Poll: Should Bukharian Families Set Limits on Simcha and Memorial Spending?

A debate running in The Bukharian Times this fall asks a question many Queens and Israeli Bukharian families face: how much should a simcha or a memorial meal cost?

Queens writer Rafael Normatov argued Sept. 24 that banquet tables at New York weddings, bar mitzvahs and memorial meals hold far more food than guests can eat, much of it thrown away, and that families compete with each other rather than restaurateurs being to blame. In a follow-up on Oct. 1, he wrote that with prices rising sharply, weddings should not become “a financial test” for the hosts. He noted that a council of rabbis had proposed in the paper that everyone except the closest relatives limit themselves to $200, and that some wealthy families had stopped handing out “packages” at memorials.

From Israel, Menora editor Leonid Elizarov cited Bukharian Times editor Rafael Nektalov as saying a full meal at a good Bukharian restaurant in New York can approach or exceed $200 per person, and proposed an affordable community café.

Normatov stressed that he is not questioning religious law or the duty to mark life-cycle events. “We are simply beginning to separate tradition from excess,” he wrote. Readers can weigh in above.

Quotations were translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Normatov, Oct. 1); The Bukharian Times (Normatov, Sept. 24); The Bukharian Times (Elizarov, Sept. 24).