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:''See disambiguation page [[Challa (disambiguation)|Challa]] for more meanings of the word.''
'''Chala''' ({{lang-uz|чала}} {{IPA-fa|tʃala|}}) is an [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] term meaning "neither this nor that,"<ref>Mirovalev, Mansur "Uzbekistan's long-persecuted Bukhara Jews" Al Jazeera May 5, 2015 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/uzbekistan-long-persecuted-bukhara-jews-150428083657675.html</ref> referring to [[Bukharan Jews]] who were converted to [[Islam]] beginning in the late eighteenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union|last=Akiner|first=Shirin|publisher=Routledge|year=1986|isbn=0-7103-0188-X|location=London|pages=370}}</ref> In response, these Chala Jews outwardly practiced Islam, but secretly retained their Jewish traditions. These [[crypto-Jews]] married among themselves and lived in their own neighborhoods that bordered on existing Jewish neighborhoods. The Chala Jews carry a very similar story to the [[Dönmeh]] and to the [[Marranos]] of Spain.
Chala Jews were unable to return to their true Jewish faith due to the fatal consequences associated with [[Apostasy in Islam|leaving the Islamic faith]]. The Islamic rulership during this period imposed a death penalty against those renouncing their Islamic faith. Therefore, it was not until the emergence of Imperial Russia, and Soviet rule that Chala Jews were able to revert to their original faith.
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