City on the Kazakh Steppe Inaugurates Its First-Ever Mikvah

by Ariel Fine – chabad.org

History was made on Tuesday, July 9, when the Jewish community of Shymkent, Kazakhstan, gathered to inaugurate ‘Mikvah Mei Elazar,’ the city’s first-ever mikvah. The mikvah’s opening marks a coming of age for Jewish life on the vast Kazakh steppe.

Shymkent is a city in southern Kazakhstan near the border with Uzbekistan. It is the third largest city in the country and serves as the administrative and cultural center of the South Kazakhstan Region.

In 2018, Rabbi Mordechai and Shoshana Morozow—he originally from Melbourne, Australia, and she from Calgary, Alberta—moved to the region to establish Chabad-Lubavitch of Shymkent. Until 1991, Kazakhstan was a part of the Soviet Union and today there are 12 emissary couples serving Jews in seven cities throughout the Central Asian country. The Morozows operate out of their modest Chabad center close to the city’s center, bringing prayer services, adult education classes and Jewish programming to the community.

A predominantly Muslim city, Shymkent is home to a small Jewish community, the Morozows working with a base of more than 200 Jews. The Morozows believe that the true number of Jews is higher, as is the case in many places in the former Soviet Union, where Jews hid their identities as a result of decades of government persecution. Unimaginable at the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain more than 30 years ago, the new mikvah is another milestone for Jewish life in the distant outpost.

“When we first came to Shymkent six years ago, there wasn’t much in the way of organized Jewish life,” Rabbi Morozow says. “But the existing Jewish community that greeted us has provided us with a welcoming environment to grow.”

In part due to its remoteness, maintaining Jewish life in Shymkent may at times feel difficult. The closest city with a mikvah is Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a two-hour drive away. That doesn’t account for the border crossing, which makes getting there all the more complicated.

The closest city with a robust Jewish infrastructure within Kazakhstan’s expansive borders is Almaty, once known as Alma-Ata. Kazakhstan’s capital until 1997, Almaty is the location of the burial place of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the father of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was arrested by the Soviet secret police in 1939 and ultimately exiled to Kazakhstan, where he suffered for years in a desolate Kazakh village. In the last few months of his life, he was allowed to transfer to the capital, where he passed away and was buried in the summer of 1944, exactly 80 years ago. Chabad of Kazakhstan was established by Rabbi Yeshaya Cohen in 1994, and Jewish life has flourished there in the decades since. Cohen also serves as the country’s chief rabbi.

Though years ago it would have taken days to reach Almaty from Shymkent, the trip remains a difficult one for the Morozows and local Jewish community members. The desert highway connecting them with Almaty takes more than eight hours to traverse, which makes going to mikvah, obtaining kosher meat and attending to other Jewish needs in Almaty an act of true dedication.

In fact, the Morozows recently brought down a shochet (ritual slaughterer) to visit and provide kosher meat for the community.

Two Years in the Making

2022 marked 120 years since the Rebbe’s birth, and Rabbi Morozow felt it was an auspicious time to embark on a big project. At the time, Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—had announced grants for emissaries to build new mikvahs. “By an amazing act of Divine providence, Shymkent was the first town to receive the grant,” he says.

While the grant provided the initial seed money for the mikvah’s construction, the Morozows still required additional funding to make their dream a reality.

Assistance came in the form of donors from near and far. Ariel and Elizabeth Mashiyev from the Mashiyev Family Foundation of Toronto, Canada, have dedicated vast time and resources to helping create mikvahs in remote locales. To date, the family has been involved in more than 30 such projects and when they were introduced to the project in Shymkent, they knew it was the right fit.

“We fundamentally believe that every Jewish community should have a mikvah,” Ariel Mashiyev told Chabad.org. “Shymkent is no exception. We hope that the new mikvah will allow Jewish life to flourish in the region and allow the community to continue to grow.”

In addition to helping with the creation of mikvahs in general, the Shymkent project had personal significance. Ariel’s grandfather, R. Elazar Mashiyev, was born in nearby Turkmenistan before moving to New York. Given the geographical proximity to Kazakhstan, the Mashiyev family decided to honor his legacy by dedicating the new mikvah in his name.

Additionally, there were several anonymous donors. One benefactor from Israel made a contribution after reading a letter in the Rebbe’s Igrot Kodesh [the 33-volume collection of the Rebbe’s published correspondence] about the importance of building mikvahs. Then, in January of 2024, a large group from Anshei Lubavitch and Tzierei Anash—two synagogues located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn—arrived in Almaty to visit Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s burial place. When they learned of Shymkent’s yet-unfinished mikvah project, they donated the funds to help bring it to the finish line.

A Grand Inauguration

The inauguration of the mikvah took place on the third day of the Jewish month of Tammuz—the 30th anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing—which this year fell out on July 9. By Divine providence, the date also marks the anniversary of the passing of Elazar Mashiyev, for whom the mikvah is named.

The entire community and guests from around the world attended the event. Rabbi Cohen, the chief rabbi of Kazakhstan, as well as his brother Rabbi Elchonon Cohen, who directs Chabad of Almaty, both made the journey to join.

Among the speakers was Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States (ASIS), who spoke about how incredible it was that Shymkent, a place where Chabad Chassidim had previously endangered their lives to spread Judaism, was now home to a Chabad center. He also highlighted how inspiring it is that in 2024 the Muslim city’s new mikvah could be inaugurated in an environment of peace and harmony.

Latipsha Assanov, Honorary Consul-General of the Republic of Turkey to Shymkent and the Turkestan region, spoke about the strength of the ongoing relationship with the Jewish community in the region.

While the mikvah was the main event, the growth of the local Jewish community was put on display through a double celebration that took place at the inauguration. Rabbi Elchonon Cohen, who in addition to directing Chabad of Almaty is the wider region’s mohel, was called upon to perform the ritual circumcisions of two brothers, a newborn and a 4-year-old.

The names chosen for the two boys by their parents were Menachem Mendel and Levi Yitzchak, in honor of the Rebbe and his father, two individuals who were instrumental to the development of Jewish life in the region.

The double bris ceremony was followed by the Jewish wedding of a couple who, after years of marriage, had decided to hold a chuppah ceremony. The Jewish couple also committed to using Shymkent’s brand new mikvah.

As a result of the Rebbe’s vision, the Morozows tenacity, and the help of friends and supporters near and far, they and many more Jews will have a beautiful mikvah to use deep on the Kazakh steppe.