For many Bukharian families in Queens, choosing a school means weighing Torah learning, academics, cost and community ties. We want to hear from you.

What matters most to you when you choose a Jewish school for your child?

• Strong Torah and Jewish studies
• Top secular academics and science
• Affordable tuition
• A campus close to home
• Keeping Bukharian heritage and traditions alive
• Modern facilities: labs, gym and outdoor space

Tell us your answer in the comments, and share this poll with other parents in the community.

Sources: COL (Chabad Online), Oct. 18, 2026 (in Hebrew); Chabadinfo (Oct. 19, 2026); The Bukharian Times, “If You Build It, They Will Come”.

The highlight of the event was the installation of a large mezuzah at the school’s main entrance. Its final letters were written during the ceremony itself, and those present then joined in wishing the school success in educating Jewish children, the reports said.

Who was there

Guests were welcomed by the Rebbe’s emissaries to the Bukharian Jewish community, who direct Ohr Avner Chabad in the United States: Rabbi Zalman Zavulunov, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Wolowik and Rabbi Shmuel Kogan. They were joined by Rabbi Asher Vaknin and Rabbi Dovid Shushan, according to COL and Chabadinfo.

The philanthropist Lev Leviev, whom both outlets describe as the patron of the Ohr Avner institutions, attended with his wife, Olga. Also present were their daughter Hagit Sofiev-Leviev, president of the Ohr Avner institutions in the United States, and her husband, Gabriel, as well as their son-in-law Efraim Yelizrov, head of the religious council in Savyon, and other family members.

Israel’s consul in New York, Ofir Akunis, came with his wife. Rabbi Shalom Duchman, director of Colel Chabad, and Rabbi Yehuda Blau, director-general of Ohr Avner in Israel, also attended. U.S. Rep. Grace Meng and other elected officials from the area presented certificates of recognition to the school’s leadership, the reports said.

From a preschool to a three-story school

Ganeinu, Hebrew for “our garden,” began as a preschool in 2014 and added an elementary school in 2019 “based on community demand,” the school’s director, Rabbi Kogan, said in a Bukharian Times report published while the building was under construction. The school is on Utopia Parkway in Fresh Meadows, and the new building went up on the same site as the old one.

The Bukharian Times reported at the time that the three-story building, which broke ground in September 2024, would cover about 26,300 square feet and serve preschool through eighth grade. Planned features included a science lab, a makerspace, a library, a multimedia room, a full-size cafeteria and a full-size gymnasium, along with 18,800 square feet of outdoor play space. The school’s architect, Martin Hopp Architect, lists the project at about 26,000 square feet and describes Ganeinu’s Reggio-inspired, hands-on approach to learning.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by COL (Chabad Online), and checked against Chabadinfo’s English report.

Sources: COL (Chabad Online), Oct. 18, 2026 (in Hebrew); Chabadinfo, “New Ganeinu Academy Campus Dedicated in Queens” (Oct. 19, 2026); The Bukharian Times, “If You Build It, They Will Come”; Martin Hopp Architect project page via Archello.

• A father’s lesson: the test marked 30, the retest marked 95, and why parents must set an example.
• Faith after loss: how he keeps living after the death of his daughter.
• Bukharian pride: why it matters to be proud of being a Bukharian Jew, and what defines the culture beyond plov and samsa.
• Marriage: shalom bayit, and flexibility and commitment as the keys to a relationship.
• Building bridges: his meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the food pantry, and talking with people you disagree with.

Vote: Which part speaks to you most?

• A father’s lesson on setting an example
• Faith after loss
• Pride in being Bukharian
• Marriage and shalom bayit
• Building bridges, even with people you disagree with

For more on the episode, see today’s companion story, “Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov’s Full Kaykov TV Interview: A Soviet Report Card, a Father’s Lesson and a Daughter’s Memory.”

Chapter themes were translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post.

Sources: Kaykov TV on YouTube: full interview with Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov (Oct. 19, 2026; chapters in Russian); Kaykov TV: “From a 30 to a 95 — A Father’s Unforgettable Lesson!” (Oct. 19, 2026).

Starters and soups

Appetizers include samsa filled with lamb and beef, dolma and pelmeni, the handmade meat dumplings. Fried pelmeni and chebureki add other dough-and-meat options. Hot starters include lepeshka bread, potatoes with mushrooms, and “Bukharian fries” seasoned with garlic and dill. The named salads include Samarkand, Tashkent and Zarafshan.

Soups are a large part of the menu:

• Shurpa: lamb and vegetables
• Lagman: hand-spun noodles with beef, vegetables and spices
• Chuchvara: small handmade dumplings in broth
• Harcho: a Georgian beef soup with rice, tomatoes and herbs

Plov and the grill

Samarkand pilaf, the plov at the center of so many Bukharian family tables, leads the main dishes. The kebab menu includes lamb ribs, chicken, sweetbreads, vegetables and lula kebab made from lamb and beef, and a mixed plate combines several of them. The menu also lists chicken tabaka, branzino and a 16-ounce ribeye. Dessert choices include baklava, and the drinks include Samarkand kvass and fruit kompot.

Kosher supervision

The restaurant is certified by the Orthodox Rabbinical Board of Broward and Palm Beach Counties (ORB) as a meat establishment, with glatt meat and pas Yisroel status. The ORB’s posted certificate runs through Dec. 31, 2026. As always, check the certificate at the business or the ORB directory before visiting, since kosher status can change.

Chayhana Samarkand takes reservations at 954-589-5540.

In Queens, Bukharian Jewish Post has written about the dishes that still anchor Bukharian tables, from plov to bakhsh.

Sources: YeahThatsKosher, “Chayhana Samarkand Brings Kosher Bukharian Dining to Hallandale Beach, FL” (Oct. 19, 2026); ORB kosher certificate for Chayhana Samarkand (valid through Dec. 31, 2026); Florida Kosher Finder listing.

Host Roman Kaykov recorded the conversation on Oct. 7, 2026, the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, according to the episode description. The interview runs more than 36 minutes and is in English. The channel’s description and chapter list are in Russian.

Three clips before the premiere

The channel released three short clips before the premiere: “I Didn’t Lose a Child.” on Oct. 16, “I Couldn’t Get the Highest Grade Because I Was Jewish.” on Oct. 18, and “From a 30 to a 95 — A Father’s Unforgettable Lesson!” on the morning of the premiere. Bukharian Jewish Post covered the first clip on Oct. 18.

A report card and a retest

The two newer clips come from the part of the interview about how parents shape a child’s pride and sense of worth. Rabbi Nisanov recalls being denied the highest grade at school in the Soviet Union because he was Jewish.

He then tells a story about his father from his school days in America. He brought home a test marked 30, and his father refused to sign it. The next day, he says, he asked his teacher for a retest, scored a 95 and brought it home, and this time his father proudly signed it.

The chapter list follows that story with segments on why parents must set an example and on the idea that “words can build a person or destroy him.”

Faith after loss

The most personal part of the conversation concerns the death of his daughter. The chapter list marks the moment with the line “I did not lose a child,” the same words used for the first clip. In the interview, Rabbi Nisanov describes how he and his wife chose to keep living after the loss and says he still counts her among his children.

Pride in being Bukharian

Other chapters ask why it matters to be proud of being a Bukharian Jew and what defines the community’s culture beyond “plov and samsa.” In the interview, Rabbi Nisanov says what sets the community apart is that it values its traditions, its origins and its children. He also speaks about marriage, naming flexibility and commitment as the two keys to a relationship.

The mayor and the pantry

The last third of the episode returns to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Sept. 28 visit to the Kehilat Sephardim food pantry in Kew Gardens Hills, which drew both praise and sharp criticism in the community. Rabbi Nisanov says in the interview that he knew Mamdani before he became mayor and that the mayor came to the pantry to hand out food. The chapter list includes a segment in which the rabbi’s mother addresses Mamdani directly, and another on a conversation Rabbi Nisanov held at the Jamaica Muslim Center after Oct. 7.

Near the end, Kaykov asks how he hopes to be remembered. The channel sums up his answer in a chapter title: “I want people to remember that we changed someone’s life.”

The episode title and chapter titles were translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post. The interview itself is in English. Statements from the conversation are paraphrased rather than quoted.

Sources: Kaykov TV on YouTube: full interview with Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov (premiered Oct. 19, 2026; description and chapters in Russian); Kaykov TV: “From a 30 to a 95 — A Father’s Unforgettable Lesson!” (Oct. 19, 2026); Kaykov TV: “I Couldn’t Get the Highest Grade Because I Was Jewish.” (Oct. 18, 2026); Kaykov TV: “I Didn’t Lose a Child.” (Oct. 16, 2026); Bukharian Jewish Post (Oct. 18, 2026); Bukharian Jewish Post (Oct. 14, 2026).

Credit: Kaykov TV (@KaykovTV) on YouTube.

• Monday Nights for Singles with Rabbi Vaknin: dinner at 7:45 p.m., shiur at 8 p.m.
• “Light Up Your Soul” with Rabbi Issac Ambalu: Netivot Shalom teachings, Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m.
• Chavruta Program: paired Torah study on Tuesday nights.
• Torah & Judo: free judo instruction plus a short Torah class for high school boys, Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m.
• Couples Class with Rabbi Vaknin: Wednesday nights.
• Zera Shimshon with Rabbi Vaknin: open to men and women, Thursdays, with dinner at 7:45 p.m. and the shiur at 8 p.m.
• Shabbat Learning Program: a choice of classes on Shabbat at 4:30 p.m.

Vote: Which would you try first?

• Monday Nights for Singles
• Tuesday Netivot Shalom class
• Tuesday Chavruta Program
• Wednesday Torah & Judo (for a teen in your family)
• Wednesday Couples Class
• Thursday Zera Shimshon
• Shabbat afternoon learning

For days, times and room details, see today’s companion guide, “From a Singles Shiur to Torah & Judo: What’s On at the BJCC in Forest Hills This Week.”

Sources: BJCC Events & Programs page.

1. What is the BJCC’s street address?

• A) 66-35 108th Street
• B) 106-16 70th Avenue
• C) 80-15 188th Street
• D) 63-36 99th Street

2. Which congregation is the BJCC’s main synagogue?

• A) Beth Bechor
• B) Kanisoi Kalon
• C) Shaarei Eliyahu
• D) Derech Emunah

3. On which night does Rabbi Vaknin’s weekly singles shiur meet?

• A) Monday
• B) Tuesday
• C) Wednesday
• D) Thursday

4. Who can join the free Wednesday Torah & Judo class?

• A) Boys ages 8 to 12
• B) High school boys in grades 9 through 12
• C) Adults of any age
• D) College students only

5. Rabbi Issac Ambalu’s Tuesday class, “Light Up Your Soul,” teaches from which work?

• A) Zera Shimshon
• B) Netivot Shalom
• C) Mesilat Yesharim
• D) Pirkei Avot

6. The Tuesday Chavruta Program is built on which teaching from Pirkei Avot 1:6?

• A) “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend”
• B) “Who is wise? One who learns from every person”
• C) “Say little and do much”
• D) “Let your house be open wide”

7. After Simchat Torah on Oct. 4, about how many members and guests did the center host for its Hotoni meal at Restaurant Troika?

• A) About 100
• B) About 250
• C) More than 500
• D) More than 2,000

8. The third Mallaev Readings, held at the BJCC on Oct. 1, marked which anniversary of poet and musician Ilyas Mallaev’s birth?

• A) 50th
• B) 75th
• C) 90th
• D) 100th

Answers

• 1 – B. The BJCC lists its address as 106-16 70th Avenue, Forest Hills.
• 2 – B. The Bukharian Times reports that the center’s Simchat Torah celebration took place in its Kanisoi Kalon synagogue.
• 3 – A. The BJCC’s events page lists Monday Nights for Singles every Monday, with dinner at 7:45 p.m. and the shiur at 8 p.m.
• 4 – B. The center says Torah & Judo is for high school boys only, in grades 9 through 12.
• 5 – B. The class teaches from the Netivot Shalom. Zera Shimshon is the subject of Rabbi Vaknin’s Thursday class.
• 6 – A. The center quotes “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend.”
• 7 – C. The Bukharian Times reported that more than 500 people attended.
• 8 – C. The Bukharian Times reported that the Oct. 1 session marked 90 years since Mallaev’s birth in 1936.

Answers 2, 7 and 8 draw on reports translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by The Bukharian Times.

Sources: BJCC Events & Programs page; BJCC website; The Bukharian Times, Kanisoi Kalon Simchat Torah report (in Russian); The Bukharian Times, Third Mallaev Readings (in Russian); Bukharian Jewish Post, Kanisoi Kalon Hotoni report; Bukharian Jewish Post, Mallaev Readings report.

Several of the evenings are led by Rabbi Asher Vaknin, who runs the youth minyan at Kanisoi Kalon, and by Rabbi David Shushan, who leads the center’s teen minyan, according to The Bukharian Times. Here is the week as the BJCC lists it.

Monday: Singles night

Monday Nights for Singles meets every Monday with Rabbi Vaknin and is open to single men and women. Dinner is at 7:45 p.m. and the shiur starts at 8 p.m. on the second floor. The center says the evening is meant to strengthen emunah and bitachon, help participants meet new people and “step close to finding your zivug.” No RSVP is required. A public events listing also shows tonight’s session, Monday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m.

Tuesday: Netivot Shalom and chavruta learning

Rabbi Issac Ambalu teaches “Light Up Your Soul,” a weekly class on the teachings of the Netivot Shalom, on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on the second floor. All are welcome.

Also on Tuesday nights, the Chavruta Program pairs people for Torah study. The center says it is built on the teaching of Pirkei Avot 1:6: “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend.”

Wednesday: Torah & Judo, and a couples class

Torah & Judo runs from 7 to 8 p.m. on the lower level. The free class combines professional judo instruction with a short Torah lesson. It is for high school boys only, in grades 9 through 12, and no RSVP is required. Rabbi David Shushan is the contact for the program.

Rabbi Vaknin’s weekly Couples Class also meets Wednesday nights on the second floor. The center describes it as Torah wisdom for building stronger relationships, for newlyweds and longtime couples alike. No RSVP is needed.

Thursday: Zera Shimshon

Rabbi Vaknin teaches a Zera Shimshon class on Thursday evenings that is open to men and women. Dinner is at 7:45 p.m., followed by the shiur at 8 p.m. on the second floor.

Teens Lounge and Shabbat learning

The center’s Teens Lounge for teen boys opens Mondays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. in the basement, with food, games and a hangout space. A Sunday program at 9:30 a.m. adds tefillah, breakfast and a money raffle. The BJCC asks those planning to come to send a message first.

On Shabbat, the Shabbat Learning Program meets at 4:30 p.m. on the third floor, with a choice of classes.

CPR training

The BJCC also advertises CPR and first-aid training. The course covers adult CPR, AED use, child and infant CPR and how to respond to choking. No session dates are posted, so contact the center for the schedule.

Program contacts are listed on the center’s events page. The BJCC’s main number is 718-520-1111. Rabbi Vaknin also wrote a recent Parashat Noach column for The Bukharian Times.

Details of the rabbis’ roles were translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by The Bukharian Times.

Sources: BJCC Events & Programs page; BJCC CPR Training page; Outgoing listing for the Oct. 19 singles session; The Bukharian Times, Kanisoi Kalon Simchat Torah report (Oct. 8, in Russian), for the rabbis’ roles.

• Beit Yehudayoff, the “Messiah’s Palace” at 10 HaBukharim Street: a two-story house in the style of a 16th-century Italian villa, now home to a Haredi girls’ school. The remaining tour is Friday, Oct. 23, at 11:30 a.m.
• The Sephardic Orphanage synagogue in Mashiach Borochoff Alley: built in 1908 by the Borochoff brothers and the Issacharoff family from Bukhara. Open visits run Oct. 22 and 23.
• The Mussayoff compound on Jaffa Road: a late-19th-century family home, synagogue and bank now being restored at the Grand Hotel construction site. Its Open House tours were scheduled for Oct. 16.
• The renovated Bukharian market: a stop on both the Open House palace tour and the Tuesday walking tour.

Vote: Which would you visit first?

• Beit Yehudayoff, the “Messiah’s Palace”
• The Sephardic Orphanage synagogue
• The Mussayoff compound, once its restoration is complete
• The renovated Bukharian market

Sources: Open House Jerusalem 2026 official program (PDF); iTravelJerusalem tour listing.

1. Open House Jerusalem 2026 is the festival’s…

• A) 5th year
• B) 10th year
• C) 18th year
• D) 25th year

2. Beit Yehudayoff on HaBukharim Street is also known as…

• A) The Silk House
• B) The Messiah’s Palace
• C) The Samarkand Court
• D) The Merchant’s Tower

3. According to the festival program, what operates in Beit Yehudayoff today?

• A) A museum
• B) A hotel
• C) A Haredi girls’ school
• D) A bank branch

4. Who built the 1908 Sephardic Orphanage building off Jaffa Road?

• A) The Borochoff brothers and the Issacharoff family, from Bukhara
• B) The Ottoman municipality
• C) The British Mandate government
• D) A Samarkand textile company

5. In the Mussayoff compound on Jaffa Road, one building housed the family and another a synagogue. What was in the third?

• A) A printing press
• B) The “Kupat Am” bank
• C) A school
• D) A bakery

6. On what date was Kaykov TV’s full interview with Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov recorded?

• A) Sept. 28, 2026
• B) Oct. 7, 2026
• C) Oct. 16, 2026
• D) Oct. 19, 2026

Answers

• 1 – C. The program says the festival is being held in Jerusalem for the 18th year.
• 2 – B. The program calls the two-story Italian-villa-style house the “Messiah’s Palace.”
• 3 – C. The tour traces the house from the Bukharian merchant who built it, through a Turkish headquarters, to the Haredi girls’ school there today.
• 4 – A. The program says the Borochoff brothers and the Issacharoff family, who came from Bukhara, built it as a home for orphaned Sephardic children.
• 5 – B. The program lists the family home, a synagogue and the “Kupat Am” bank.
• 6 – B. Kaykov TV says the conversation was recorded on Oct. 7, 2026. The full episode premieres Monday, Oct. 19.

Sources: Open House Jerusalem 2026 official program (PDF); iTravelJerusalem tour listing; Kaykov TV episode description.

The 55-second clip, “‘I Didn’t Lose a Child.’ — Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov,” went up on the channel on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. The channel calls it “one of the most emotional moments on Kaykov TV” and “a powerful message about faith, grief, family, and finding the strength to keep living after tragedy.”

The full conversation

The full interview with host Roman Kaykov is set to premiere on the channel on Monday, Oct. 19, at 12 p.m. Eastern. According to its published description, it was recorded on Oct. 7, 2026, the third anniversary of the Hamas attack, so it opens with reflections on that day, Israel, faith and Jewish unity. The description calls Rabbi Nisanov “a rabbi, a community leader and one of the best-known representatives of New York’s Bukharian Jewish community.”

The episode timeline lists these segments:

• his 36 years in the rabbinate and why he sees it as a calling
• the birth of a grandson
• a rabbis’ trip to Israel after Oct. 7
• keeping faith after tragedy and the loss of his daughter
• the problems Jewish families face today
• keeping children connected to Judaism in America
• marriage and shalom bayit
• “why it is important to be proud to be a Bukharian Jew”
• what makes Bukharian traditions unique, “not just plov and samsa”

Another part of the interview covers his meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the community food pantry. The timeline includes a segment in which Rabbi Nisanov’s mother addresses the mayor directly, along with segments on fighting antisemitism, a conversation Rabbi Nisanov held at the Jamaica Muslim Center after Oct. 7, and the need to build bridges even with people with whom there are serious disagreements. Bukharian Jewish Post reported on the mayor’s Sept. 28 pantry visit on Oct. 14.

Quotations from the episode description were translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post.

Sources: Kaykov TV on YouTube: “I Didn’t Lose a Child.” (Oct. 16, 2026); Kaykov TV on YouTube: full interview premiere page and description; Bukharian Jewish Post (Oct. 14, 2026).

Credit: Kaykov TV (@KaykovTV) on YouTube.

Tour No. 098 in the festival’s official program, “Renewal of the Mussayoff Houses Compound,” was described as a professional tour of the complex work under way at “the active construction site of the Grand Hotel.” Visitors met on Luntz Street, near Jaffa Road, at the site entrance. Two sessions were scheduled that Friday morning, at 8 and 10 a.m., each limited to 20 people with advance registration.

Family home, synagogue and bank

According to the program, the compound was built at the end of the 19th century by Yosef Mussayoff, brother of Shlomo Mussayoff, who was one of the leaders of Jerusalem’s Bukharian community and among the founders of the Bukharian Quarter. It had three buildings and a courtyard: the family lived in one, the second served as a synagogue, and the third housed the “Kupat Am” bank.

The program said the planning team and project manager would present the original and modern building methods used at the site. They would also describe the conservation of the buildings and the synagogue, including restoration of its Aron Kodesh (Torah ark), the infrastructure and reinforcement work now under way, and plans for the future. It credits Rosenshein Architects as project architect and Moshe Shapira Architects as conservation architect, and lists the project as under construction.

What the plan protects

The redevelopment goes back to a 2019 approval. The Israeli real estate site Nadlan Center reported in July 2019 that Jerusalem’s local planning committee had approved an urban renewal plan for the historic compound at 45–47 Jaffa Road, next to the Jaffa Center light rail station. The plan covered about 3.5 dunams (roughly 0.9 acre) and added about 25,000 square meters of commercial, office, hotel and residential space in buildings of eight and 10 stories.

The report said the compound was established at the end of the 19th century by the Bukharian Mussayoff family. Because of its historic sensitivity, and in line with decisions by the city’s conservation committee, major parts were to be preserved. They include a vaulted commercial building, a synagogue that had been active for more than 100 years, the Mussayoff family house, the facades of a British Mandate-era building, and two original Jerusalem courtyards with their paving, cistern, trees and Ottoman-period structures.

A project-management firm involved with the site lists the Grand Hotel at 45 Jaffa Road as a building designated for preservation and still under construction.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from the official Open House Jerusalem 2026 program, Nadlan Center and A.D. Rahat Engineering.

Sources: Open House Jerusalem 2026 official program (PDF), tour 098; Nadlan Center (July 25, 2019); A.D. Rahat Engineering: Grand Hotel, 45 Jaffa Road.

The festival, known in Hebrew as Batim Mibifnim (“Houses From Within”), is marking its 18th year. It runs over two weekends, Oct. 15–17 and Oct. 22–24, 2026, and is led by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority, according to the official program. The program says the event is modeled on the Open House Worldwide network, which holds similar events in London, New York and other cities.

The “Palace” on HaBukharim Street

Tour No. 084, “The Palace and the Courtyards of the Bukharian Quarter,” starts at 10 HaBukharim Street. The program describes the Palace, Beit Yehudayoff, as an imposing two-story building in the style of a 16th-century Italian villa, also known as the “Messiah’s Palace.” When it was built, the program says, it was the most magnificent house in Jerusalem, and Amos Oz, S.Y. Agnon and many other writers described it in their work.

Guide Aharon Paz will tell the building’s story, from the wealthy Bukharian merchant who built it, through the Turkish headquarters that operated there, to the Haredi girls’ school that uses it today. The route also passes other buildings in the neighborhood and the renovated market. The remaining session is Friday, Oct. 23, at 11:30 a.m. It requires advance registration and is limited to 30 participants. The first session was held Oct. 15.

An orphanage built by families from Bukhara

Tour No. 097 visits the synagogue of the Sephardic Orphanage, in Mashiach Borochoff Alley between Jaffa Road and Agrippas Street, opposite Mesilat Yesharim. According to the program, the building dates to 1908 and its architect is unknown. It was built by the Borochoff brothers and the Issacharoff family, who came from Bukhara, as a home for orphaned Sephardic children.

The program describes an H-shaped building with a paved inner courtyard, hidden in a side alley. Despite its architectural qualities, it says, the building is neglected and many people do not know it exists. The visit is led by Louis Lipsky, who represents the Ahdut Yisrael synagogue on the building’s second floor, and focuses on the history of that synagogue, which commemorates fallen members of the Irgun and Lehi. Each visit lasts about 90 minutes. Open sessions, with no registration needed, are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22, at 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m., and Friday, Oct. 23, at 9 a.m. The program marks the building as not accessible.

A guided walk on Tuesdays

Separately, the tour company Jerusalem Out of the Box lists a two-hour guided walk, “Between Bukhara and Jerusalem,” on the iTravelJerusalem site. It runs Tuesdays, Oct. 20 and 27 and Nov. 3, and Friday, Nov. 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The listing says the walk stops at the Yehudayoff family’s Bukharian palace, the Moshiyoff house, the Haj Yehezkel house, the Adoniyahu HaCohen synagogue, the Tzofiyoff and Mussayoff houses and the renovated Bukharian market. It also tells the story of Samarkand textile magnate Yosef Davidoff and ends at the Tzfania Hotel. The listing calls the walk family-friendly and easy, led by a licensed guide, and says it needs at least 10 participants to go ahead.

The Open House program says participants visit the buildings and join the tours at their own responsibility. Registration for the tours that require it is on the festival website.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from the official Open House Jerusalem 2026 program and the iTravelJerusalem tour listing.

Sources: Open House Jerusalem 2026 official program (PDF); Open House Jerusalem 2026 (Batim Mibifnim); iTravelJerusalem: Jerusalem Out of the Box Bukharian Quarter tour.

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).

1. Dr. Shota Musayev, honored for helping stop the Flydubai FZ1073 attacker, practices dentistry in which Israeli city?
   A) Ashdod
   B) Holon
   C) Ramla
   D) Netanya
2. Where did Flydubai FZ1073 land after pilots regained control?
   A) Amman, Jordan
   B) Ben Gurion Airport
   C) Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
   D) Muscat, Oman
3. What award did President Isaac Herzog present to six of the flight’s passengers on Oct. 8?
   A) The Israel Prize
   B) The President’s Award for Civilian Heroism
   C) The Medal of Valor
   D) The Jerusalem Prize
4. Rabbanit Shoshana Cohen’s late husband, Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, served as gabbai and chazzan at which synagogue in Jerusalem’s Bukharian Quarter?
   A) Mussayoff
   B) Beth Gavriel
   C) Kanisoi Kalon
   D) Ohel Moed
5. How old was Rabbanit Shoshana Cohen when she died?
   A) 78
   B) 84
   C) 90
   D) 97
6. Queens Hillel says it reaches more than how many Bukharian students?
   A) 100
   B) 500
   C) 1,000
   D) 10,000
7. The Yehudayoff family’s pre-WWI New Year greeting appeared in the Bukharian newspaper Rahamim. In what language was the greeting itself printed?
   A) Russian
   B) Hebrew
   C) Uzbek
   D) Yiddish
8. According to Rabbi Baruch Babaev, in Bukharian custom the first son is usually named after whom?
   A) A living uncle
   B) The maternal grandfather
   C) The paternal grandfather
   D) A name chosen by the rabbi

Answers

1. B — Holon (Bucharim.com/Menora; Newzim).
2. C — Tabuk, Saudi Arabia (UAE Attorney-General via WAM).
3. B — The President’s Award for Civilian Heroism (Kan News).
4. A — Mussayoff (Bucharim.com; Kikar HaShabbat).
5. C — 90 (Kikar HaShabbat).
6. C — More than 1,000 (The Bukharian Times, Queens Hillel report).
7. B — Hebrew, although Rahamim itself was printed in Judeo-Tajik (Bucharim.com).
8. C — The paternal grandfather (The Bukharian Times interview).

Sources: Kan News; WAM; Bucharim.com (Musayev); Newzim; Kikar HaShabbat; Bucharim.com (Rabbanit Cohen); The Bukharian Times (Queens Hillel); Bucharim.com (Yehudayoff); The Bukharian Times (Rabbi Babaev).

Sabirov, a photojournalist and special correspondent for the paper who is studying for a master’s degree at Ariel University in communication, public advocacy and combating antisemitism, wrote that French, a language he speaks, led him to Mauricio Baruch, a work acquaintance who has lived in Israel for about 30 years. Baruch’s wife comes from a family of Moroccan Jews. One evening after work, the two decided to build a sukkah at Baruch’s home.

Learning by building

They put up the walls and fences that evening and laid the schach the next day. Sabirov was trusted with the design. “I was getting to know the laws of the Torah in practice for the first time,” he wrote. “Before that I could read, listen, and ask questions.”

At the holiday meal with his host’s in-laws, conversation moved among French, English and Hebrew. Children from the neighborhood wandered in to introduce themselves. “A sukkah is not only walls, a roof and decorations,” he wrote. “It is a meeting place.” The rice served with the meat, he added, reminded him of plov.

“We haven’t built it for four years”

The surprise came from Baruch, who told him the family had not put up a sukkah for about four years and thanked him for helping build it again. “I came to Israel and thought that it was me who would learn the traditions and culture here,” Sabirov wrote. “But it turned out that I can also bring something.”

His conclusion: “The most important thing is the people who met inside it. Jews from different countries, different generations, different languages and different stories.”

Sources: The Bukharian Times.

The item is a New Year’s greeting printed in Rahamim, a historic Bukharian Jewish newspaper published in Kokand in the years before World War I. It reached the site courtesy of Rachel Yehudayoff, writer Giora Fuzailov reported. The greeting is signed by members of the Yehudayoff family of Kokand, led by the well-known magnate Elisha Yehudayoff, along with David, Zion and Mashiach Yehudayoff.

The man behind the “palace”

Elisha Yehudayoff is remembered in Jerusalem as the builder of Beit Yehudayoff, known to this day as “the Palace of the Messiah,” in the Bukharian Quarter, which its founders called Rehovot. The Jewish heritage archive Diarna describes the Yehudayoff-Hefetz Palace on Ezra Street as a three-story, roughly 30-room mansion begun in 1907 with the help of his son-in-law, Yisrael Hefetz. Diarna says its size was linked to the expectation that it would host the Messiah, and that it now houses girls’ schools.

A greeting in Hebrew

What makes the find striking, according to Bucharim.com, is its language. Rahamim was printed in Judeo-Tajik, or Bukhori, but the Yehudayoff greeting was set in Hebrew. It addresses “our relatives and friends near and far” in Tashkent, Samarkand, Kokand, Bukhara and the surrounding towns, wishing them “many years, years of happiness and success, and good holidays and festivals in joy and gladness, amen.”

Fuzailov wrote that the choice of Hebrew suggests the language was not only for prayer and study, but also a living language of communication among the educated and business classes of Central Asian Jewry. The document, he wrote, shows a network that joined faithfulness to tradition, economic success and a deep bond with the Land of Israel and the Hebrew language.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by Bucharim.com.

Sources: Bucharim.com; Diarna.

Sukkahs inside the havli

Multi-generational Bukharian families lived around open courtyards known as havli, with mud walls and windows facing inward. Rather than put up a free-standing booth that might draw unwanted attention under political restrictions, families built semi-permanent or collapsible sukkahs inside the courtyard, the feature says.

For schach they used woven reed mats called chiy, along with grasses, river reeds, willow branches, grapevines and poplar leaves gathered after the harvest. Inside, the sukkahs were hung with Suzani embroidery and Ikat silk (abrbandi) and laid with hand-woven carpets. Melons, grapes, apples and pomegranates were tied up with silk ribbons as decoration.

Etrogim by the Silk Road

Getting etrogim and lulavim to landlocked Central Asia was hard, but the feature notes that Bukharian merchants’ trade networks reached Iran, Afghanistan, the Ottoman lands, the Land of Israel and the Caucasus, ensuring that valid citrons arrived for the holiday. Meals in the sukkah featured dolma, oshi palov with meat and dried fruit, flatbreads and local melons. A favorite holiday song was “sukkah ve-lulav le-am sgula.”

During the Soviet anti-religious campaign, close-knit households in the mahalla shared hidden sukkahs, the essay says, keeping the ritual alive away from public view. Citing Dr. Robert Pinkhasov’s book The Bukharian Jews: Religion and Traditions, it also describes the Kise Ushpizin, a decorated armchair brought into the sukkah, covered with a veil and holy books, for the spiritual guests.

For Queens families who have just taken down this year’s sukkahs, the feature is a reminder of what those courtyards carried across generations.

Sources: The Bukharian Times.

Aronbaeva said Bukharian Times editor Rafael Nektalov called and suggested she contact the director, who was looking for an actress to play a Bukharian Jewish woman. The film follows a young émigré from Samarkand who works as a home attendant and, in the story, cares for Aronbaeva’s character. “We met with Zumrad in Queens and did the first screen tests,” Aronbaeva said.

The story of “Toy”

The short film, titled “Toy,” tells the story of Farangiz, an immigrant from Samarkand living in Brighton Beach. All day she prepares in her mind for an event taking place six thousand miles away: filling out expense paperwork, setting the table, cooking a festive meal, dressing up and rehearsing a speech, while the elderly woman she cares for, Zara, shouts instructions from the couch. When the moment she has lived for finally arrives, something goes wrong.

Mirzalieva, a Tashkent native who now lives in New York, said she graduated from the University of Manchester in 2020 in international crisis management and humanitarian response, works with international organizations and also makes documentaries; her debut film premiered in 2022 at the Go Viral festival. She won a grant in England for the project, the paper reported.

“When I met Mira, I understood from the first seconds that she is the heroine of my film,” Mirzalieva said. She said the meeting “opened the world of the Bukharian Jewish women of New York” for her. Aronbaeva, a former teacher, began acting in dramatic and comic character roles with the two community theaters after immigrating.

Nektalov noted that weddings among immigrants are a frequent theme of Bukharian theater in New York and Israel. The film’s release is planned for 2027, and Nektalov said it would be shown in New York after completion.

This report was translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by The Bukharian Times.

Sources: The Bukharian Times.

The visit followed the custom of kabbalat pnei rabo, greeting one’s rabbi on the festival. Those present included Or Yehuda chief rabbi Rabbi Zion Cohen, former National Planning Headquarters chairman Rabbi Natan Elnatan, Rabbi Binyamin Aminov and Rabbi Shimon Moshe Chai Rachamim, along with dayanim, kollel heads and community activists, according to the report.

The guests shared words of Torah and discussed the customs and halachic tradition of Bukhara’s sages, as well as the spiritual and educational challenges facing the community and the need to strengthen ties with the younger generation. Participants noted that thousands took part in Tishrei events at venues across Israel, the site reported.

“This gathering, at the close of Simchat Torah, symbolizes the transition from the great joy of the festival to toil in Torah, to action and to strengthening the communities in the winter days ahead,” Rabbi Cohen said, according to Bucharim.com.

He told his guests that the community’s strength has always rested on fellowship, internal unity and faithful preservation of its ancestral heritage. The evening closed with a l’chaim and traditional songs of thanksgiving.

Less than a week later, Rabbi Cohen’s mother, Rabbanit Shoshana Cohen, died at 90; she was buried Oct. 9 in Jerusalem, Kikar HaShabbat reported.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by Bucharim.com and Kikar HaShabbat.

Sources: Bucharim.com; Kikar HaShabbat.

Editor Rafael Nektalov said he raised the question after meeting a young Orthodox couple from Samarkand who had not named their first son after the husband’s recently deceased father, saying their rabbi had told them which name to give. The interview ran in Russian on Sept. 24 and in English on Oct. 1, 2026.

What a rabbi should do

A rabbi advises, Babaev said. He should explain the laws and traditions of the family’s community, ask whether the parents’ parents are living and learn the names of grandparents who have died. If those names are already taken by older children, he may suggest names from the Torah or of great sages. “But there should be no pressure,” he said. “The right to choose belongs exclusively to the parents. Grandparents and other relatives cannot demand a particular name against the parents’ wishes.”

The Bukharian order

Among Bukharian Jews, Babaev said, children are generally named after the closest deceased relatives. The first son is named for the paternal grandfather and the first daughter for the paternal grandmother, and the second son and daughter are named for the mother’s side. It is not customary, he said, to name children after living relatives, unlike Sephardim, among whom that practice is encouraged.

He said a boy receives his name at the brit milah on the eighth day, and a girl in the synagogue at a Torah reading soon after birth. Where a relative died young or tragically, families may add protective names such as Chaim or Boruch. He cited the Midrash that a person has three names: one from parents, one from others, and one earned through deeds.

The interview was conducted in Russian; quotations are from The Bukharian Times’ English translation.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (English, Oct. 1); The Bukharian Times (Russian, Sept. 24).

The center, called Queens Hillel 188th, is supported by $195,000 in state funding allocated by Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D, WF-Fresh Meadows). The money will expand Jewish student services and programming, including staffing at the hub and the addition of a mental health social worker. Assemblyman Sam Berger wrote on LinkedIn in late September that he presented the $195,000 check at the hub’s Chanukat Habayit celebration.

The hub is designed to serve students from St. John’s University, Queens College and Queensborough Community College, and is open to Jewish students from other campuses in Queens. According to the report, Queens Hillel reaches an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Jewish students at those three schools, including more than 1,000 Bukharian students. It describes its population as one of the most diverse Jewish student bodies in the country, including Sephardic, Mizrahi, Bukharian and Persian students.

“Queens is one of the most diverse places in the world, and our college students deserve spaces where they can celebrate their identity, build community, and know that they are supported,” Rozic said at the ribbon cutting.

Executive director Jenna Citron Schwab said the support will help Hillel provide “holistic support including mental health services, career guidance, and joy-filled Jewish life experiences.” Queens College Interim President Betsy Hendrey and Queensborough President Christine Mangino also welcomed the opening.

The report listed other recent Rozic allocations in the area: $250,000 for the Queens Public Library’s Hillcrest branch, $25,000 for Tomchei Shabbos of Queens, $125,000 for a new Queens Holocaust Memorial at Borough Hall, $350,000 for Chevra Hatzalah and $30,000 for a STEM lab at Queens Hebrew Academy.

Sources: Queens Hillel; The Bukharian Times; Assemblyman Sam Berger (LinkedIn).

The column follows his Sept. 24 piece on banquet culture. He wrote that it drew many calls and online comments, and that the paper asked him to continue the discussion.

Normatov said abandoning the community’s customs is not an option. “We need to hold weddings for our children and grandchildren. We must celebrate bar and bat mitzvahs,” he wrote. The question is how. A wedding “should not turn into a financial test for the family that invites the guests,” he wrote, and he has seen guests leave large, expensive weddings complaining about the spending. “I am not the first to write about this,” he added, “but now, when prices for everything have risen seriously, this question takes on new urgency.”

Memory without the banquet

On memorial gatherings, Normatov urged separating religious tradition from the size of the meal. In his own family, he wrote, relatives gather at home, share stories and photographs, and give in the departed’s memory: donations to a synagogue, help for sick children, gifts to charities and support for university students. For bar and bat mitzvahs, he suggested keeping the ritual in the synagogue and holding a celebration mainly for the child and friends.

He pointed to signs that change is under way. A council of rabbis, he wrote, proposed in The Bukharian Times that everyone except the closest relatives limit themselves to $200. Some wealthy families, he added, have stopped handing out “packages” at memorials and, at their own weddings, have asked guests to leave no more than $100, for charity in the name of the bride and groom.

“Traditions do not exist so that our children repeat everything after us down to the last detail and fall into debt bondage after weddings,” Normatov wrote. Families, he argued, are learning to separate “tradition from excess, memory from showy feasting, joy from financial competition.”

This report was translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from columns published in The Bukharian Times.

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

On Sept. 17, editor Rafael Nektalov reported that brothers Yuri and Alexei Mullokandov, natives of Samarkand, had opened the café “Kosher Style” with a kashrut certificate presented Sept. 9 by Russia’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, who praised its prices. A week later, the paper published two responses.

“It is not the restaurateurs who must change our culture”

Queens writer Rafael Normatov wrote that what worries him most is the state of Bukharian banquets in New York at weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthdays and memorial meals. Prices are soaring, he wrote, but so is the amount of food: tables overflow with dishes guests cannot even taste, and much of it ends up in garbage bags. He did not blame restaurants. “The restaurant serves what we order,” he wrote. “We seem to be competing with each other.” He added: “Real hospitality is respect for the guest.”

Normatov also noted how few places are left where families can simply sit down. Beyond “L’chaim,” “Art Grill,” “Avenue” and “Ohr Yehuda,” he wrote, there are mostly catering halls.

A call for an affordable “dastarkhan”

Leonid Elizarov, editor of the Israeli newspaper Menora, compared the Moscow café’s menu, where a business lunch costs about $3.30 and plov about $7.70, with what families pay elsewhere. He cautioned that rent, wages and taxes differ in Queens and Tel Aviv. But he cited Nektalov as saying a full meal at a good Bukharian restaurant in New York can approach, and easily exceed, $200 per person. In Israel, he wrote, a family with four to six children faces a heavy bill too.

Elizarov proposed that community entrepreneurs or philanthropists open a modest, clean Bukharian café serving plov, bakhsh, manti, samsa, shurpa, shashlik and bread at prices families can manage. “Good national food should not become a luxury,” he wrote.

This report was translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from columns published in The Bukharian Times.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Normatov, Sept. 24); The Bukharian Times (Elizarov, Sept. 24); The Bukharian Times (Nektalov, Sept. 17).

She was also the mother of Rabbi Zamir Cohen, head of the Avnei Nezer yeshiva; Rabbi Avichai Cohen, a ram at Yeshivat Heichal Meir; and Rabbi Zohar Cohen, head of the Ateret Reuven yeshiva in Beitar Illit, according to Kikar.

Her late husband, Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, served for decades as gabbai and chazzan of the central Mussayoff synagogue in Jerusalem’s Bukharian Quarter, the Israeli Bukharian news site Bucharim.com reported. Bucharim.com identifies Rabbi Zevadia Cohen as head of the Bukharian community’s rabbinical court as well as chief rabbi and chief dayan of Tel Aviv-Yafo and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council.

A home built on emunah

Kikar recounted that although the family lived in a rented home in Jerusalem’s Beit Yisrael neighborhood, she turned down a larger government-approved apartment in a new neighborhood so her children would grow up in a neighborhood devoted to Torah. When someone in the family fell ill, she went first to the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri for a blessing.

The funeral left at noon Friday from the Sephardic funeral home on Har HaMenuchot. Babli reported that Israel’s chief rabbis, Rabbi David Yosef and Rabbi Kalman Ber, and Rishon LeZion Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar attended.

In his eulogy, Rabbi Zevadia Cohen recalled that she asked him every day to play the Selichot for her. “This week we read, ‘In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth,’” he said. “With you, the heavens always came before the earth: spiritual matters first.” Rabbi Zamir Cohen spoke of the patience with which she raised four young sons in a row, Babli reported.

The family sat shiva at 8 Kfar HaShiloach Street in Beit Yisrael, according to Kikar.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by Kikar HaShabbat, Babli and Bucharim.com.

Sources: Kikar HaShabbat; Babli; Bucharim.com.

The Sept. 30 flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv turned into an emergency when the Omani co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit. On Oct. 9, the UAE Attorney-General said the investigation found the co-pilot had begun a premeditated plot to seize the aircraft and use it in a suicide attack on the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport. Pilots who were aboard for the return flight regained control and landed at Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, according to the UAE statement carried by WAM.

“I came to fight the terrorist”

Musayev told Ynet he did not wait to be called. “I saw that something was wrong and ran forward,” he said. “I came to fight the terrorist when I heard screams, not to give medical aid. Only after we tied up the terrorist did I treat the stabbed pilot.” He said the captain, lying on the floor, told them he was 39 and a father of two. “We were four people who took control of the whole situation, and if not for that, we would not be talking with you,” he said.

The Israeli Bukharian news site Bucharim.com, publishing a report by the Menora newsroom, described Musayev, 47, as coming from a family rooted in both Bukharian and Georgian Jewry and as the son-in-law of the well-known singer Yuza Moshiashvili. The Bukharian Times in Queens, crediting the Bukharian Community Instagram account, likewise described him as being of Bukharian-Georgian ancestry. RFE/RL’s Georgian Service called him a Georgian-Israeli dentist.

At the award ceremony, Musayev told Herzog the heroism was shared. “It wasn’t only my heroism. Everyone who was there and came near the cockpit was part of it. We were all heroes,” he said, according to Kan. Herzog told the six they had “prevented a severe aviation disaster that would have changed the face of the country and the Middle East.” The other recipients named by Kan were Or Pardilov, Yaniv Hayun, Tali Manes, Zvika Manes and Asaf Rajuan.

Days earlier, Musayev was honored at second hakafot. Arutz Sheva reported he recited “Mizmor LeTodah” at the Chabad House of Nachalat Yehuda in Rishon LeZion.

This report was translated from Hebrew by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by Kan News, Ynet, Bucharim.com (Menora) and Arutz Sheva.

Sources: Kan News; Ynet; Bucharim.com (Menora); WAM / UAE Attorney-General; Arutz Sheva; RFE/RL; The Bukharian Times.

Writing for community readers, Vaknin opens with a child’s question to a busy father—“When was the last time you spent ten minutes with me without looking at your phone?”—and argues that Parashat Noach teaches parents to build an “ark” of protection, warmth, faith, and love inside the home when the outside world feels like a flood.

He lists seven practical lessons drawn from the Torah text: prepare relationships before a crisis; set loving screen boundaries; give children light and encouragement, not only instructions; honor each child’s different “compartment”; lead by personal example; keep the door open after mistakes; and raise children to leave the ark ready to illuminate the world, not merely to hide from it.

“Noach saved his family from the flood with an ark made of wood. We can protect our children from today’s flood by building an ark of love, faith, healthy boundaries and personal example,” Vaknin wrote.

The column closes with a Shabbat suggestion: look children in the eye and say, “I believe in you.” For Bukharian Queens families who know Vaknin from Kanisoi Kalon’s youth minyan, the piece lands as a rabbi’s pastoral blog rather than generic advice.

Sources: The Bukharian Times column; Kanisoi Kalon Hotoni report (Vaknin role).

Sukkot 2026 began on Sept. 26 at Kanisoi Kalon, the main synagogue of the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills, with more than 400 men, women, and youth packing the halls and two on-site sukkahs, Boris Babaev wrote for The Bukharian Times.

Services were led by Chief Rabbi Baruch Babaev with Rabbis Asher Vaknin, David Shushan, Zalman Zavulunov, and Yitzchak Volovik, and with chazzanim Israel Ibragimov and Abo Cohen. Congregants prepared arba minim carefully and used two sukkahs: one on the third-floor terrace for the youth minyan and another at the center entrance for the broader kehillah.

Babaev noted how American backyard sukkahs often look simpler than the harvest-laden booths many elders remember from Central Asia—willow, grapevine, pomegranates, quince, and melons—yet the Forest Hills synagogue still offers a communal roof for families without private yards.

The report closed by looking ahead to Shemini Atzeret, Hoshana Rabbah, and Simchat Torah—the next chapter of the same Tishrei cycle later marked by the synagogue’s Oct. 4 Hotoni banquet.

For Queens Bukharian readers, the Sukkot attendance figure and dual-sukkah setup document how Kanisoi Kalon functions as a high-holiday home base on 70th Avenue.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Russian).

On Oct. 4, 2026, Congregation Kanisoi Kalon at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills celebrated Simchat Torah with hakafot, a communal Hotoni banquet, and a live online auction, Boris Babaev reported for The Bukharian Times (posted Oct. 8).

Preparations involved multiple minyanim, including those led by Chief Rabbi Baruch Babaev, youth-minyan Rabbi Asher Vaknin, and teen-minyan Rabbi David Shushan. Congregants danced with Torah scrolls in the main sanctuary after completing and immediately restarting the annual reading cycle.

Three congregants were honored as Hatan Torah: Shalom Rakhminov, Rabbi Levi-Yitzchak Zavulunov, and Nathaniel Rafailov. Leadership then hosted more than 500 community members and guests for a festive meal at Restaurant Troika. Rabbi Babaev publicly thanked Rabbi Yitzchak Volovik, center director Joseph Khaimov, president David Nektalov, vice president Hiski Miyerov, and restaurateur Mikhail Zavulunov for organizing the evening and preparing national dishes.

That night Kaykov TV livestreamed a concert and auction of joma robes, mezuzot, newborn pillows, and Judaica artworks, allowing participants in other states and countries to bid. Ensemble Mazaltov under Albert Narkolaev provided music; Narkolaev said appearing each year at Troika is “a true pleasure to rejoice with our people on the day the Torah was given.”

The Forest Hills Hotoni is a separate kehillah celebration from Congregation Beth Bechor’s Briarwood Hotoni covered earlier this week.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Russian).

The evening began outdoors with a gala barbecue and continued inside the Torah Center building. Rav Shalom Khaimov, rosh yeshivah and dean, welcomed the gathering and introduced Rabbi Leeor Dahan of Kehilat Avodat Hashem in Hillcrest. Khaimov spoke about experiencing Yamim Tovim joy in a way that carries into everyday learning.

Yeshivat Torat Chaim launched in 2025 to serve Queens’ Bukharian community with a mesivta program combining limudei kodesh, character development, and general studies—an identity documented in BJL’s earlier launch coverage of Rav Khaimov’s school.

Rabbi Dahan linked the yeshivah’s presence to the later opening of Kollel Chazon Yosef and a stronger local limud Torah atmosphere. Also attending were Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov of Kehilat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim and Rabbi Yaniv Meirov of Congregation Charm Circle, both in Kew Gardens Hills—ties that place the Hillcrest simchah inside the broader Queens Bukharian and Sephardic Torah network.

BJL framed the night as what the school wants students to remember: serious learning paired with friendship and belonging beyond the classroom.

Sources: BJL community report; BJL launch feature (school mission).

Rabbanim, elected officials, and community partners toured the main floor, upper level, and finished attic before a backyard reception. Linda Spiegel, director of public affairs, called the house “an amazing brachah” for relatives who need to stay near a patient over Shabbat and Yom Tov. Guests receive furnished rooms and complimentary Glatt kosher meals under the center’s longtime hospitality program.

The Bukharian community peg is explicit in the BJL report: Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, rav of Kehilat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim in Kew Gardens Hills, previously described his family’s experience when his mother underwent rehabilitation at Margaret Tietz after knee-replacement surgery over the Yamim Tovim.

“They went beyond making her feel comfortable,” Rabbi Nisanov said, recalling overnight accommodations that let relatives remain close to her.

Facility rabbi Zavel Pearlman said several families had already spent Shabbat in the new house before the ribbon cutting, calling the hospitality an extension of bikur cholim. Assemblymembers David Weprin, Sam Berger, and Andrew Hevesi presented a New York State Assembly proclamation at the opening.

For Kew Gardens Hills and Forest Hills families who use Margaret Tietz—including Bukharian households connected to Kehilat Sephardim—the practical change is more beds within walking distance of a relative in rehab.

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link.

On Oct. 15, 2026, The Bukharian Times published a cluster of jubilee greetings for Avrom (Abram) Gavrilovich Tolmasov, the Samarkand-born singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist long nicknamed the “Nightingale of the East” among Bukharian Jewish audiences in Israel, Queens, and beyond.

The board of the Samarkand Charitable Fund congratulated Tolmasov on his 70th birthday, calling him a patriot of Samarkand and Israel whose visits to New York remain “the most welcome and joyous events” for fellow Samarkandis who hear his tambur, sitar, guitar, and gijak. Signatories listed by the paper included Roman Khanimov, Oleg Fuzailov, Rafael Nektalov, and other Queens-area Samarkand friends.

Separate family tributes from the Toksur/Mosheev/Yusupov circle and from Marik Moshiakh Kalontarov framed Tolmasov’s voice as the soundtrack of Samarkand weddings and of a childhood spent with parents who played his recordings on Crimean trips. One greeting noted roughly 60 years of performing for successive generations of Bukharian listeners.

Tolmasov’s repertoire—classical Shashmaqam and Bukharian song—has long bridged synagogue and stage. The birthday notes emphasize health, continued touring, and the living link his concerts still provide between Central Asian memory and diaspora family simchas.

Sources: Samarkand Fund jubilee tribute; Toksur family greeting; Kalontarov greeting (The Bukharian Times, Russian).

An English architecture feature published Oct. 15, 2026, by The Bukharian Times retells a beloved local legend. Nodir Devonbegi, grand vizier under Imam Quli Khan of Bukhara (r. 1611–1642), is said to have given his bride a modest pair of pearl earrings and later sold the pearls to fund a monumental building after she questioned their worth.

The article stresses that the ensemble’s documented history is older and more complex than the pearl tale. In 1568–1569, under the Shaybanids, Muhammad Qulbobo Kukaldosh built the Kukaldosh Madrasa—about 160 student cells—as a major regional school, forming the oldest core of the future square.

Between 1620 and 1623, Nodir Taghoybeg (Nodir Devonbegi) added a western khanqah for travelers and Sufis, excavated a large hovz (pool) measuring roughly 42 by 36 meters and about 5 meters deep, fed from the Shohrud canal, and completed the Nodir Devonbegi Madrasa on the eastern side. That eastern building began as a caravanserai; after Imam Quli Khan praised it as a “place of knowledge,” cells and a monumental portal were added to convert it into a madrasa. The portal’s rare figural decoration—stylized Simurgh birds and deer—is noted as unusual in regional Islamic architecture.

Today Labi Hovz sits at the center of Bukhara tourism itineraries that many Queens and Florida Bukharian families still visit when reconnecting with ancestral streets.

Sources: The Bukharian Times — “A Miracle Born of Pearls” (Dildora Ibrohimova).

Eligible voters must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 by Election Day. City residents can register online at e-register.vote.nyc—the NYC Board of Elections portal for first-time registration, name or address changes, and party enrollment—or through the New York State DMV electronic voter registration application if they hold a valid state driver’s license, permit, or non-driver ID. The Board of Elections calendar lists the same Oct. 24 registration deadline for the Nov. 3, 2026 general election for both in-person and mail/online filings.

Early voting runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1. On Election Day, Nov. 3, polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Times urged participation so the Bukharian Jewish community has a voice in decisions that shape its future: “Every vote counts.”

Sources: The Bukharian Times; NYC Voter Registration Portal; NYC Board of Elections registration deadlines. Image: Kenneth C. Zirkel / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

On Oct. 5, 2026, Congregation Beth Bechor in Briarwood held its annual Hotoni—the Bukharian communal celebration that closes the fall holiday cycle after Sukkot on Simchat Torah and marks the start of a new yearly Torah reading. The synagogue has hosted the evening regularly for nine years since its founding, Rafik Sharki reported for The Bukharian Times.

Tables were set with abundant food and drink, and gold-embroidered Bukharian robes (joma) and silk scarves were prepared for auction. Rabbi Levi Abdurakhmanov explained that “hotoni” comes from hatan (bridegroom): in Bukharian tradition the day became a large communal event, and those who purchase a joma support the synagogue while taking home a token of the day’s holiness.

Honorees as Hatan Torah / Hotoni Bereshit—those privileged to complete and immediately restart the annual cycle—included synagogue president Daniel Aronov, vice president Rafael Iskhakov, Immanuel Kalendarev, Roshel Rubinov, Ruben Rubinov, and Yuri Iskhakov. Rabbi Isaac Inoyatov, 28, a New York–born rabbi who also studies at SUNY medical school, impressed attendees with a talk spanning Jewish and world history in multiple languages; Iskhakov praised how young congregants bring him questions that bridge religion and science.

Leaders also welcomed Samarkand community guest Ilya Mulodzhanov with a gift joma. Song, energetic dancing, and lively bidding on robes, scarves, and souvenirs continued late into the night; congregants did not go home empty-handed.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Russian). Image: Adler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

In an interview with Moishe Sabirov for The Bukharian Times, Paltielov said the sisters are from Moldova, came to his program after a jiu-jitsu federation conflict, and have trained with the Israeli group for three to four years. Shaked won the 2025 World Games in Chengdu; for Rony, Dushanbe was her second competition and first in combat sambo. “Pride,” Paltielov said of seeing both in the finals. He added that Rony led her final but risked a late throw while ahead—a lesson he prefers at a Cup before the World Championships.

Paltielov trained in sambo under Ismat Abdulaev, graduated from the Institute of Physical Culture, immigrated to Israel in 1990, began coaching in 1991, and since 2004 has worked with Pavel Musin at a club in Rishon LeZion. He described a small Israeli sambo scene of only a few clubs competing against far deeper Russian systems, yet said youth recently took two medals in Thessaloniki and that Shaked and Rony are preparing for the adult World Championships in Tashkent in November.

“Without dreams, there would be no point in working,” he said, hoping Israel can climb toward the top of team standings. Sabirov closed by calling him a pride of the Bukharian community.

Sources: The Bukharian Times. AI-generated editorial illustration accompanying this report; not a documentary photograph or official promotional image.

Borukhova immigrated to New York at age 11 in 1991, later grew up among early Bukharian families in Denver, studied opera performance, trained further in Italy, and earned an M.S. in Education from Bank Street College before more than a decade working with children, including in special education. The book’s title echoes a remark she heard across her life; she decided the child at its center should not be generically Jewish but Bukharian.

“I realized, you know, I don’t want this kid to be Jewish. I wanted this kid to be Bukharian,” she told Kaykov. Writing came easily; illustrating did not. She had never illustrated a book and ultimately spent a full year drawing, formatting, and preparing the volume herself after learning professional help would cost more time and money than her already-scheduled launch allowed. “This book is completely from scratch,” she said. “I would say this is a children’s book, but this was the hardest project I’ve ever undertaken.”

She stressed the story is less about appearance than belonging—roots experienced as something beautiful. “Putting this book together, it’s brought me closer to my own Bukharian roots,” she said, urging families to cook the foods, play the music, and speak about what is worth loving. Asked if she was proud to call herself Bukharian, she answered: “Very proud.”

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link. Image: Dennis G. Jarvis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Born in Dushanbe in the 1950s, Mavashev grew up in a home where Bukharian writers and communal figures gathered while he absorbed language, poetry, and melody without formal lessons. His father—Samarkand-born, Torah-trained, and a quiet communal helper—shaped his ear for Shashmaqam after a childhood preference for the Beatles; foreign scholars visiting the family helped change his mind. His father died of ALS in 1978; soon afterward David left the USSR while still attached to the Soviet military, rebuilt life in Israel (including IDF service), and in 1980 moved to New York.

There he built Nastel Technologies around specialized IBM-environment software. He recounted early talks that jumped from a privately hoped-for $500,000 to offers near $5 million that did not close, and later negotiations around $100 million and roughly $150 million that vanished when markets shifted—leading to his blunt lesson: “You should have sold. You can’t be greedy.” Age, he said, changed his measure of success: “Money doesn’t solve anything in the end.”

He worries that Bukhori fades when English or Hebrew becomes the home language, and that Shashmaqam needs the same everyday exposure he once received. Asked what descendants should remember, he offered no manifesto: “I just hope that I have done everything that I was supposed to do.”

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link (Kaykov TV interview, aired Aug. 31, 2026; published Oct. 7, 2026). AI-generated editorial illustration accompanying this report; not a documentary photograph or official promotional image.

On Oct. 1, 2026, the Union of Bukharian Jewish Writers, Poets, and Journalists held the third “Mallaev Readings” at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in New York, marking 90 years since the birth of poet, makomist, and virtuoso musician Ilyas Efraimovich Mallaev (1936–2008).

According to Alla Aronova’s report in The Bukharian Times, the hall displayed portraits by artists Abram Pilosov and Yakov Kandinov, a mosaic panel by Nison Shimunov, and volumes of Mallaev’s poetry alongside related scholarship. Union chair Raphael Nektalov opened by stressing study and popularization of Mallaev’s poetry—from the early poem “Dogi Padar” in Tashkent in 1974 through the fuller flowering of his work after emigration to the United States.

Poet Roshel Rubinov, who called Mallaev his ustoz (mentor), recited dedicatory verse and performed an unaccompanied fragment of makom “Dugoh” to Mallaev’s text. David Mavashev analyzed poems’ civic and humanist themes and recalled that Mallaev was the first laureate of the Itzhak Mavashev Prize in poetry in 2005. Musician Yefim Abramov spoke about Mallaev’s early career, including work with Tamara Khanum’s ensemble and a tar part with Uzbekistan’s Gosteleradio orchestra.

Composer-singer Yuhan Benyaminov performed “Noni Padar” (“Father’s Bread”) to Mallaev’s words; director Boris Katayev and singer Tamara Katayeva recalled the Queens Theater staging of Mallaev’s play The Singer of His Excellency. Svetlana Khanimova of the Makom ensemble described U.S. and international tours and Silk Road programs. Family members including grandson Avi Benjamini and daughter Nargis Malayeva performed and read; son Raj Malayev thanked the BJCC and the Museum of Bukharian Jewish Heritage in America for hosting. Nektalov announced a November 2027 union session devoted to poet Larisa Yusupova.

Sources: The Bukharian Times (Russian); Mallaev Readings archive. Image: Sathyadeep / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

The theme is rooted in the teaching “Chotamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu emet”—“The seal of the Holy One, blessed is He, is truth.” YSZ plans to explore emet not only as truthfulness in speech but as knowing who one is, remaining grounded in Torah values, and striving toward who one can become. The school framed the return with “real memories, real friendships, real growth,” while returning faculty and new teachers launched classroom learning against the backdrop of Elul and the Yamim Noraim.

Dr. Rina Zerykier introduced the theme, telling students that authenticity means recognizing who they are capable of becoming and living bli masachim, bli maseichot—without screens and without masks. She asked what would change if Hashem’s “seal of approval” mattered most, and compared personal walls to the walls of Yericho that fell at the sound of the shofar.

A Rosh Hashanah program with Jackie Bitton emphasized Hashem’s enduring love for every Jew and the idea that each student is a bas Melech with unique light. Bitton’s practical call—“If you see something, say something”—was framed positively: notice and voice admirable qualities in peers. Looking ahead to the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, YSZ’s next theme is “Closer,” pictured as a ladder climbed one rung at a time.

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link; YSZ Queens. AI-generated editorial illustration accompanying this report; not a documentary photograph or official promotional image.

The Bukharian Jewish Link published a photo-heavy community report on Oct. 7, 2026, describing spirited song and dancing that carried Simchat Torah energy into the evening with warmth, simchah, and a strong sense of achdut. The Link’s coverage does not quote speakers or give an attendance figure; this report sticks to what that brief account and the congregation’s public profile confirm.

Shaarei Eliyahu was founded in 2011 under Rabbi Yosef Akilov, who was born in Samarkand and immigrated to the United States in 1996. According to the congregation’s website, communal High Holiday gatherings for the community began as early as 2002, and the rabbi earlier led youth Shabbat services at Beth Gavriel before establishing the independent kehillah. The synagogue offers weekly Gemara and parasha classes and publishes a weekly “Table Talk” based on Rabbi Akilov’s shiurim.

Holding second hakafot at a familiar Forest Hills restaurant on “Bukharian Broadway” underscores how the kehillah marks the close of the fall holiday cycle with music and communal joy beyond the synagogue walls.

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link; Shaarei Eliyahu. AI-generated editorial illustration accompanying this report; not a documentary photograph or official promotional image.