Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Tajikistan
Tajikistan: a Jewish community almost emptied by emigration and civil war, relations with the Israeli state handled from Tashkent, and the first Israeli ministerial visit and tourism agreement in 2025
Tajikistan has between 200 and 600 Jews, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC); most emigrated during the instability of the late 1980s and the civil war of 1992–97, primarily to "Israel".[1] Tajikistan established diplomatic relations with "Israel" in 1992, and "Israel" handles relations from its embassy in Tashkent.[2] In September 2025 the Israeli tourism minister, Haim Katz, made the first official visit by an Israeli minister to Tajikistan and signed the two countries' first tourism agreement.[2]
Jewish community and religious life
History and demography
According to the WJC, Bukharan Jews first appeared in what is now Tajikistan in the 17th and 18th centuries, and Ashkenazi Jews arrived in the 20th century, many of them as refugees during the Second World War. The Jewish population was estimated at 13,400 in 1959 and 11,000 in 1989. About 40 per cent of the remaining Jews are of Bukharan origin. Jewish life is centred in Dushanbe.[1] The Jerusalem Post reports that all but 197 Tajik Jews emigrated between 1989 and 2002, mostly to "Israel", and that only 36 Jews remained at the 2010 census.[2] These figures conflict with the WJC estimate of 200 to 600.
According to the WJC, the only functioning synagogue was in Dushanbe, but its building has been dismantled, and the synagogue in Khujand was closed in 1999.[1] The Jerusalem Post describes Dushanbe's synagogue as the only one still functioning in the country.[2] The sources conflict on this point.
Communal organisations
Jewish Community of Tajikistan. The WJC's Tajik affiliate is the Jewish Community of Tajikistan; the WJC names Valeriy Davidov as head of the community and Amnon Iyaev as president.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? The community is affiliated to the WJC. No statement by it on Zionism was found.
Khaverim Society. The Khaverim Society of Friends of the Jewish Culture, later the Jewish Cultural Center, was founded at the end of the 1980s to revive Jewish culture, language and traditions. It ceased to exist after its director, Gavriel Gavriilov, was murdered in 1998.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Tajikistan.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
According to The Jerusalem Post, diplomatic relations were established on 26 March 1992;[2] the Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list gives April 1992, and lists Tajikistan as a non-resident posting covered by the Israeli ambassador in Uzbekistan.[3] President Emomali Rahmon met the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, at the UN General Assembly in 1995. The first official Israeli delegation to visit Tajikistan was that of the Knesset members Sharren Haskel and Yossi Yona in 2016.[2] The Israeli ambassador in Tashkent, Gideon Lustig, told The Jerusalem Post in 2025 that he had visited Dushanbe three times in his first year. He said that Israeli tourism to Tajikistan was rising, numbering "in the hundreds".[2]
Arms and trade
SIPRI records no Israeli arms transfers to Tajikistan.[4] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Tajikistan separately in its trade-by-country table.[5]
Political interference
UN voting
Tajikistan voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[6]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Uzbekistan
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Kyrgyzstan
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Afghanistan
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 World Jewish Congress, Community in Tajikistan worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Alex Winston, Stan's the name: Inside Israel's growing partnerships across Central Asia The Jerusalem Post, 12 December 2025.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).