Photograph: “Kuchki” – sukkah shelter attached to the wall of the house of David Kalontarov.

Bukharian Jews

Turkestan Krai, Samarkand Oblast, city Samarkand

1902

Gelatin silver printing with chemical development (DOP)

16,9 x 22,4

РЭМ 49-2

“Kuchki” (Tabernacles) is the Bukharan Jewish name for the booths where the Israelis lived after their exodus from Egypt. The symbol of the Booths was a sukkah shelter set up for the Sukkot autumn Jewish feast, which was especially worshipped by the Bukharan Jews. Shown in the photo are members of the family of David Kalontarov, the elder of the Jewsih quarter, against the background of a large shelter whose walls are hanged with Turkmen (Turcoman) carpets, and the roof is bespreaded with willow branches, which was considered as a sacred tree in Central Asia. According to religious tradition of the Bukharan Jews, men and boys of over nine years old, apart from reading religious texts, were to eat and sleep in the sukkah shelter for 8 days. A tall table and chairs became popular in the early 20th century among wealthy Bukharan Jews, to which David Kalontarov belonged.