Documentary About Musical Tajik Bukharian Alaev Family Now Streaming on YouTube

The Alaev Family, a multigenerational family folk-rock group, has been performing for more than 50 years, blending Eastern European, Jewish and Roma influences in unforgettable performances. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, their benevolent dictator, Papa Allo, moved his clan from their native Tajikistan to Israel, where he has continued to exert his will. Only his equally strongwilled daughter, Ada, has dared to resist until now. As Papa nears 80, the patriarch’s power begins to slip further, calling into question the future of the family business.

A documentary, The World of Papa Alaev, has been featured at many Jewish film festivals and is now streaming on YouTube.

Here is a trailer for the film, which you can see in its entirety at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxTAqX65DOc. 

Enjoy!

Welcoming Shabbat with a Bukharian Shalom Aleichem

The liturgical poem Lekha Dodi is sung to many different melodies throughout the world, including melodies from India, Central Asia (Bukhara), Yemen, Kurdistan, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus.

Wherever Jews gather for prayer on a Friday night, there one can find Lekha Dodi being sung.

Today we're sharing a version that was popular among the Jews of Bukhara, a city in Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Below the video of Lekha Dodi is another video about the Bukharian Jews.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.  



In the lands along the Silk Road, Jews lived under some of the world's most powerful empires. Despite their isolation from other Jewish communities, oppression, and forced conversion, this ancient community persisted. This is the story of the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia.




(A tip of the kippah to Dan Mosenkis for bringing these videos to our attention)