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the father of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of blessed memory, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson
Born in 1860, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was a brilliant scholar; his wife Chana was also a distinguished intellectual and together they helped Jewish life continue in the Soviet Union. The couple became the chief rabbi and rebbetzin of Dnepropetrovsk (then known as Yekatrinoslav) in Ukraine. Religious life was strictly controlled, and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak risked his life to build a secret mikveh (Jewish ritual bath), and to perform secret Jewish weddings. Jews at the time were allowed to bake matzah, but were forbidden from having rabbinic supervision to make sure it was kosher. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak interceded with the authorities to gain permission to ensure that his community’s matzah was kosher for Passover.
The Jewish community in Jaffa, in what today is the State of Israel, invited Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Chana and their family to move there and lead the community, sending visas for them and the couple’s four sons. But the Schneerson family stayed in the Soviet Union, working to help keep Jewish life going. Just before Passover in 1939, Stalin sent the fearsome secret police to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s house. They ransacked his library, then arrested the rabbi for activities supporting Jewish life. He was sent to one of the notorious gulags in Kazakhstan, where he was tortured over a period of nearly a year.
Afterwards, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was banished to the Kazakh town of Chi’ili. His wife Chana joined him. Eventually, they were allowed to move to Almaty where they led the Jewish community. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak passed away in Almaty in 1944. In August 2020, the Government of Kazakhstan designated Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s grave a national heritage site.
Bukharian Jews
Not all the Jews of Kazakhstan are Russian. Kazakhstan borders the nations Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the south; these nations are home to Bukharian Jews, some of whom have made Kazakhstan home.
Bukharian Jews trace their history to 539 BCE, when King Cyrus conquered Persia, ending the Jewish exile there that occurred a generation before when Nebuchadnezer conquered the Land of Israel and destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus allowed Jews to return to Israel, where they promptly began work on the Second Temple. Some Jews remained in Persia, however. Over time, groups of Persian Jews moved further north, into the Central Asian areas that today form the Republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and neighboring regions. In time, these “Bukharan” Jews – named after a town called Bukhara in Uzbekistan where a Jewish community settled – became cut off from other Jewish populations. They spoke a language called Bukhari or Judeo-Tajik, which was heavily influenced by Tajik language groups and which also incorporates many Hebrew words,
Facing Muslim anti-Semitism and a forbidding, inhospitable terrain, Bukharan Jews gradually became spiritually and culturally degraded. That changed in 1793, when a Moroccan Jewish leader, Rabbi Joseph Maman al-Maghribi, visited the area and decided to stay to help the Bukharan Jewish community. Rabbi Maman established the Hibbat Zion – “Love of Zion” – movement, which sent thousands of Bukharan children to Jerusalem, first for visits, and then in time to move there permanently. By the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, there was already an established Bukharan community in Jerusalem. Following the revolution when Central Asian Republics came under Soviet rule, many more Bukharan Jews left to join their brethren in the Land of Israel. Some smaller groups of Bukharan Jews migrated further north, settling in Kazakh towns and villages, as well.
Haven During the Holocaust
In his latest movie, Sasha Baron Cohen has Borat describe the Holocaust as a high point in Kazakhstan’s history. The comedian had a point, but it’s the opposite of his joke: the terrible years of the Holocaust were a high point in Kazakh history, when it welcomed over 8,500 Jews who were fleeing from the Nazis.
These desperate Jews came from across Russia and Russian-held Poland. Kazakhstan was remote and impoverished, but it offered a safe haven far from Nazi aggression. Prof. Anna Shternshis, a Professor of Yiddish Studies and the Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, uncovered a World War II era Yiddish song called Kazakhstan, which describes what Prof. Shternshis has called the “melting pot” of Jewish life in Kazakhstan during the Holocaust. (She included Kazakhstan in a Grammy-winning CD she produced called Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II in 2018.) Jews from Poland and the Soviet Union, and also Jewish political prisoners who’d been released by the Soviet authorities from gulags in Kazakhstan all mingled together in Kazakhstan during the war.
Portrait of the Schanzer family in Kazakhstan where they settled after first being imprisoned in Siberia. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
“I have suffered from when I was born endlessly,” the song begins, before going on to describe the warm welcome Jews who were fleeing the Holocaust received in Kazakhstan. The song is a testament to the many different ethnic groups who called Kazakhstan home. “A Kazakh, an Ossetian, a Uigher and a Georgian, Ukrainian, Roma, Russian, Kalymyk, Tajik, Belarussian.... Now, our family has another member: You are our brother, (dear) Jew.” Most of the Jews finding refuge in Kazakhstan spent the war in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.
Hidden Jews
Though the Soviet authorities who ruled Kazakhstan forbade most forms of Jewish religious expression, Jewish life did exist in Kazakhstan, thanks to one incredibly brave Chabad rabbi from Brooklyn, Rabbi Hillel Liberov. In 1944, after Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson died, Rabbi Liberov realized that the Jews of Kazakhstan needed a leader, and he moved to Almaty. From 1944 until his death in 1982, Rabbi Liberov served as the unofficial chief rabbi of Almaty. He led secret Jewish services, and slaughtered animals according to Jewish kosher law so Kazakh Jews could have some kosher meat for Shabbat and holidays. It was incredibly dangerous work: his children back home in Brooklyn didn’t know if they’d ever see him again. He faced arrest at any moment. Yet his heroic efforts kept Jewish life alive in Kazakhstan.
Polish Jews, exiled by the Soviets exiled to the village of Zhuravlovka, Kazakhstan, stand in front of a mud hut. (USHMM)
Many Jews were sent to Kazakhstan during the Soviet era to work on mining and nuclear testing projects in the Republic. Though Jewish life was severely repressed, some Jews did manage to live Jewish lives in secret. It’s unknown today how many thousands of Jews risked torture and death to attend secret religious services and celebrate illicit Jewish weddings during this period.
Flourishing Jewish Life Today
Today, a sizable community of up to 20,000 Jews call Kazakhstan home. (Different organizations cite different numbers; some estimate that the Jewish community is as small as 3,500.) The Chief Rabbi, Yeshaya E. Cohen, first moved to the country in 1994. “When I arrived in Almaty, it was an entirely different atmosphere” from the rest of the Soviet Union, he’s recalled, noting the “kind and friendly people” in Kazakhstan.
Rabbi Yeshaya E. Cohen
Almaty has the country’s largest Jewish community, and smaller Jewish populations are found in regions including Astana, Semiplatinsk, Dzhambul, Uralsk, and Karaganda. Over twenty Jewish communal organizations contribute to Kazakh Jewish life, often with help from larger Jewish communities worldwide. In Karaganda, for instance, the thousand-strong Jewish community is aided by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), which runs a Jewish community center. Local Jews attend cultural events, take Jewish classes, and also volunteer distributing food and supplies to impoverished local Jews.
During Soviet times, Kazakhstan suffered enormously. Many of the Soviet Union’s nuclear tests were completed in Kazakhstan, and much of the country was filled with gulags. Ethnic Kazakhs were treated as second class citizens in their own home, with Russians being favored. Kazakhstan declared independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and since then, it has seen extraordinary change – including the flourishing of Jewish life, which had so long been suppressed by Soviet authorities.
Rabbi Cohen notes that far from being the Jew-hating caricature of Borat, Kazakhs are tolerant to the Jewish minority in their midst. Hanukkah, especially, is a wonderful holiday in the country, and often coincides with Kazakhstan's Independence Day. “It’s a reason to be twice as happy,” Rabbi Cohen explains, “for we still remember the Soviet times when everybody had to be the same, as people were afraid to express themselves in their clothes, thoughts and beliefs.”
Today, Kazakhstan’s Jews are free to show their Jewishness. A new generation is growing up with synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish classes open for the first time in the country in years.
(16) Tim Ward, November 10, 2020 1:03 AM
What a difficult journey to hold onto heritage
This article gives me a lot of insight into why Jews hold their customs and religion so dearly. It was sought to be taken from them for so many thousands of years by so many tyrannical governments across the whole world, so were it not for a steadfast, brave push to keep Judaism going, it would have been lost forever.
(15) Anonymous, November 7, 2020 5:23 PM
Rabbi Hillel Liberov
Rabbi Hillel Liberov was not from Brooklyn. He was from Gzhatsk (Russia) and moved to Alma-Ata escaping Nazis. He had few siblings. Two left in 1946 to London and France. Each has around 200 descendants active in Chabad. One came back to Alma-Ata 3 years ago to be a schochet. As per Sasha Cohen, "this time, Kazakhstan is responding differently. The country's tourism board launched a new campaign this week, adopting Borat's viral catchphrase "Very nice!" as their official new slogan." https://youtu.be/eRGXq4t9wY4
(14) Herbert Ausubel, November 6, 2020 4:28 PM
Jewish life in Samarkand dates back 2 millennia
It is customary in Jewishism to name a child after someone we wish to remember. When I married Stephanie Gusikof we decided that we would work and save to take trips to the lands in which our ancestors lived and then write a series of books so that our future children would learn about what their ancestors lives were like. And so we ended up traveling to all the inhabited continents of the world. When I showed the material we had written to friends they said we should have the work published. In Book 6 titled "Man in Seat 22A" we tell the story of my wife's ancestors back to King David, Rabbis Hilel and Rashi from whom she is descended. One chapter is titled "Road to Samarkand" in which we tell of our trip to Samarkand which, in fact, was named after Sumar in ancient Israel. It was founded by exiles from Israel who were shipped off by the Assyrians after they conquered Israel.
(13) Lea Liliane Segell, November 6, 2020 9:00 AM
Wow I so enjoyed this article, it is so informative, thank you
(12) Julian, November 5, 2020 1:57 PM
The truth will out
The best comedy always 'pricks the pride' and reveals a truth. Probably why I never enjoyed Bhorat. His comedy is based on deciet and humiliation and appeals to hypocrisy.
(11) Lilliana, November 4, 2020 2:01 AM
So interesting!
I loved reading this piece and learning about a Jewish community I barely knew. I was not aware about the lack of anti Semitism. I wonder, though, if this is because of the government, or its part of the culture. I know that the government of Khazastan is building a railroad to connect it to Mecca and that could radicalise its Muslim population and change things negatively.
(10) Joseph, November 4, 2020 12:01 AM
Kazakhstan during the First World War
This was a very interesting article. Please write another article about Kazakhstan during W. W. I.
My father-in-law was born in Kazan when all the Lithuanian Jews were forced out of Lithuania by the Russians in W.W. I and temporarily settled in many unusual locations including Kazakhstan.
(9) Yonathan, November 3, 2020 10:42 PM
Chabad to the rescue!
Excellent article from Dr. Miller. Just noticed through this article how Chabad work is important for the survival of remote Jewish communities. Kol hakavod to the Chabad rebbeim who sacrificed their lives for the Jewish people in the 4 corners of the world. Truly inspirational
(8) Gwen, November 3, 2020 10:37 PM
Friendship in Kazakhstan
Thank you for this amazing article. It fills in so many blanks in my knowledge of these countries. So glad that there was friendship in Kazakhstan for the Jewish people especially during World War 2.
(7) Shlomo Elspas, November 3, 2020 10:31 PM
Great
Makes me want to visit
(6) Dr. Ed Marcus, November 3, 2020 9:31 PM
Sasha Baron Cohen is a fervent fighter of anti-semitism!
Yes, the Borat character is a buffoon, but know that his player, Cohen, fights anti-semitism in very heartfelt & intelligent ways!
(5) Anonymous, November 3, 2020 8:24 PM
Historically correct, interesting & well written
Very informative & this rebuttal to Borat’s falsehoods should be more widely disseminated!
(4) Leon, November 3, 2020 6:51 PM
Kazakhstan of the movie has nothing to do with the real country
As far as the Borat movie is concerned, it is just a sequence of jokes, some funny, some not, simplistic to the extreme and intentionally in bad taste. Obviously, the "Kazakhstan" of the movie has nothing to do with the real country.
Anonymous, November 3, 2020 7:27 PM
An athlete from Kazakhstan (in real life) was once welcomed to the award stage with the anthem from the movie. "Kazakhstan, number one exporter of potassium. Other countries have inferior potassium"
Nancy, November 4, 2020 1:01 PM
To commenter #4 Leon
I completely agree with your assessment of the Borat movie. IMO, it was in REALLY bad taste and yet I laughed in certain parts. From what I have read about Sasha Baron Cohen, he is nothing like Borat. That just proves what a good actor he is.
(3) Anonymous, November 3, 2020 6:42 PM
Borat
Borat is a money hungry fool. Shame on him. I have boycotted this ignoramuse’s Movies and so has my family. Please Boycott all of his Movies.
Anonymous, November 3, 2020 7:25 PM
Borat is not a person. Borat is a character.
Rachel, November 4, 2020 1:33 AM
Borat is a character
Thank you! Sasha Baron Cohen is one of the most talented actors working today. I am always amazed that there are some who don’t seem to know the difference between an actor and the roles he plays.
(2) RA'ANAN, November 1, 2020 6:09 PM
Kazakhstan also has a 3rd ethnic Jewish community known as Mountain Jews...
They are NOT Bukhari Jews. Mountain Jews speak a different language. Their main center, though, is in Azerbaijan. Interestingly, though, Georgian Jews never seemed to have settled in Kazakhstan.
(1) Rachel, November 1, 2020 5:29 PM
Great article
I really enjoy Dr Alt Miller’s well researched articles. I knew there are Jews in Kazakhstan but I was unaware of the number of individuals and community organizations.
Of course, “Borat” satirizes everything. I have not seen the new streamed film (I am not a subscriber). However, the first film did not affect my opinion of Kazakhstan, but it was an eye-opener to see what did and did not offend unwitting Americans.