The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

(Joyce) #1

220 · Alanna E. Cooper


emigration, Central Asia came under Russian colonial rule. Likewise,
several decades before the Jews’ emigration from North Africa and the
Middle East, the region was colonized by Western powers. Under co-
lonial rule, the status of the Bukharan Jews as dhimmi—like the Jews in
North Africa and the Middle East—began to erode. As secular gover-
nance was introduced, restrictions against the Jews in these regions were
lifted and they gained new rights. They were permitted to leave their res-
idential quarters and settle in new parts of the city. They were extended
rights to own property, encouraged to engage in trade, and given access
to secular education. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the colo-
nial power retreated from Central Asia, and new sovereign states were
born. At this moment in their history, the Bukharan Jews faced the dif-
ficult question of belonging. Central Asia had been their home for more
than a millennium, but would they (or could they) join in the project of
state-building? This question was also pressing for the Jews in North Af-
rica and the Middle East, when the colonial powers retreated from these
regions. In Uzbekistan, the question was answered with a resounding
no. As in North Africa and the Middle East, within a decade of the rise of
independent states, almost all of the Jews had left.
These structural similarities suggest that the analytical approach I have
taken can inform further study of circumstances surrounding the Jews’
departure from North Africa and the Middle East. First, my analysis does
not foreground the story of those Bukharan Jews who went to Israel—
roughly half of the immigrant population—over those who resettled else-
where (primarily in the United States, but also in Canada, Austria, and
Germany). While the midcentury migration from Arab lands is generally
framed in terms of resettlement in Israel, Jews from North Africa and the
Middle East—like those from Uzbekistan—moved in great numbers to
other countries as well, including Britain, France, and Italy. When Israel
as a destination ceases to be the centerpiece of the narrative, key factors
that are not directly related to the Arab-Israeli conflict can be taken into
consideration.
Second, by using ethnographic tools of analysis, the story of the mass
migration can shift from a focus on macro-political processes to one that
also takes into account the experiences of individuals navigating dra-
matic, difficult changes in their life circumstances. This framework al-
lows for the portrayal of individuals not only as passive actors, subject

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