Astana’s Jewish community is older than the capital

The city’s Jewish history predates the capital by almost a century and a half

At different times, the city has been called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, Astana, Nur-Sultan and Astana again. Pre-revolutionary documents concern Akmolinsk, while Soviet sources also call the city Tselinograd.

The capital’s archive confirms that organised Jewish religious life existed here in the nineteenth century. In 1866, Jewish servicemen used their own funds to purchase a private one-and-a-half-storey house in the area of what is now Abay Avenue and adapt it as a synagogue. In April 1895, a petition to establish a religious community was sent to the military governor on behalf of 200 Jews of Akmolinsk; archival information about it survives.

The 1897 census provides another reference point. Akmolinsk recorded 182 people of the Jewish faith, around 1.9% of the city’s population. An encyclopedic reference work from the early twentieth century also records one Jewish prayer house in the city.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the city had a Jewish population and a prayer house, long before the transfer of the capital and the opening of Beit Rachel in 2004.

Akmolinsk’s Jewish cemetery was removed in the Soviet period

The Akmolinsk community had its own cemetery. A contemporary local history account connects its official establishment to the 1895 petition and the community’s first rabbi, Shliom Reitbort. The cemetery lay outside the city limits of the time, on an island area by the Ishim River.

During the Soviet period, it fell into neglect and was removed. Local history accounts report that a gas equipment factory was built on the site in the early 1960s.

Several sources confirm the cemetery’s existence. The history of its closure and the allocation of its land is reconstructed primarily through local history research; the sources used contain no primary act of the city executive committee.

The cemetery has been lost. A primary archival document is needed to confirm the circumstances of its closure and the subsequent use of the site.

Jewish families lived in Soviet Akmolinsk and Tselinograd

Changes in religious policy and the destruction of old institutions do not mean that Jews disappeared from the city.

The Russian Jewish Encyclopedia gives Jewish population figures for Akmolinsk and Tselinograd by year: 155 in 1926, 563 in 1959, 798 in 1970, 637 in 1979 and 664 in 1989.

The census figures confirm a Jewish population, but not the uninterrupted operation of a synagogue or official community through the Soviet decades.

Local history and reference materials associate some postwar growth with Soviet migration and the Virgin Lands campaign. Families could, however, move for various reasons connected with work, education, military service, evacuation or specialist job assignments.

Alef appeared before the city became the capital

The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan dates the establishment of the Alef Jewish ethnocultural association to May 1993. According to participants’ recollections, the initiating group consisted mainly of the city’s intellectuals, teachers and older residents. The centre focused on culture, traditions and events open to residents regardless of their background.

In 1993, the city was not yet Kazakhstan’s capital. Alef began as a local cultural initiative before the government institutions moved.

The current page of the capital’s Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan lists the public association “Alef Jewish Cultural, Educational and Sociopolitical Society” among the city’s ethnocultural organisations.

A community centre and Hesed operated in Astana

The Mitsva Association’s archive describes another post-Soviet institutional network. The American JDC or “the Joint” cooperated with Astana’s Jewish organisations from 1998; the same archive dates the start of Hesed Astana to 1998.

The community centre had family and women’s clubs, a history programme, the Shatil children’s club, a library, Hebrew and Torah classes, and musical and holiday programmes. The Jewish community centre and Hesed library is separately dated to August 1997.

The archived catalogue describes community structures from the late 1990s through the 2000s. It does not confirm present leadership, addresses or the range of programmes.

Cultural, social, educational and charitable programmes operated in the city before the current synagogue was built.

The present religious organisation also predates Beit Rachel

Open state data gives 19 November 1999 as the registration date of the Local Religious Association “Jewish Community of the City of Astana”. A registry aggregator reporting a comparison with eGov in September 2026 lists the organisation and its legal address at 8 Alexander Pushkin Street; Shmuel Karnauch is listed as its head.

The registration of the religious association in 1999 and the opening of the Beit Rachel complex in 2004 are separate events.

The Russian Jewish Encyclopedia reports that a synagogue opened in the city in 1999. However, the primary documents used do not establish which prayer venue this refers to or its relationship to the current community. The link between that report and the 2004 complex therefore remains unestablished.

Astana’s synagogue opened on 7 September 2004

The current Chabad synagogue complex, Beit Rachel, officially opened on 7 September 2004. Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger and representatives of Jewish organisations from different countries attended the ceremony.

The complex occupies around 5.6 thousand square metres, and the building is around 25 metres high. It includes prayer rooms, a mikvah, a library and learning spaces, a kosher kitchen and dining room, guest rooms and other community facilities.

Today, Chabad Kazakhstan confirms an active complex in Astana at 8 Pushkin Street, with a synagogue, mikvah, dining room, library, guest rooms and children’s facilities. Shmuel Karnauch is listed as the city’s rabbi.

Whom does the name Beit Rachel commemorate?

Current tourism materials from Astana and the national tourism portal include a version stating that the synagogue is dedicated to Rachel Schneerson, the wife of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.

However, earlier sources published immediately after the opening, and an album of Kazakhstan’s historical and cultural sites, explain the name differently. Beit Rachel is named in memory of the mother of Alexander Mashkevich, who funded its construction. In 2004, JTA also explicitly reported that the synagogue was named after his late mother.

Early reports about the opening connect the name to Alexander Mashkevich’s mother. The later tourism version differs from that evidence and is not used as an established account of the name’s origin.

Sources call Beit Rachel Central Asia’s largest synagogue

Many sources, including Kazakhstan’s tourism and cultural materials, call Beit Rachel the largest synagogue in Central Asia.

They do not always specify whether the comparison concerns the building’s area, the prayer hall’s capacity or the size of the entire complex. Measured dimensions are more precise than such a general description.

Kazakhstan’s official and specialist materials describe Beit Rachel as the region’s largest synagogue; the published dimensions of the complex are around 5.6 thousand m² and a height of 25 metres.

Astana’s synagogue became a venue for international meetings

After opening, the complex became known well beyond local religious life.

Astana hosts the Congresses of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, in which representatives of Judaism have participated since the forum’s early years. The capital’s large synagogue naturally became one of the venues for international contacts between Jewish religious leaders and visitors to the country.

This was particularly evident on 28 April 2026. During his official visit to Kazakhstan, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog visited Beit Rachel and met Kazakhstan’s chief rabbi Yeshaya Cohen, Astana’s rabbi Shmuel Karnauch, Chabad rabbis and representatives of Jewish communities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They discussed community life, the preservation of Jewish identity and links with Israel.

The Israeli president’s visit does not, however, make the synagogue an Israeli state institution. It remains a Kazakhstani religious and community organisation.

Astana’s Jewish history began long before the capital moved

After the capital moved in 1997, Astana gained new political, diplomatic and demographic significance. Israel’s embassy is located here; a substantial part of government and international interaction moved here, and the city hosts major interfaith forums.

This did create a new setting for Jewish institutional life.

Sources show that local history preceded the transfer of the capital. A prayer house opened in 1866. In 1895, a petition to establish a religious society was submitted on the community’s behalf, and cemetery infrastructure was formalised. The 1897 census recorded 182 people of the Jewish faith. A Jewish population remained in the city in Soviet times. Alef appeared in 1993; in 1997 and 1998, a library and community centre opened and Hesed began operating; the current religious association was registered in 1999, and Beit Rachel opened in 2004.

It is more accurate to say that the city’s longstanding Jewish history gained markedly more prominent infrastructure in the new capital than that a Jewish community appeared only with the new capital.

Institutions in the sources used

As of 22 September 2026, at least several present-day institutions can be clearly distinguished.

Local Religious Association “Jewish Community of the City of Astana”. An active legal entity at 8 Pushkin Street, headed by Shmuel Karnauch.

The Chabad-Lubavitch Beit Rachel synagogue. An active synagogue and religious and community complex at the same address. Chabad lists a synagogue, mikvah, dining room, library, guest facilities and children’s spaces.

Alef. A separate ethnocultural public association, included in the current list of the capital’s Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.

Alongside these is the historical network of the JCC, Hesed Astana and JDC. The current publicly available sources clearly confirm its importance in the post-Soviet revival, but do not allow all the old programmes and leaders to be listed as active today without further updating.

The synagogue, religious legal entity, ethnocultural association and social centre have different roles, even though they may work with the same people.

In brief

• In 1866. Jewish servicemen bought a house and adapted it as a synagogue.
• In April 1895. A petition to establish a religious community was submitted on behalf of 200 Jews of Akmolinsk. The official establishment of the cemetery is associated with this period.
• In the 1897 census. Akmolinsk had 182 people of the Jewish faith, around 1.9% of the city’s population.
• In the Soviet period. The old cemetery was lost. A Jewish population remained, but sources do not confirm the continuity of pre-revolutionary religious infrastructure.
• In May 1993. The Alef Jewish ethnocultural centre was established before the transfer of the capital.
• In 1997 and 1998. According to the Mitsva archive, the library, JCC and Hesed Astana appeared. JDC began ongoing cooperation.
• On 19 November 1999. The present Local Religious Association “Jewish Community of the City of Astana” was registered.
• On 7 September 2004. The Chabad-Lubavitch Beit Rachel synagogue opened.
• In 2026. Sources confirm the religious legal entity, Chabad and Alef as separate active structures.
• On 28 April 2026. Isaac Herzog met leaders of Jewish communities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia at Beit Rachel.