Kazakh Jews, who ‘steer clear’ of politics, sit out their country’s bloody unrest
Chief rabbi says Jewish community staying in ‘until the forces maintaining order stabilize the situation,’ claims without proof that protesters may not ‘actually be Kazakhs’
JTA — The Jewish community of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, has shut down its activities as most of its members hunker down in their homes amid a wave of bloody protests in the central Asian nation.
Dozens of protesters and 18 police officers have been killed in the violence, which began Sunday and prompted a Russian-led coalition of states to deploy troops to Kazakhstan to quell the fighting.
The protests began over an increase in fuel prices but have become more broadly directed against the autocratic rule of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Rioters have torched the facade of the presidential palace and looted stores throughout Almaty, where most of Kazakhstan’s Jews live.
Yeshaya Cohen, the chief rabbi of Kazakhstan who is affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, said the country’s Jews are sitting out the conflict, both physically and politically, by staying indoors “until the forces maintaining order stabilize the situation,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
There are eight synagogues in Kazakhstan, of which at least three host activities weekly or daily. All have suspended their activities so as not to endanger congregants, Cohen said. But funerals, of which there was one Friday, and other urgent activities are taking place. Jews and their property have not been harmed in the unrest, according to Cohen.
The Beit Menachem synagogue and Jewish community center, Almaty’s largest Jewish hub, is situated outside the city center, which “probably plays in favor of the community,” said Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, as most of the violence is happening in the center.
Zeev Levin, head of the Bukharian Jews research unit at Jerusalem’s Yad Ben Zvi Institute and an expert on Central Asia, said the risk of attacks on Jews or Jewish heritage sites in Almaty throughout the ongoing unrest is low to nonexistent. Rates of antisemitism during peacetime are also low in Kazakhstan.
”Even throughout the most vicious of civil wars that have ripped Central Asian republics in recent decades, Jewish heritage sites were largely left alone,” Levin said.
Kazakhstan, a predominantly Muslim nation of 19 million people and a land area roughly four times the size of Texas, harbors significant mineral resources, including about three percent of the world’s known oil reserves and major deposits of coal and natural gas.
It is home to a few thousand Jews, according to the World Jewish Congress.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kazakh-jews-who-steer-clear-of-politics-sit-out-their-countrys-bloody-unrest/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kazakh-jews-who-steer-clear-of-politics-sit-out-their-countrys-bloody-unrest/