page_title: Crimean Karaites
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Crimean Karaites / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Comparison of Trakai Kenesa in 1932 and 2002
context_page_description: The Crimean Karaites or Krymkaraylar, also known as Karaims and Qarays, are an ethnicity derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Karaite Judaism in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in the territory of the former Russian Empire. "Karaim" is a Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish and Lithuanian name for the community.
context_section_description: Until the 20th century, Karaite Judaism was the only religion of the Karaim, During the Russian Civil War a significant number of Karaim emigrated to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary and then France and Germany. Most of them converted to Christianity. The Karaim's modern national movement philanthropist M.S. Sarach was one of them.
  The Crimean Karaites' emancipation in the Russian Empire caused cultural assimilation followed by secularization. This process continued in the USSR when most of the kenesas were closed.
  In 1928 secular Karaim philologist Seraya Shapshal was elected as Hacham of Polish and Lithuanian Karaim. Being a strong adopter of Russian orientalist V. Grigorjev's theory about the Khazarian origin of the Crimean Karaites, Shapshal developed the Karaim's religion and "historical dejudaization" doctrine.
  In the mid 1930s, he began to create a theory describing the Altai-Turkic origin of the Karaim and the pagan roots of Karaite religious teaching (worship of sacred oaks, polytheism, led by the god Tengri, the Sacrifice). Shapshal's doctrine is still a topic of critical research and public debate.
  He made a number of other changes aimed at the Karaim's Turkification and at erasing the Karaite Jewish elements of their culture and language. He issued an order canceling the teaching of Hebrew in Karaite schools and replaced the names of the Jewish holidays and months with Turkic equivalents (see the table below).
  According to Shapshal, Crimean Karaites were pagans who adopted the law of Moses, but continued to adhere to their ancient Turkic beliefs. In addition, he claimed that the Karaites had revered Jesus and Mohammed as prophets for centuries. In the Post-Soviet period, Shapshal's theory was further developed in modern Karaylar publications (e.g. "Crimean Karaite legends") and was officially adopted by the Crimean Karaim Association "Krymkaraylar" (Ассоциация крымских караимов “Крымкарайлар”) as the only correct view of the Karaim's past in 2000.
caption: In 1932 Star of David was removed from the Trakai Kenesa cupola by Shapshal's' order.[49] Some years later it was also removed from the iron gate.[50]
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