The Virtual Jewish History Tour

Located on the southern edge of the Caucusus, and bordered by Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan has a population of 7.5 million. The majority of its inhabitants are Turkish speaking Shiite Muslims, as well as Armenians and Christian Lezgins. Approximately 25,000 Jews live in the country.

Early History

Jews have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries and can be divided into two groups: Ashkenazi and Jews of Persian origin. Ashkenazim settled in Azerbaijan in the 19th century during a Czarist Russian attempt to infuse Russian culture into the region. Other Ashkenazim came to Azerbaijan during World War II to escape the Nazis. The Persian Jews, also known as Caucasian Mountain Jews, can be traced to Azerbaijan from before the 5th century. Their history is more than 2,000 years long and Azerbaijan has historically been very welcoming toward them.

Mountain Jews have lived in Caucasia for centuries and are said to be descendents of the Lost Tribes that left Israel after the destruction of the First Temple, in 587 BC. Their ancestors inhabited southern Azerbaijan, now the northwestern part of Iran, where they adopted the Muslim Tat language, but remained Jewish. The language has evolved to become a distinct Jewish dialect called Judeo-Tat or Judeo-Persian. After fleeing persecution in Persia, many Jews migrated to mountain villages on either side of the Black and Caspian Seas. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Mountain Jews lived as farmers and gardeners in their small, isolated communities. This historic way of life flourished in the towns of Privolnoe, Krasnaya Sloboda, and Vartashen.

Privolnoe

Privolnoe, a remote village in the northern part of the Talysh Mountains, is home to two small communities of Mountain Jews. The Gerim, or Gerei Tzedek, righteous converts, were ethnic Russians who converted to Judaism approximately 200 years ago. They came from the region around the Volga and Don Rivers, Central Russia, and the Northern Caucasus. Little is known about their conversion to Judaism.

The Sobbotniks, whose name derives from the Russian word for Sabbath, identify themselves as Karaites. These two groups settled the region in the early 19th century, after being expelled from their homelands. They were granted land by the authorities of the region, who exempted them from taxation and conscription. Thus the area became known as Privolnoe, or free, and grew into the largest settlement of Gerim in Transcaucusus.

There are four districts in the town: two Gerim, and two Sobbotnik. The Gerim, who at one point made up 35 to 40 percent of Privolnoe, are Orthodox Ashkenazim, well educated, teach their children Hebrew and send the young men to yeshivot in Russia and Israel. There were once two Ger synagogues, but they were closed down during the Stalinist purges of 1936. Despite having no synagogue and no rabbi, the Gerim, especially the women, remain highly religious. The older generation follows strict kashrut.

The Ger community began to disintegrate in the 1960s, when young adults started leaving the community to study in Russian universities. The majority of these students did not return to Privolnoe, and the continuation of this trend has left the Ger population at 20 families. The average age today is 55 and the last Ger literate in Hebrew left the village three years ago.

The Sobbotnik community has faired better than their Ger neighbors. They have traditionally followed the word of the bible but not oral halakhic customs. Services are held with mixed seating, prayers are in Russian, and the community strictly follows their own version of Shabbat and kashrut. In the 1920s, a large number of Sobbotnik farmers made aliyah to Israel, but the Sobbotniks have not experienced the same degree of decline as the Gerim have. They have made plans to move as a group to the Northern Caucasus to establish two new Sobbotnik villages, due to economic problems in the region.

Kuba

Kuba was established in 1742 by Fatali Khan as a refuge for Jews throughout his khanate. The small Gudialchai River divides the city in two: the Azaris, Shiite Muslims, live on the northern bank, and the Jews on the southern bank. The Jewish half is known as Yevreskaya Sloboda, or Jewish Settlement. When the Soviets took over, they renamed it Krasnaya Sloboda, or Red Settlement. The Jews of Sloboda come from the highland and valley villages of Kulgat, Kusari, Chipkent, Karchag, Shuduh, and Kryz. In the 1780s, Jews from the Persian province of Gilan also immigrated to Sloboda. Each new group established its own quarter, or mahalla, with its own synagogue named after its hometown.

In the late 19th century, 972 families of Mountain Jews lived in Sloboda, running eleven synagogues and twenty Jewish schools. Free from the virulent anti-Semitism and pogroms of Eastern Europe, and living peacefully with their Muslim neighbors, the Jewish community flourished. Sloboda became known as Little Jerusalem, as it was the only completely Jewish community outside of Israel. However, when the Soviet Union enveloped Azerbaijan in 1920, the Tat way of life was all but annihilated. In 1928, the Soviets forced the Mountain Jews to change the Tat language from its traditional Hebrew letters to the Latin alphabet. Then, in 1938, the Tats were made to adopt the Cyrillic alphabet and the Soviets closed down their cultural institutions and converted all but one of the eleven synagogues into storehouses and workshops. In 1937, the Communists banned the use of Hebrew, executed five rabbis, and exiled others to Siberia.

Despite the atrocities the Soviets brought to Sloboda, Communism guaranteed a job for everyone and enough money to survive, which is not the case in Sloboda today. Economic security was traded in for religious freedom. Also, in 1933, under the Communists, Sloboda's Jewish population peaked at 18,500. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Sloboda gradually fell into recession. Jobs were scarce and large numbers of Jews went abroad in search of better economic opportunities, immigrating to Israel, America, and Europe. The poverty-stricken community is dependent on financial support from relatives abroad and Jewish welfare organizations such as the American Joint Distribution Committee.

Kruei Synagogue of 1906, in Kuba

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijani President Haidar Aliev has returned three synagogues and a Jewish college nationalized by the Soviets, to the Jewish community. He has encouraged the restoration of these buildings and is well-liked by the Jews of Azerbaijan. Renovation has begun on seven of the original eleven synagogues, including the Gilah synagogue, built in 1896, and the large Kruei Synagogue.

Today, Kuba has a Jewish population of approximately 3,000, though the numbers continue to dwindle. In addition, a community of 3,500 Mountain Jews has maintained its historic way of life in the rural regions around Kuba. The survival of these communities is uncertain, as poverty leads many to move in search of economic security.

Baku

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, has a Jewish population of approximately 15,000. The Jewish community has been able to grow in an environment of governmental tolerance. The new Azerbaijan constitution grants religious freedom and asserts that there is no state religion.

The city boasts three synagogues and ten to fifteen Jewish organizations, including the Baku Religious Community of European Jews, an Israeli center with educational programs, a Jewish Women's Organization, a War Veterans' Society, a Jewish newspaper, the Azerbaijan-Israel Friendship Organization, and the Havva Welfare Center for Women and Children. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee operates a Jewish kindergarten, a community center, a Hesed charity center, and a Hillel student center. The Jewish Agency for Israel conducts programs in the city, including a Hebrew-language ulpan, a winter camp for children, and a parents' club, as well as a program to prepare candidates for aliyah. A Hasidic rabbi from Israel is planning a Jewish day school to go along with the city's Hebrew language school.

Anti-Semitism

Traditionally, anti-Semitism has not been an issue in Azerbaijan. However, under Communism, the Soviets took over the majority of Jewish property in Baku and Kuba. With the fall of the Soviet Union, many of these buildings were returned. In the village of Auguz, where approximately 800 Jews live, a synagogue was recently returned to the Jewish community and renovated. It was built in 1906 and confiscated in 1930 by the Soviets and, until recently, was used as a warehouse. The Georgian synagogue in Baku was closed in 1991, after many Georgians fled to Israel due to civil war. The shul was reopened in 1996.

Many cemetery desecrations have also occurred in Azerbaijan. In October 2001, 47 tombstones in the City Cemetery, one of Baku's two Jewish cemeteries, were desecrated. After the discovery of the attack, which reportedly occurred the day after the installation of Israel's current ambassador to Azerbaijan, the Prosecutor General launched a thorough investigation and the Baku Mayor's Office began repairs on the cemetery.

The Jewish community has enjoyed warm relations with the Azerbaijani government. Jewish organizations assist the government in caring for the thousands of refugees (mostly from Nagorno-Karabakh) within the country.

Israel Relations

Azerbaijani-Israeli relations are good, and Israel has an embassy in Baku. In May 1999, the U.S.-Azerbaijan Council sponsored a seminar to discuss relations among Azeris, Jews, and Israel. In April 2000, an Israeli trade delegation visited Baku to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral economic relations.

Many Azerbaijanis express the hope that friendship with Israel may help to resolve the continuted Nagorno-Karabakh dispute and expedite Azerbaijan's integration with the West. The Azerbaijan-Israel Friendship Society facilitates and promotes bilateral diplomatic and business links. In October 2001, President Aliyev pledged to open an embassy in Israel and to send his Foreign Minister to visit the country. Although neither has occurred, Azerbaijani-Israeli strategic cooperation continues to grow.

For many years, Azerbaijan has maintained high rates of immigration to Israel due to the economic and political situation in the country. In 2002, 475 Jews made aliyah and 111 immigrated to the United States.

Tourist Sites

Chabad Lubavitch
186 D. Alieva Street
Baku 370014
Tel: (99412) 94 02 88
http://www.fjc.ru/baku/

Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Baku
D. Alieva str. 186
Baku, Azerbaijan 370014
Tel.: (994 12) 94 02 88, 99 20 54
www.jewish.az

Jewish Cemetery
D. Alieva str. 171
Baku, Azerbaijan
Tel.: (994 12) 94 02 88, 99 20 54

photo sources:CIA Factbook
Kruei Synagogue documented by the Center for Jewish Art in 1997. paranjms@aol.com
(Courtesy of the Center for Jewish Art, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
www.hum.huji.ac.il/cja)