Not all Bukharian Jews are from the ancient Silk Road city of Bukhara in today’s Uzbekistan, but such was the city’s importance that most Central Asian Jews have embraced the label and refer to their language, closely related to Persian, as Bukhori. Today, the Queens neighborhoods of Forest Hills and Rego Park are home to the most concentrated community of Bukharian Jews anywhere in the world, ever since most left Bukhara and other cities in the region around the end of the Cold War.
Bukhara, Uzbekistan