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The tiny Jewish group of Kyrgyzstan doesn’t have many allies.
With solely a number of hundred Jews, few worldwide Jewish organizations keep a major presence within the comparatively poor former Soviet nation, which is separated from any giant Jewish group by huge geographical distances. The largely agrarian Kyrgyzstan, with a inhabitants of just under 7 million individuals, doesn’t actually have a devoted Israeli ambassador within the nation (they reside in neighboring Kazakhstan), nor does it have a devoted ambassador in Israel.
So when Kyrgyzstan’s solely Jewish college, Pri Etz Haim, within the nation’s capital of Bishkek, acquired an eviction discover final month, the group didn’t have many locations to show to for assist.
The top of the group and principal of the varsity, Vladimir Kritsman, contacted Robert Singer, a long-time distinguished determine in worldwide Jewry.
“The second he bought the letter, he known as me in. Mainly, as a result of he had no person else to go to,” mentioned Singer, a former head of the World Jewish Congress who’s now the chairman of the non-profit Heart for Jewish Impression.
The Kyrgyzstan Jewish group and its plight are consultant of many small Jewish communities all over the world, significantly these in former Soviet Union international locations, in keeping with Singer, who has labored with these communities for many years.
“They don’t have robust communal buildings, they’re often very poor, they don’t have institutional help, they usually often don’t converse [English] to current themselves to the world. This Jewish group is a superb instance of that,” Singer mentioned. “However these small communities are typically much more necessary than massive communities. A giant group, there’s not quite a bit we are able to do for them. However a group like this, you possibly can really reserve it.”
College students at Kyrgyzstan’s solely Jewish college, Pri Etz Haim, converse throughout a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in an undated {photograph}. (Display seize: YouTube)
Certainly, Israel’s former ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Michael Brodsky, acknowledged that whereas the embassy has a relationship with the native Jewish group, it’s removed from its main focus.
“After all, we keep lively ties with them and intently comply with up on their scenario and on Jewish life right here… However social help for the Jews in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan just isn’t among the many core duties of the embassy,” Brodsky instructed a professor researching Israeli tender energy in central Asia in 2018.
These communities usually rely upon one or two lively establishments that assist preserve the members collectively, and with out which they might crumble.
“The one factor that retains it collectively is the varsity. With out the varsity, the group would disappear,” Singer mentioned.
The varsity was first established in 1993, shortly after the autumn of the Soviet Union, with donations from Belgium, Israel and the US, Kritsman instructed The Instances of Israel, talking from Bishkek via an interpreter.
Kritsman then was the varsity’s assistant principal. Two years later, he turned the principal and has held the place ever since.
Vladimir Kritsman, left, the principal of Kyrgyzstan’s solely Jewish college, Pri Etz Haim, sits in his workplace on June 27, 2022. (European Union in Kyrgyzstan)
“Now we have devoted 30 years of our lives to this. Now we have a large number of good college students. Plenty of our graduates proceed their research in Israel and be a part of Tzhahal,” Kritsman mentioned in Russian, however utilizing the Hebrew acronym for the Israel Protection Forces (IDF).
“We’ll attempt to do our greatest to save lots of our faculty,” he mentioned.
Singer mentioned he was concerned with the formation of the varsity within the early Nineties, and he was additionally the pinnacle of World ORT, a gaggle that units up and runs Jewish colleges all over the world, when Pri Etz Haim joined the group in 2004. Singer visited the comparatively remoted group just a few years in the past and likewise has a private connection to Kyrgyzstan, as his mom’s household sought refuge there throughout the Holocaust and his toddler half-sister died and was buried there.
“I had all the time been instructed that [during World War II] the partnership and the relations and the friendship between the Kyrgyz individuals, the Muslim individuals and the Jewish individuals was excellent,” Singer mentioned.
Somewhat-known, remoted group
Bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south and China to the east, Kyrgyzstan’s inhabitants is roughly 90 p.c Sunni Muslim. Although most individuals are secular, there’s a rising hardline Islamist presence within the nation.
Throughout World Warfare II, greater than 40,000 Jews lived in what’s now Kyrgyzstan, a lot of them refugees from Nazi-occupied components of the Soviet Union. After the warfare, most returned to their properties however just a few thousand stayed behind. There was a mass exodus of Jews from the nation following the autumn of the Soviet Union within the early Nineties, with the overwhelming majority making their option to Israel. Right now, only some hundred Jews reside within the central Asian nation, with estimates starting from 300 as much as 1,500. This largely is dependent upon definitions of who counts as a Jew, contemplating there’s a comparatively excessive variety of interfaith marriages.
A monument commemorating the Soviet Jews who sought refuge in Kyrgyzstan throughout the Holocaust. (Heart for Jewish Impression)
The Kyrgyzstan Jewish group was and, to an extent, nonetheless is made up of three fundamental teams: Bukharian Jews, who’ve been residing in central Asia for greater than 1,500 years; Persian-speaking Jews from present-day Iraq and Iran, who moved to the realm as merchants a bit later; and Ashkenazi Jews, who first moved to the nation on the flip of the twentieth century. Right now, Ashkenazi Jews — most of them descendants of people that fled to Kyrgyzstan throughout the Holocaust — are decidedly the biggest group.
Residing on the so-called Silk Highway between China and Europe, the Jews of Kyrgyzstan have been talked about within the writings of Arab geographer Al-Maqdisi and Marco Polo within the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, respectively.
Into the 1900s, Kyrgyzstan was house to a number of small however vibrant Jewish communities, however non secular observe was fiercely restricted after the communist revolution, significantly after World Warfare II, till the collapse of the Soviet Union within the early Nineties. For almost a decade afterward, the group was and not using a rabbi or any organized non secular life. In 2000, Chabad despatched Belarus-born Rabbi Arie Raichman to Bishkek, the place almost all of Kyrgyzstan’s Jews now reside. He and his spouse Esther have been there since.
Males attend companies at a synagogue in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in an undated {photograph}. (Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS)
Although small, Bishkek’s synagogue is lively — largely attended by older members of the group — and the Raichmans run a small Jewish kindergarten. The group even has its personal month-to-month newsletters about native goings-on, known as “Ma’ayan,” or wellspring in Hebrew.
The marketing campaign to shutter the varsity
For years, a small however vocal group of Bishkek residents has railed towards Pri Etz Haim college, whose identify means “Fruit of the Tree of Life,” calling for its eviction. Earlier this yr, their marketing campaign picked up steam as members of the Bishkek metropolis council joined their efforts.
This marketing campaign — often called Nashe Pravo, or “Our Entitlement” — has based mostly its criticism of the Jewish college on the grounds that it’s positioned in what was as soon as a municipal kindergarten, which the group says is required for native youngsters. They keep that they don’t seem to be against the existence of a Jewish college in precept, however that it needs to be positioned some place else as a way to liberate the constructing for public use. The group has additionally fought towards different personal colleges within the capital, although its social media campaigns have centered extra on the Jewish college.
Singer sees the marketing campaign as antisemitic in nature, noting that Jewish stereotypes and antisemitic canards seem in most of the statements and social media posts put out by Nashe Pravo supporters.
“They might have posters with issues like, ‘Jews all the time have cash, allow them to construct a brand new college’… or say ‘Why do we want a Jewish personal college in a Muslim nation?’” Singer mentioned.
Certainly, claims of Jews being wealthy and nefariously well-connected are simply present in most of the group’s Fb posts and feedback.
Although the varsity’s principal, Kritsman, mentioned he “positively” sees antisemitism as an element within the marketing campaign, he believed that it was additionally probably pushed by enterprise pursuits as the varsity is positioned in a fascinating a part of the town and that if the varsity have been evicted, builders might use the house to place up a extra profitable constructing.
“However a number of the officers who’ve led the marketing campaign, they’ve demonstrated some pure antisemitic assaults on our faculty,” Kritsman instructed The Instances of Israel.
Nonetheless, Kritsman confused that generally, the Jewish group maintains a really heat relationship with the majority-Muslim inhabitants and that the group has acquired help from the nationwide authorities. “They Krygyz individuals have all the time been a really tolerant individuals,” he mentioned.
Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Fee’s coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, who was concerned within the effort to save lots of the varsity, declined to take a place on whether or not or not the combat to shutter it was essentially pushed by Jew-hatred, regardless of occasional makes use of of antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.
Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism, addressing the Israel Council on International Relations in Jerusalem, July 14, 2016 (Andres Lacko)
“I don’t suppose we are able to even start to know if the motives have been antisemitic,” von Schnurbein instructed The Instances of Israel. “From our perspective, it was actually about fostering Jewish life and supporting the Jewish group on this concern.”
The Kyrgyzstan Jewish group has been violently focused by antisemites prior to now. In 2010, throughout a interval of unrest within the nation, banners have been raised blaming Kyrgyzstan’s troubles on overseas and native Jews. The group’s synagogue was firebombed a number of instances and a pipebomb was thrown at it on the primary day of the Rosh Hashanah vacation, inflicting restricted harm.
Younger youngsters play with dreidels to rejoice the Hanukkah vacation in a Jewish kindergarten run by Chabad in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in an undated {photograph}. (Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS)
Kritsman mentioned the group continues to be cautious after the 2010 assaults and maintains strict safety protocols for the varsity.
The combat towards the varsity
In March of this yr, the marketing campaign efficiently lobbied to get the varsity stripped of the exemption from having to pay for utilities that it had lengthy acquired. And some weeks later, on Might 14, the town council issued its eviction discover, ordering the varsity to filter of the constructing, which continues to be technically thought-about municipal property.
Roughly 90 college students attend the varsity. Although not all of them are essentially Jewish — the varsity is properly regarded, so some non-Jewish politicians and enterprise leaders ship their youngsters to it — Pri Etz Haim maintains a decidedly Jewish curriculum, educating college students Jewish historical past and tradition, in addition to Hebrew.
It took 12 days for Kritsman to obtain the letter from the town council, which gave the varsity one month to vacate the constructing. He rapidly contacted Singer, who instantly sprang to motion, reaching out to officers in the US, European Union, Israel, in addition to Russia, which nonetheless carries vital clout with the previous Soviet state.
Robert Singer, the pinnacle of the Heart for Jewish Impression and former head of the World Jewish Congress and World ORT, in an undated {photograph}. (Shahar Azran)
Singer mentioned after Kritsman knowledgeable him of the eviction discover, he and the pinnacle of coverage and operations for the Heart for Jewish Impression, Tracy Frydberg, arrange a “warfare room” devoted to saving the varsity and began contacting anybody he thought might assist.
Inside just a few days, Singer had reached out to von Schnurbein, the US Cost d’Affaires advert interim to Kyrgyzstan, the chief rabbi of Russia and native enterprise leaders, in addition to Israel’s International Ministry — and thru it the Israeli ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — in addition to Israel’s Training Ministry, which works intently with World ORT. He requested all of them to foyer on behalf of the varsity.
A International Ministry spokesperson confirmed its involvement within the effort however confused that it performed solely a small half, asking the Kyrgyzstan authorities in regards to the college.
Von Schnurbein, who mentioned she had been conscious of the varsity’s struggles since April after it was first stripped of its utilities exemption, requested the EU ambassador to Kyrgyzstan to look into the matter, and related questions have been raised by the US cost d’affaires and others, which introduced the difficulty to the eye of Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov.
“The workplace of the president of Kyrgyzstan took quick motion and stopped all this nonsense,” Singer mentioned.
“[The EU ambassador] reached out to the authorities. And there was a optimistic response from the authorities, which we welcome,” von Schnurbein mentioned.
Vladimir Kritsman, proper, the principal of Kyrgyzstan’s solely Jewish college, Pri Etz Haim, speaks to EU Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Eduard Auer on June 27, 2022. (EU in Kyrgyzstan)
Singer credited the victory to the fast response by various figures from all over the world. “It was all of this collectively. All of the sudden a bit college that nobody knew existed acquired worldwide consideration. [Jewish] individuals on the bottom additionally noticed that they hadn’t been left alone,” he mentioned.
On June 2, roughly two weeks after the eviction discover was signed, Kritsman was knowledgeable that the eviction had been known as off.
“We can’t all the time win, however we are able to do the utmost. And once in a while we do win,” Singer mentioned.
“On this case, we are able to say that not solely was the varsity saved however the entire group,” he mentioned.
Not taking a break this summer season
The varsity is now gearing up for additional fights with Nashe Pravo, which has continued publishing articles in newspapers and on social media attacking it.
One such article printed on the Kyrgyzstan information website 24.kg on Friday denounced Singer’s worldwide intervention in a “property dispute” and accused the nationwide authorities of overstepping their bounds.
“What the hell is that this? Do state authorities and worldwide organizations have the correct to intervene within the actions of native authorities, particularly in a property dispute?” one of many Nashe Pravo organizers wrote.
The chief of the Nashe Pravo group, Kalicha Umuraliyeva, repeated the declare that the Jewish college, which has been in the identical location for over three many years, was “occupying a kindergarten” and will construct a brand new facility.
“Nobody is demanding the closure of the varsity, solely the liberation of the kindergarten constructing,” Umuraliyeva mentioned, in keeping with one other 24.kg article on the subject.
Kritsman doesn’t dispute that the constructing was as soon as a municipal kindergarten, however mentioned it was willingly handed over for use as a Jewish college. He additionally famous that different municipal kindergartens got to individuals by the federal government for personal ventures on the similar time, however the marketing campaign has not demanded that they too be returned for municipal use.
To arrange for additional efforts to shut down the varsity, the group employed a crew of native legal professionals to assist it negotiate with the town. The funding for the authorized crew got here partially from the World ORT group and partially from members of the native Jewish group, in keeping with Singer.
The varsity yr ended final week, Kritsman mentioned, and he hopes to reopen after the summer season as normal.
“However we aren’t certain what’s going to occur in a single month or three months. Now now we have some help from the authorities so we’re going to attempt to attain some settlement with the town,” he mentioned.
The European Union has additionally maintained its reference to the varsity. On Tuesday, its ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Eduard Auer visited Pri Etz Haim, assembly with Kritsman to debate “the continued actions of the varsity,” Auer’s workplace mentioned.
Right now, @EduardAuerEU visited the secondary college “Pri Ets Haim” named after Khaim Khokhshtein in Bishkek.
Vladimir Semenovich Kritzman, the Principal of the varsity, welcomed the Ambassador and mentioned the continued actions of the varsity #EU4KG pic.twitter.com/hP3GSW1ahv
— EU in Kyrgyzstan (@EUinKyrgyzstan) June 27, 2022
Singer confused that the tiny Kyrgyzstan Jewish group just isn’t a rich one and customarily is dependent upon the goodwill of Jews overseas.
“That is an especially poor group. There aren’t any actual donors, no earnings,” he mentioned.
Certainly, Kritsman mentioned that if the varsity have been evicted, it might probably be pressured to close down completely because it couldn’t afford to assemble a brand new constructing.
These antisemites didn’t disappear, and I assume they are going to preserve attempting to kick the varsity out.
“Sadly, the varsity has no cash or financing for that,” he mentioned, rapidly including with a boast, “regardless that we’re among the finest colleges within the nation, which is documented and which you’ll be able to see from our college students’ check outcomes.”
Initially, Singer saved his efforts comparatively quiet and information of the varsity’s plight was largely restricted to native Kyrgyz shops and Fb pages.
However as soon as the varsity not confronted imminent eviction, Singer’s Heart for Jewish Impression approached The Instances of Israel in regards to the story.
“These antisemites didn’t disappear, and I assume they are going to preserve attempting to kick the varsity out. That’s why it’s necessary that individuals all over the world and in Israel find out about this as a result of it’s a small group that’s struggling to outlive,” he mentioned.
Singer mentioned he hoped this incident would increase consciousness in regards to the Kyrgyzstan Jewish group, each its present one and its historical past as a refuge for Jews throughout the Holocaust, amongst Israelis and Jews all over the world, particularly as he predicted that an increasing number of Israelis would start touring to the nation.
“I feel that is the subsequent place that Israelis are going to go. It’s a phenomenal, lovely nation with mountains and lakes. Central Asia goes to be the subsequent space for Israeli backpackers. So it’s necessary that the Israeli public is aware of about this small Jewish group,” he mentioned.
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