As for other Judaism commandments, much depends on the city in which people live, whether there is a Jewish mahalla in that city or not, whether they live in a mahalla or in a modern apartment building. But still Bukharian Jews are very devout. For example, the minyan (a prayer quorum of at least ten Jewish adults) gathered in a synagogue every morning even in the Soviet times, not only in significant but also in small communities.
Among the ritual objects there are two tefillin (phylacteries) – for the head and for the hand. Adult men (over thirteen years old) fix the tefillin with straps on their forehead and left arm during the everyday morning prayer. In the leather boxes there is a parchment, which contains a fragment of the Scripture explaining the Tefillin commandment. It is impossible to say where these tefillin are made – in Central Asia, Russia or Israel, because their appearance is substantially standardized. The haltacha-tefillin (a bag for tefillin storage), obviously made from striped cotton fabric to meet local tastes is much more locally specific.
You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the State Museum of the History of Religion” (Volume XII) from the series “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections”.
The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
