Queens Chronicle: Teens trace their roots at Bukharian Museum
Teens Trace Their Roots At Bukharian Museum
By Lisa Biagiotti
Chronicle Contributor
(Lisa Biagiotti) Visitors Michael Yakubov and Gabriel Khaimov don traditional Bukharian garb.
Aron Aronov ends internships at his Bukharian Jewish Museum in Elmhurst in a most unorthodox way — inverting himself and walking on his hands.
He begins this ritual by sandwiching himself between a 400-year-old deerskin Torah and racks of silk robes — relics of a rich Bukhori culture lost in time and place in Central Asia, but still alive in Queens.
“I walk on my hands to be in shape, to be with my museum,” explained Aronov, 69, the museum’s creator and executive director, who guides tours, curates the four-room exhibit and even vacuums the carpets.
This is not a traditional museum with daily hours of operation. Admission is free, but the museum is open by appointment only, because Aronov works full-time as a community liaison and translator at New York Association for New Americans.
In 2003, he and Yuriy Sadykov, the museum’s president, moved a collection of over 2,000 items — including gold embroidered tapestries, musical instruments, framed portraits of rabbis, matriarchs and merchants, Bukhori language books, Soviet money and cooking instruments — out of the basement of Aronov’s Rego Park home.
Lev Leviev, a prominent Bukharian billionaire diamond cutter, offered space rent-free on the sixth-story of his private Jewish school, the Queens Gymnasia.
“We have successfully immigrated into American society,” Aronov said. “(Now) we are trying to preserve our Bukharian identity.”
Today, there appears to be increasing interest by youths in their heritage. Every Monday night, seven teenagers from Forest Hills High School file in through the museum’s white metal gate on Gymnasia’s top floor. They are midway through an eight-week internship program at the museum, where they are learning about their ancestral identity and preparing to guide tours.
“There are many people (who) say they don’t care (because) we’re in America now,” said Dina Yusupova, 16, adding that her Bukharian culture thrives in New York, as opposed to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where her family migrated from two years ago.
Of the 300,000 Bukharian Jews worldwide, roughly 40,000 to 50,000 live in Queens — far more than in Central Asia, according to Aronov. For more than two millennia, the Bukharian Jews practiced the traditions of the Torah, but lived mainly among Muslims in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, speaking Bukhori, a Farsi dialect.
Feeling geographically and culturally isolated in Central Asia, the community eventually began migrating away from the region, primarily to Israel and America.
“A lot of (teenagers) don’t know why they are called Bukharian, or where they came from,” said Zhanna Beyl, of Jewish Child Care Association, a non-profit group that sponsors the internship program.
Beyl says she’s constantly receiving questions — like, “My parents are from Uzbekistan, I was born in Israel, what am I?” — from teenagers searching for a better understanding of their cultural identity.
And the many of the students are constantly searching. Some take weekly language classes with Imanuel Rybakov, 24, a Bukhori language instructor who guides tours in Aronov’s absence. As president of the 100-member Association of Bukharian Jewish Youth, Rybakov runs the youth group’s newspaper, Achdut, and also manages its Web site (www.bjews.com), where he posts online Bukhori language lessons.
In the densely packed museum, Aronov sits with his interns pouring over the treasures he has collected and quizzing them on topics ranging from the route between Jerusalem and Central Asia to the reason that Bukharians make round matzah.
“There (are) not too many of us,” said Liron Babishov, 16, a Bukharian, who was born in Israel. He plans to preserve his culture by going to a Bukharian synagogue, eating Bukharian food and trying to learn the language.
The interns draped scarves around their heads and handled antiquated objects, like an outdoor water vessel, that they said jogged memories of their grandparents’ kitchens and yards in the old world.
The session ended with one of Aranov’s unique lessons in tour guiding: How to end your tours — preferably upside down. He then performed his characteristic handstand, and the interns followed his lead.
The Bukharian Jewish Museum is on the sixth floor of Gymnasia, located at 60-05 Woodhaven Blvd., For more information, call Aron Aronov at (718) 897-4124.
Queens Chronicle: Tai Chi is winning over converts to exercise
Tai Chi Is Winning Over Converts To Exercise
By Lisa Biagiotti, Chronicle Contributor
11/01/2007
(Lisa Biagiotti) Dino Blanche leads a Tai Chi class, at Linden Park in Corona, for PTA members of PS 16, which is also located in Corona.
At the Cardiac Health Center in Fresh Meadows, Harold Normich’s eyes trace every movement of his body as his reading glasses dangle from side to side. He has been practicing Tai Chi for three years – nine times a week, an hour at a time.
“The doctors have taken me off most of my medications,” said Normich, a 75-year-old veteran who suffers from chest pain and has had two knee replacements. “I weighed 237 pounds when I started. I haven’t felt this good since my late 40s, early 50s.” He now weighs 177 pounds.
Tai Chi appears to be growing in popularity for young and old, thin and overweight, and sufferers of disease or abuse. Various ethnic and age groups find the practice appealing.
“The gamut of interest runs from children to college students,” said Dino Blanche, a 47-year-old, African-American Tai Chi instructor in Elmhurst. “As people’s health conditions are growing troublesome, with obesity and diabetes, it’s not just for the elderly.”
Research and studies have shown the health benefits of Tai Chi, ranging from reduced blood pressure and heart problems, improved functionality for chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis, to general stress management.
“Three or four years ago we took a close look at complimentary cardiac care,” said Dr. John Nicholson, medical director of the Cardiac Health Center. “But we wanted to make sure that everything we did in a parallel program was evidence based. Tai Chi and yoga were definitely evidence based and important for people in cardiac rehabilitation.”
This ancient Chinese martial art combines moving meditation, exercise and self-defense. In the various styles of Tai Chi, practitioners repeat sequences of circular movements while focusing on breathing.
To engage imagination and jog memory, some instructors describe movements with poetic, metaphorical animal movements, while others, like Blanche, use descriptions like “squeeze a lemon in a cup.”
Tai Chi was founded on the Taoist belief that good health results from balanced chi (life energy).
“Your body is the number one depository for anything. If your body is strong and your heart is soft, you are ready to face any problem,” said Grandmaster Wang Rengang, 42, who runs a martial arts studio, International Dachengdao Inc., in Elmhurst.
Wang, of northern China, said that Tai Chi isn’t only physical exercise, but should be practiced to cope with stress and mental well-being. He is scheduled to teach Tai Chi to emotionally disturbed children at a local treatment center.
According to Blanche, who has been teaching Tai Chi since 1995, interest is on the rise among battered and abused women in post-traumatic, stressful situations.
“Instead of taking a pill, you can take a moment to practice breathing and movement,” Blanche said. “The first line of self-defense is that you can calm yourself down.”
He currently teaches Tai Chi to the PS 16 PTA at Linden Park in Corona on Wednesday mornings and recently presented a workshop to public school teachers on how Tai Chi and stress management methods could help students perform better on tests.
“Children have a means to relax themselves, and Tai Chi can help deal with building confidence,” Blanche said. “I envision Tai Chi to be in every public school.”
He has been practicing martial arts since 1971 and teaches his two children, ages 7 and 13, the practice.
There are several opportunities to practice Tai Chi cheaply or no cost — at health centers, Buddhist temples, senior citizen centers, parks and libraries. At the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, approximately 150 local residents gather at 8 a.m. every day to do Tai Chi, according to Marketing Manager Scott Stefan.
On Saturday mornings, Wang instructs a free Tai Chi class for about 35 practitioners at the Elmhurst Library, where free classes have been offered for over 15 years, primarily due to the neighborhood’s 40 percent Asian population.
Jean Suchanek, who was born in Korea and lives in Middle Village, sat outside the Elmhurst Library reading about the free Tai Chi program.
“I bought the CD roms, but they didn’t help me, so I gave up,” said Suchanek, 59. “When you get older, it is easy to accumulate (weight). Instead of watching CNBC on Saturday mornings, my husband and I can come here and do Tai Chi.”
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