» מאמרים » Jewish cemetery in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Jewish cemetery in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Bukharian Jews settled in Dushanbe from the second half of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, there was already a Jewish cemetery on the territory of the settlement. After the Bolsheviks established control over Tajikistan, the Jewish community of Dushanbe was replenished with Ashkenazi from the European part of Russia, and then from other parts of the USSR.

In the late 1980s, the Jewish population of Dushanbe exceeded 12.2 thousand people. After the civil war and mass migration, by 2000 more than 200 Jews lived in the city. Despite the absence of a numerical Jewish population, the Jewish cemetery is well maintained and cataloged.

Bukharian Jews living abroad regularly come to Dushanbe to visit the graves of their relatives. This is evidenced by the inscriptions on individual graves. For example, on the tombstone of Natan Rabikayevich Abayev (1937-1974), whose grave is located in the Nizhneye Cemetery, there is an inscription: "From his wife, son and daughter from Vienna."

The World Congress of Bukharian Jews (New York) created the "Tajikistan Foundation", which allocates funds to help the remaining Jews in Tajikistan and maintain the Jewish heritage. Also, the Congress appointed Executive Director Mikhail Kalantarov, whose responsibilities include supporting the functioning of the synagogue in Dushanbe and caring for the Jewish cemetery.

In the fall of 2021, Kalantarov arrived in Dushanbe to begin repairing the cemetery. It is located on the side of a mountain and floods the graves during heavy rainfalls. Therefore, the reconstruction of the cemetery began with the strengthening of the mountainside. It is planned to renovate the stairs leading from the upper cemetery to the lower one, restore tombstones and monuments, as well as build a gatehouse and a house for ablutions.

There are several types of graves in the cemetery: from traditional matzevahs to sarcophagi, stelas, graves with horizontal slabs, tombstones and headstones typical of the Soviet period.

The inscriptions on the tombstones are in Russian and Hebrew. Moreover, on some graves, inscriptions in Hebrew predominate. In Russian, they only contain the anthroponymical data of the deceased. For example, in the Nizhneye cemetery there is the grave of Abo Matatov (1878-1969), on which only the first and last names are written in Russian. At the top is a seven-branched candlestick framed by a Hebrew inscription. Below it is information in Hebrew.

Also, inscriptions in Hebrew predominate on the gravestone of the burial of Avrekh Khanarovich Abramov (1938-1974). In the upper part of the gravestone there are a seven-branched candlestick and two Stars of David.