214 · Alanna E. Cooper
evrei (real or pure Jews), they would tell me, whereas they are impure
or “half Jews.” This strong distinction is highlighted in the low rates of
intermarriage between the groups.^31 Bukharan Jewish identity was so
tightly linked to locality that marriage with those Jews who were not “of
Central Asia” was not considered a Jewish marriage at all.
Just as Bukharan Jewish identity came to be equated with being of
the local space, so too did their religious practice become particular to
the Central Asian scene. This localization was an outgrowth of the ban
on religious practice during the Soviet era. In Central Asia, far from the
center of Communism, the Jews (like the Muslims) of the region, were
able to continue transmitting their religion, but only privately. Authori-
ties would turn a blind eye to religious observance as long as it was con-
ducted quietly and discreetly. Ritual experts, for example, continued to
slaughter meat throughout the Soviet era. However, there could be no
formalized manner to train new shoḥtim (ritual slaughterers), no insti-
tutionalized process for authorizing them, and no way to certify their
meat as kosher. It was only through informal and personal channels that
people determined who was a legitimate slaughterer and what was ko-
sher meat. The transmission of religious norms in other areas of life also
occurred informally and mimetically, rather than through the study of
abstract principles and texts in institutional settings. The result was the
development of a highly localized structure of religious authority, as well
as the emergence of religious practices that were peculiar to this local
community. For example, using inherited copper pots came to be under-
stood as integral to the process of matzah baking, and using different
hands for the two tasks involved in salting meat—one hand for apply-
ing the salt and the other hand for removing the meat from the water in
which it soaked—was understood as necessary to ensure that the meat
was kosher.
The tight links between local space, ritual practice, and Jewish identity
were further reinforced by Bukharan Jews’ demographic patterns. Low
mobility rates during the Soviet era coupled with low levels of intermar-
riage yielded a high rate of marriage among Bukharan Jews who lived
in the same city.^32 The result of this marriage pattern was the creation of
tight-knit Jewish communities, with few social ties outside of their re-
spective cities. Furthermore, because the Jewish population in each town
and city never exceeded several thousand, over the course of several de-
cades, the ties between neighbors and friends came to overlap strongly