The Eve Of Ivan Kupalo/Vecher Nakanune Ivana Kupala, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1968

The Jewish people of Uzbekistan photographed by Gueorgui Pinkhassov

“The term Bukharan was coined by European travelers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Emirate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is “Isro'il” (Israelites). 

The appellative Bukharian was adopted by Bukharan Jews who moved to English-speaking countries, in an anglicisation of the Hebrew Bukhari. However, Bukharan was the term used historically by English writers, as it was for other aspects of Bukhara. 

Bukharan Jews used the Persian language to communicate among themselves and later developed Bukhori, a Tajik dialect of the Persian language with small linguistic traces of Hebrew. This language provided easier communication with their neighboring communities and was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until the area was “Russified” by the Russians and the dissemination of “religious” information was halted. The elderly Bukharan generation use Bukhori as their primary language but speak Russian with a slight Bukharan accent. The younger generation use Russian as their primary language, but do understand or speak Bukhori.

The Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews and have been introduced to and practice Sephardic Judaism. 

The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates to the beginning of the 4th century CE. It is recalled in the Talmud by Rabbi Shmuel bar Bisna, a member of the Talmudic academy in Pumbeditha, who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv in Turkmenistan) and feared that the wine and alcohol produced by local Jews was not kosher. The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956.”

25 endangered languages you need to listen to before they disappear

About 2,500 languages are in danger of becoming extinct according to Unesco, and some of them are spoken by only 30 people. By the turn of the century, it is estimated that at least 50 per cent of the world’s current spoken languages will be extinct. Unesco uses a set of five categories to define how endangered a language is:

I’m posting this because it has sound samples for all the languages listed. 

The Or Torah Synagogue in Akko, Israel is Tunisian, and decorated floor to wall to ceiling with beautiful tiles from Italy. Gorgeous.

Pokhara, Nepal

[qozop]

Jim Henson and Frank Oz Performing Ernie On Episode 1090, January 13, 1978

Season 9 (1977-1978) Ernie plays doctor and makes Bert be the patient for his check-up. He checks Bert’s heart, mouth and more. At the end, Bert wonders how he is feeling, but Ernie can’t tell him that until he’s a real doctor, twenty-three years from now. Bert faints after Ernie’s answer and Ernie wonders if there’s a doctor in the house.#rarepic

Agnès Varda

- Le Bonheur / Happiness

(1965)