Annual report
of the International Institute
of Crimean Karaites (2003)

The Institute is registered in Corporation Bureau, Harrisburg, Pensbox 8722 , USA
The Institute was founded in June 30, 2003
The lawyer of the Institute – Josef Bridon
The founder of the Institute – Professor Valentine Kefeli

The Institute's main goal is to promote preserving cultural values of Crimean Karaites and to accumulate information about the ethnicity, history and faith of Crimean Karaites, an ancient nation of Crimea.

Crimean Karaites are a compact ethnos, that has been living in Crimea for many centuries and has a language that belongs to a Central-Qypchaq group of Turkic languages. An ancient old Qypchaq imprints in language, food and customs give reasons to confirm that Karaites are descendants of nomadic tribes of Great Steppe of Khazar khaganat times (X-XI centuries). Their ethnical name “Karaites” is of religious origin since Karaites profess Law 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. Both communities had been succeeding in saving their language, traditions and religion. Karaites communities for ages were headed by hahams and hazzans – peculiar religious-civil leadership; every Karaite was related to it from its birth to death.

In the Middle Ages the main part of Crimean Karaites lived in highlands’ cities of central Crimea – Kyrk-Yer (or Juft-Kale) and Manghup-Kale. Here, in Crimea the spirit of Karaites-warriors was cultivating; also the traditions, purity of Karaite community and ancestors’ religion were being preserved.

Nowadays, Karaites, who number less than 1000 people are considered to be a nearly extinct ethnos. That is why Karaites’ inheritance with all its peculiarities should be supported and protected against any misinterpretations and distortions. We, Karaites, are still alive and want our inheritance to be ours. Our kenassas, our cemeteries, our museums and our scrolls of Torah belong only and exclusively to Karaite communities. Here Karaite hahams, hazzans and enlighteners preserved the nation for many centuries.

International institute of Crimean Karaites is called upon to help Crimean Karaites and to the communities of their not only to preserve heritage of the past ages (including family archives) but also to develop intellectual values by studying places of inhabitance and customs. If required Karaite communities will make use of experts for investigating and valuing centuries-old heritage.

The main fields of the Institute's activities are:

1) A publication of books and articles, lectures, seminars, discussions. Establishing contacts with Karaites of foreign communities and propagation of activities of several communities of Crimean Karaites, protection of holy Karaite people against false and incorrect interpretations of their works;

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 kenassas, museum and old monuments, Theodosia-Kafa with a Karaite settlement – Slobodka.

The main religious literary monuments of Karaites are written in holy language of Bible – old Hebrew, scientific works are written in Arabic. From XIV century Karaite Bible aiming to a better comprehension was translated into spoken Karaite language. Numerous works on Karaites are issued in Russian, Lithuanian, Polish and lately in English languages.

Publications in 2004 year – 2 books, 1 album
The website of the Institute was developped in May, 2003 – http://turkolog.narod.ru/karaim/
Discussions on urgent problems of Karaimism are kept on the website
The Institute’s office head – Professor Valentine I. Kefeli

Annual report
of the International Institute
of Crimean Karaites (2004)

The passed year was more or less successful for the Institute, mostly thanks to the members and friends of the Institute who participated in the preparation of the publications . Personally, we express thanks to our publishers Vadim, Victor and Maxim Mireyev. During one year we published 3 albums, "The Archive of the Dmitri Penbek Family", prepared by D. Penbek (France) and V. Penbek (USA), "The Karaite Hadj", by A. Kefeli and T. Teriaki (Israel), and "The World of Zhenja Minash", by V. Kefeli (USA). Thanks to the activity of A. Kefeli (Israel) and Yakup Tanatar (Turkey) the album "Karaites of Turkey" is ready for publication. In the same stage of preparation is the album "Moscow Karaites" with photo-documents by Boris Taimaz (Russia). Now the Institute is working hard on the book "Solomon Krym - his life and legacy", in which the team of researchers from Ukraine, Russia and USA participate.

In two years the Institute presented the information of the different Karaite Communities: Crimea, Turkey, Israel, Moscow, and partially Lithuanian and Halich. We accept strong criticism about some publications, especially in the case of the interpretation of the history and religion of the Karaites. Mainly it concerns to the book by V. Kefeli, E. Lebedeva - "Karaites the ancient folk of the Crimea", (2003). However, we do not receive many remarks to the presented material, only mostly to its interpretation. We accept some remarks and corrections, but we, as well as the Institute, have our own view on the origin , history, and religion of Karaites. This position is demonstrated on the pages of discussion which is organized in Simferopol (Ukraine) by V. and M. Mireyevs. 2004 was a year when the Institute presented the concept of the Eurasian origin of Karaites and the Holy Step as the center of the concentration of Karaites as nomades (XI- XII centuries). The second concept was about the hermetic construction of the Karaite Community in the form of the Karaite Hahamate, which permitted for Karaites to survive many centuries under strongly stressed conditions in the Step and Mountains. Some researchers such as Kevin Brook (2003, USA) criticize the idea of Karaite Hahamate as a strong ethnic unit. 2004 was also a year of the development the concept of Karaite tribes and the interaction of Crimean Karaites with the Karaites of other communities. Actually, we accept the idea that all Karaites of the world are joined by our religion, which is unique, tolerant to other religions, but very stable. Real Karaites do not neglect Hebrew as their primary religious language, they demonstrate this language in their cemeteries, like Balta Tyimez and Evpatoria, on the monuments when the Russian Czars visited the Karaite Community, after military events of the Crimean (Eastern) War.

Olga Prik (Israel), Tamara Babajan (Russia), Emilia Lebedeva(Ukraine), Vadim Penbek (USA) sent us fragments of their archives for the investigation of the ancient Karaite customs and for the selection of the outstanding people to the Karaite Pantheon. The Institute is so strongly supported by our relatives and friends: Sergei Tongur, Galina and Alex Firkovich, Elena Pembek, Viktor Taimaz, Leonid and Kira Minash, Leonida and Marius Novizkas, Boris Taimaz, Alexandra Bakal, Izbasar Rachimbajev, Tatjana Litinskaja, Zakir Ramazanov, Narchin Palavan, Atilla Ozalpan, Emilija, Vjacheslav Lebedev, Vjacheslav Zarubin, Mikhail Kyzilov, Kevin Brook, Natalija Yakushkina, Svetlana Karamnova, Yakup Tanatar, and Benjamen and Elisabeth Levi.

Thanks to the exchange of our publications with scientific research centers in Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan and Turkey we received many new books and information about Karaite communities, the Karaite language (paleo-linguistic) and Karaite customs.

The Internet helped us to present the outstanding people of the Karaite pantheon like A. Firkovich, S. Shapshal, S. Pampulov, B.Eljashevich, S. Krym and others. Collections of the Karaite kenasa pictures as well as a separate web part of the Karaite religion supervised by Hazzan A. Kefeli may be found on the Internet.

The most prominent events of the year is the publication by 2 Academies of Sciences (Russian and Ukrainian) of book "Turkic folks of Crimea", prepared by PhD L. Missonova, L. Chizhova, and others, 135 pages in this book are dedicated to the Crimean Karaites. Since 1974, when the Karaite-Russian-Polish dictionary was published by 3 Academies (USSR, Lithuania, and Poland), this publication is the most fundamental volume with the consideration of the details of customs and religion of these Turkic folks.

Prof. Valentine I. Kefeli