Every morning, Raphael Davidov, the President of the Bukharian Jewish community, wears tefillin as he rapidly recites the shacharit service in Hebrew, barefoot in his bedroom. "I only started to teach myself Hebrew five or six years ago after I became the community President," Rafael confides. During the Soviet era, it was prohibited and impossible. "In spite of the fact that I didn't know Hebrew," Raphael says, "we always ate kosher food, fasted on Yom Kippur, observed Pesach, and quietly performed circumcisions and bar mitzvahs." Now the community has religious freedom, but the Jews are leaving en masse. "It's too bad all the Jewish people left to America, Israel, Germany -- before we all lived here together as neighbors," Raphael laments. He concludes, "I want to stay because we have 2500 years of history here ­ our ancestors are buried here. But if no one stays and there is no minyan, my family will leave also, for my children's sake."

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