General information about institute
Founded in USA in 2003 by Crimean Karaites and also by scholars dealing with Karaite issues from USA, France, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, Israel, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Italy.
The Institute's main goal is to tell truth about the ethnicity, history and faith of Crimean Karaites, a small nation which has been living in Crimea during many centuries.
Learn more about IICK...
Crimean Karaites
Crimean Karaites are an old ethnos, which has ancient old Kypchak imprints in language, food and customs. Many scholars consider Karaites as descendants of Khazars or Polovets tribes which accepted Karaism (or Karaimism) - religion of Torah without any comments and additions. Originated from Crimea the folk spreads to Ukraine (Luzk-Halych community) since XIII century and to Lithuania (Trakai community) since XIV century. The founders of the Institute are natives of old Karaite families with stable traditions. Many of them possess archives with unique ancient documents, crafts and archives.
Visit virtual ethnic room, kenassa for praying, explore Karaite art and history...
Last news
7th of September 2008 There were a lot of very interesting events in the Karaite cultural and spiritual life during last months.
First of all it is worth mentioning that the seminar "Karaites and khazars" was held on March 4-5 in Miami (USA). It was organized by a well-known archivist A.G.
Krichevsky who collected many rare books on Orient.
The same month another seminar organized by Efim Makarovski "Holy Steppe and Jews" took place in San Francisco. The participants discussed ideas of Karaite
proselytism among Desht-i-Qypchaq peoples with vivid interest.
And the last event, 1st World Congress of the European Karaites "Karaites and Karaism - yesterday, today and tomorrow" (Prague, Czech Republic, July 22-24, 2008)
drew a wide response among East European Karaites. You can see the Congress' main documents, positive one and some critical responses placed at IICK free discussion forum.
See full list of announcements...
Discussion
You are welcome to send your remarks and comments to the Institute Office Head Prof. Valentine Kefeli (USA) leaving your postings here.
Getting involved
Institute welcomes anyone willing to help. If you have interesting materials or ideas, feel free to contact us.
[Last updated: 7th of September, 2008]
