A gilded silver and gem-set torah holder, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 19th-20th century, of...

A gilded silver and gem-set torah holder, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 19th-20th century, of cylindrical form with crenelated top, the body decorated with large designs of thistles and flowers, menorah, and cartouches of silver and gilt wirework and silver balls, set with turquoise and other semi-precious stones, and glass, around the top edge an inscription in Hebrew, the interior lined with red velvet each half with holes to support the torah scroll, 31.5cm. high x 21cm. diam. weight 2.83kilos.

This torah holder was made in Uzbekistan for the Jewish community of Bukhara in the late 19th or early 20th century. Many of the Jewish peoples of Bukhara left Uzbekistan and Central Asia for the United States from the 1970s onwards. The gilded silver decoration bears strong resemblance to the jewellery of the Turkomen tribes of the region.

The term Bukharan was coined by European travellers who visited Central Asia around the 16th century. Since most of the Jewish community at the time lived under the Emirate of Bukhara, they came to be known as Bukharan Jews. The name by which the community called itself is "Isro'il" (Israelites). The appellative Bukharian was adopted by Bukharan Jews who moved to English-speaking countries, in an anglicisation of the Hebrew Bukhari. However, Bukharan was the term used historically by English writers, as it was for other aspects of Bukhara.

Bukharan Jews used the Persian language to communicate among themselves and later developed Bukhori, a Tajik dialect of the Persian language with small linguistic traces of Hebrew. This language provided easier communication with their neighboring communities and was used for all cultural and educational life among the Jews. It was used widely until the area was "Russified" by the Russians and the dissemination of "religious" information was halted. The elderly Bukharan generation use Bukhori as their primary language but speak Russian with a slight Bukharan accent. The younger generation use Russian as their primary language, but do understand or speak Bukhori.

The Bukharan Jews are Mizrahi Jews and have been introduced to and practice Sephardic Judaism.

The first primary written account of Jews in Central Asia dates to the beginning of the 4th century CE. It is recalled in the Talmud by Rabbi Shmuel bar Bisna, a member of the Talmudic academy in Pumbeditha, who traveled to Margiana (present-day Merv in Turkmenistan) and feared that the wine and alcohol produced by local Jews was not kosher. The presence of Jewish communities in Merv is also proven by Jewish writings on ossuaries from the 5th and 6th centuries, uncovered between 1954 and 1956.