Kokand
KOKAND
KOKAND , city in Fergana district, Uzbekistan; before the 1917 Revolution, a county town in the Fergana province. There were a few Jews living in the town, which was formerly capital of the Kokand khanate, before its capture by the Russians in 1876. They engaged in dyeing and petty trade, and, as unbelievers, suffered from oppression by the Muslim rulers. After the Russian conquest, many Jews migrated from the emirate of *Bukhara to Kokand. They contributed to the development of the town and engaged in the cotton, wool, and silk trade. The community numbered 1,029 in 1897 (1.25% of the total population), and 2,000 before the outbreak of World War i. During the civil war in Russian Central Asia (1918), the rebel Uzbeks and Kazakhs rioted in Kokand, destroyed the community, and looted Jewish property. By 1926, only 746 Bukharan Jews remained in Kokand; their number reached 3,196 (4% of the total population) in 1939. In 1970 the Jewish population was estimated at about 1,500. Most left in the 1990s. One synagogue existed and the Jewish cemetery was well kept.
bibliography:
Z.L. Amitin-Shapiro, Ocherki sotsialisticheskogo stroitelstva sredi sredne-aziatskikh yevreyev (1933).
[Yehuda Slutsky]