Local identity and intergroup relations: Jews and Muslims in Ferghana Valley in late Soviet Era

This paper examines Jewish-Muslim relations in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley from the end of World War II to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, when most of the local Jewish population emigrated. A historical-anthropological examination of Jews and their Muslim neighbours sheds light on connections between ‘locality’ and intergroup relations. This study contributes to a broader understanding of Jewish-Muslim relations, as well as relations between different Muslim ethnic/national groups (locals and newcomers) under the modern Soviet state. The findings illuminate key social and political processes, including the soft resistance of traditional groups to Soviet secularism and the impact of population movements in the Asian sphere. These dynamics shaped ethnic relations and fostered a sense of ‘locality’ grounded in shared experiences. The study reveals how life under the modernising Soviet state brought the two communities closer together, stressing the place of the construction of a shared ‘local identity’ in this process.