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.

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.

The main fields of the Institute's activities

1. publications of books and articles, lectures, seminars, dialogs;
2. production of guide-booklets, post-cards, flyers about main Karaite centers and objects of sightseeing like Stary Krym-Solkhat - the first center of ancient Crimea where Karaites concentrated, Juft-Kale (or Chufut-Kale), former Kyrk Yer - a mountain fortress of the Crimean Karaites with kenassas and Karaite holy cemetery Balta-Tiymez, Eupatoria-Gozlev with its kenassa, museum and old monuments, Theodosia-Kafa with a Karaite settlement - Slobodka;
3. protection of Karaite history against false and incorrect interpretations with the assistance of independent experts and international lawyers;
4. investigation and revitalization of the language. Karaites used in their common life their own language belonging to the Turkic family and with numerous ancient Kypchak words and expressions. As a holy language they used Hebrew, numerous Karaite religious books being known since the VIII century, while Arabic was used primarily as a language of science. Main Karaite archives were concentrated in the Karai Bitikligi (Karaite Library) in Eupatoria and in 1930-es they were moved to two central Russian libraries in Moscow and in Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg). Now Crimean Karaites speak mostly Russian.

Main departments of the Office

• Library with monthly book exhibition;
• Karaite Garden - Bakhchi-Karai with a Karaite Pantheon;
• Computer room where this website http://karaim-institute.narod.ru is administred from;
• Ethnic room (Karaimskaja Komnata) - for gathering, praying and meditation;
• Sukkot green corner: the construction of the pergola has been recently finished, the vine of the Concord sort twines around it;
• Publishing Center;
  It takes IICK only three stages to issue its works: Internet, preprint, publication.
• Karaite Archive (documents, manuscripts, newspapers)

You are welcome to send your remarks and comments to the Institute Office Head Prof. Valentine Kefeli (USA) leaving your postings here.