Yuval Katz Wilfing (Univ. Vienna): Between Homelands -  Bukharan Jews in Vienna

Jews have been present in Middle Asia for centuries if not millennia. They were present in this part of the world, settling on the edge of the Persian speaking world and in the center of the silk road. Connecting Far East Asia with the Middle East and Europe. The community was formed by common language and geography. Beginning in the 19th century, there were a few waves of emigration, in one of them the famous Bukharan neighborhood in Jerusalem was founded. After the collapse of the USSR and after all the limitations on emigration were removed, the Jewish centers of Middle Asia were emptied but the Jews from these areas still held on to their unique identity and traditions. The Jewish community of Vienna was established in the 1970s unintentionally and grew much in the decades since. Currently the Bukharan community is the biggest and most prominent Jewish community in Vienna. Many of the Bukharan Jews in Vienna came from or via Israel. The Identity of the community is linked to Israel both religiously and socially while it is also linked to the places the community was formed in Middle Asia. This talk will explore the community’s relationship to two homelands, one through which it is linked to the entire Jewish People and one where it is linked to other Bukharan communities.