Distant Relatives: Shklov Jews and Their Correspondence with the Ten Tribes from Bukhara

Abstract

An exceptional correspondence took place between the Jews of Bukhara and those of Shklov in 1802–03. Neither community had known of the other’s existence beforehand, and it was only due to geopolitical changes that they discovered each other. The Jews of Shklov were sure that those of Bukhara belonged to the ten lost tribes. This excited them immensely and prompted them to write a letter, extraordinary in the information it includes, which they printed and disseminated around Europe. The importance of the correspondence originates from the need the Jews of Shklov felt to share copious information with the Jews of Bukhara about the flow of Jewish history after the ten tribes were exiled, the locations of Jewish communities in Europe and, in particular, the situation of their own community, which at the time was enjoying its golden age. The correspondence yields important and diverse historical information about messianic tension among East European Jews, their eagerness to find the ten tribes as a stimulus to the Redemption, their historical and geographic consciousness, their loyal attitude towards Russian rule, their economic situation, their status vis-à-vis the authorities, and additional matters. The article discusses these topics among others, analyzes the sources, and presents an annotated version of the correspondence with an English translation.