Researchers of the Center for Regional Studies Participated in an International Conference at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek

The staff of the Center for Regional studies participatedin the Fourth InternationalConference “At the Crossroads of Cultures: Jews of CentralAsia and the Caucasus”, which was held on June 3-6, 2026at the American University of Central Asia inBishkek (Kyrgyzstan). The conference was organized by the Jewish Museumand the Center of Tolerance (Moscow,Russian Federation) in cooperation with the Ben-Zvi Research Institute(Jerusalem, Israel). Previousconferences on the historyand culture of the Jews of Central Asiaand the Caucasus were held inTbilisi, Samarkand andAlmaty. The Almaty Conferencein June2025 was hosted by the Center for RegionalStudies of Turan University.

The current, fourth meeting of researchers of Jewish history and culture was opened by TimothyEdward O’Connor, President of the American University of Central Asia(AUCA), Zeev Levin,Director of the Ben-Zvi Institute, and Svetlana Amosova, Director of the Research Department of the Jewish Museum andTolerance Center. The Conferenceis a ‘moving’forum betweenMoscow and CentralAsia and the Caucasus: breakout sessions are held in Moscow on the first dayand other two days sessions are organized in one of the countries of the regions.

Twenty two paperswere presentedat sixsessions of the Conference in Bishkek. Representatives of Turan University presented papers on the topics “Jewsin Chinaand EastTurkestan” (Doctor of History, Professor Ablet K. Kamalov) and “TheJewish community of Almaty: historicalevolution, socio-structural transformation and the role of intellectual elites” (Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor Altynay T. Mukhambedyarova). Professor Ablet K. Kamalov also moderated the section “Jews inCentral Asia in the twentieth century.” The participation of the staff of the Center for RegionalStudies in thisconference was anotherexample of cooperation between Turan University,the JewishMuseum and ToleranceCenter (Moscow) and the Ben-Zvi Institute (Israel).