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Re-Sephardicized Bukhara

Re-Sephardicized Bukhara

1752 CE–1823 CE · Acharonim · Tetouan

R. Yosef Maman al-Maghribi (c. 1752-1823) almost single-handedly re-founded Bukharian Jewry. Born in Tetouan, Morocco, he was sent in his thirties on a shadar (emissary) mission for the Tzfat community to the Bukharian Jews, whom he found in advanced spiritual decline — illiterate in Hebrew, disconnected from rabbinic Judaism, and worshipping in a degraded Persian-Bukharian liturgy.

He stayed for the rest of his life. He systematically rebuilt Bukharian Jewish life: introduced the Sephardic-Mizrachi nusach, trained a generation of Hebrew-literate teachers, established a beit midrash, and re-anchored Bukharian halachic practice to the Shulchan Aruch through the Sephardic tradition. Every Bukharian religious institution of the modern era traces back to his 40-year mission. Died in Bukhara 1823 and is buried there.

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Stop 1 of 31752–1780Born, Studied

TetouanתיטואןNorthern Morocco — Spanish-Sephardi

What they did here

Born in Tetouan, northern Morocco; trained in the Spanish-Sephardi tradition there.

Tetouan in this era

Tetouan was refounded in the 15th century by Sephardic refugees from the 1492 Spanish expulsion and the 1497 Portuguese forced-conversions. The walled Judería became the principal Spanish-Sephardi (megorashim) center of northern Morocco, with the Bengio, Bengualid, and Coriat rabbinic families anchoring its scholarly tradition. R. Yitzchak Bengualid (Vayomer Yitzchak) was its most-cited 19th-century posek. The community spoke Haketía — a distinctively Northern-Moroccan Ladino — that preserved many old Iberian forms lost in Salonika-Constantinople Eastern Ladino.

About Tetouan

Tetouan was refounded by Sephardic refugees from the 1492 expulsion and remained the principal Spanish-Sephardi (megorashim) center of northern Morocco. R. Yitzchak Bengualid and the Bengio family were active here.

See other sages who lived in Tetouan→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Re-Sephardicized Bukhara’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Re-Sephardicized Bukhara’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Jewish world

Works

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