Jews in Azerbaijan

Focusing on Azerbaijan JEWS IN AZERBAIJAN Rauf HUSEYNOV Doctor of History, Professor AZERBAIJAN HAS ATTRACTED VARIOUS ews appeared in the South Cau- TRIBES AND PEOPLES SINCE ANCIENT casus, on the territory of present- TIMES. SOME PASSED THROUGH ITS Jday Azerbaijan and southern TERRITORY, WHILE OTHERS SETTLED Dagestan, which formed part of the HERE. THUS, MORE THAN 20 NA- Albanian state, in the early Middle TIONAL MINORITIES SETTLED AND Ages. During this period, the STILL LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY Great Silk Route passed through ON AZERBAIJANI SOIL. AMONG THEM the Caucasus, and it was used by ARE JEWS WHO HAVE MAINTAINED Jewish merchants to lead cara- THEIR OWN MATERIAL AND SPIRI- vans from China, where there TUAL CULTURE, INCLUDING RELIGION, were Jewish trading posts. This is LANGUAGE, MENTALITY AND SELF- confirmed by archaeological arte- CONSCIOUSNESS, AND HAVE SEVERAL facts. For example, an employee of SYNAGOGUES IN THE AZERBAIJAN the National Academy of Sciences REPUBLIC - IN BAKU AND KRASNAYA of Azerbaijan, doctor of historical SLOBODA (JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN THE sciences, R.B. Goyushov, discovered th CITY OF GUBA). the ruins of a 7 -century synagogue during excavations in the medieval Azerbaijani city of Shabran, which 48 www.irs-az.com was on the international Caspian ries, many Jews migrated from Asia ported to Azerbaijan and southern trade and transit path. In his book Minor to the Hulaguid State (1256- Dagestan, a historically whole ter- “History of Albans”, the local Alba- 1353), the central region of which ritory in the Middle Ages, for their nian historian Moses Kalankatuatsi was Azerbaijan, where there were attempt to secede from the Sas- presents data on the existence in already numerous Jewish commu- sanid Empire (224-651). Here, com- the 7th century of a community of nities. The best minds from the East munities of Mountain Jews settled “Christians, Jews and pagans” in the and West - from China to Spain - also in Baku, Vartashen, Goychay, Guba, capital of the Albanian state – Barda. rushed here. The major 13th century Gusar, Ganja, Derbent, Ismayilli, According to the famous medieval religious leader, scholar and lexicog- Maraga, Miyandob, Jewish Muji and Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, rapher, Bar Ebrey, spent almost all his Muji-Aftaran, Salmas, Sovujbulag, “there were 1,000 synagogues in life in the Azerbaijani city of Maraga. Tabriz, Urmiya, Khoy, Shabran, Sha- Azerbaijan in the 12th century”. One Azerbaijan is still home to three makhi and Sheki. of the fragments of the famous Cairo sub-ethnic groups of Jews: Moun- The Mountain Jews (who call Geniza (repository of manuscripts) tain Jews, Ashkenazi and Ebraelis. themselves Juur) speak the Tat- states that Rabbi Barukh Israel from We should also note the unique Jewish language (middle dialect of the Azerbaijani city of Maraga relied village of Privolnoye in Jalilabad, Farsi), which has many borrowings in his work on the work of Rabbi whose Russian population professes from the Iranian family of languag- Saadia Gaon, who lived in another Judaism. es, Hebrew, Azerbaijani and Russian. Azerbaijani city - Urmiya. At the end They use Azerbaijani as a second of the 12th century, Samaw’al Ben Mountain Jews language. Yahya, who was a court scholar for The ancestors of the Mountain The rulers of the strong and the Azerbaijani Eldegizid Atabays Jews appeared in Azerbaijan in the vast Azerbaijani Guba Khan- (1136-1225), moved from Baghdad 6th century A.D. These were Jews ate (1747-1806 years), Husey- to Maraga. In the 13th-14th centu- from Mesopotamia, who were de- nali Khan (1722-1758) and Fatali www.irs-az.com 49 Focusing on Azerbaijan in Azerbaijan was Vartashen (now Oguz). In 1885, there were 2,282 people here. Today, many have emi- grated to Russia and Israel. In Jewish Sloboda, there were 11 synagogues and now – there are six of them. There are two synagogues in Baku and Vartashen each. Pre- paratory work is now under way in Baku for the construction of a new synagogue for the Mountain Jews. In the early 20th century, a Jewish Sephardi gymnasium was opened in Baku, where Mountain and Geor- gian Jews studied. In 1908, the first Jewish-Russian school for Mountain Jews, where teaching was in Rus- Khan (1758-1789), who invited trade, agriculture, tobacco, horticul- sian, was opened in Guba. There was the Juurs to move to their posses- ture and madder growing. The pop- a yeshiva to study religion and tradi- sions, played an important role in ulation of Sloboda in 1856 was 3,000 tions. An important center of Jew- the fate of the Mountain Jews in and in 1916 – 8,400. Jewish Sloboda ish culture was the Ilyayev club in the Caucasus, especially in Azer- is one of the fastest growing Jew- Baku. Jewish girls were educated at baijan and southern Dagestan. ish centers and the world’s largest private women’s gymnasiums, col- It was at that point that Jewish settlement of Mountain Jews. It is a leges, music schools and charities. (from 1926 - Krasnaya) Sloboda beautiful, landscaped and big lush Speaking of the historical tradi- appeared in the capital of the settlement with three-story man- tion of relations between Jews and Khanate – the city of Guba. sions, the Princess home of celebra- Azerbaijanis, the leadership of the The first significant settlement tions, schools, yeshivas and all the community of Mountain Jews in of Mountain Jews thus appeared in attributes of civilized life. It is no Guba emphasizes that “between the Caucasus. Residents of Sloboda accident that Sloboda is called Gu- Jews and Azerbaijanis, there have were engaged in crafts, including fla Iyerushalaim - “Little Jerusalem”. never been conflicts on ethnic or carpet weaving, leather business, Another center of Mountain Jews religious grounds. Krasnaya Slo- 50 www.irs-az.com Bella Davidovich Lev Landau Gavriil Ilizarov boda is now the only place in the Ashkenazi Today there is a newly constructed world densely populated by Moun- The first European Jews – Ash- synagogue for European and Geor- tain Jews (over 4,500).” And today kenazi – appeared in Azerbaijan gian Jews in Baku. Azerbaijanis and Jews still maintain in 1810, and their community Along with the publication of good and warm relations. was formed in 1832. They all set- their newspapers and magazines, The Mountain Jews in Azer- tled in Baku, where they numbered the Jews created political parties. In baijan do not have problems in about 10,000 in 1913. Many of them 1905-1906, there was a party called maintaining their national and were lawyers and doctors. Primary “Poale Zion” (“Workers of Zion”) in religious traditions and ethnic- and secondary Jewish schools, Baku. It aimed to resettle Jews to ity in general. Their community gymnasiums, libraries, yeshivas and Palestine in order to restore the Jew- maintains multilateral relations private music schools appeared in ish state on their ancestors’ land. with the influential Jewish com- the city. The Jews also went to Rus- Proclaimed on 28 May 1918, the munity in Russia, Israel and the sian schools. A club was opened, independent Azerbaijan Demo- U.S.. Many of them have received while charity organizations main- cratic Republic (ADR) represented higher education. G. Ilizarov, an tained their own schools and librar- a clear example of genuine democ- academician, orthopaedic surgeon, ies and supplied clothes, shoes and racy. The new state’s Declaration of inventor of the compression-dis- textbooks to children from poor Independence granted equal rights traction device, the founder of the families. Literacy among the Jewish to all the peoples of the country for Center for Restorative Traumatol- population of Baku was 83 per cent the first time in the history of the ogy and Orthopaedics and creator at the time. East. Two members of the Jewish of a trauma center that bears his In addition to the existing syna- community were represented in name in Kurgan (Russia), who was gogues, the Central Choral Syna- the government and parliament of born in the Azerbaijani city of Gu- gogue was built in Baku in 1910. the ADR. In court, the Jews were al- sar, has gained international fame Now there are sponsors promoting THE MOUNTAIN JEWS IN AZERBAIJAN DO NOT HAVE PROBLEMS IN cultural and educational activities M AINTAINING THEIR NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND ETHNIC- and the preservation of the histori- ITY IN GENERAL. cal heritage of the Mountain Jews. These are Mountain Jews from Azer- Among the donors for its construc- lowed to take the oath in Hebrew. baijan - G. Nisanov, T. Ismayilov, Z. tion were the well-known Azerbai- The publication of the Russian– Iliyev, A. Gilalov and G. Zakharyayev. jani oil magnates and millionaire language newspaper “Kavkazskiy oilmen, Z. Tagiyev and M. Nagiyev. Yevreyskiy Vestnik” also resumed at www.irs-az.com 51 Focusing on Azerbaijan anniversary of the famous Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem. An exhibi- tion devoted to his life and career was held. His well-known novel “Te- vye the Dairyman” was published in Azerbaijani. In October 2010, a new school complex, which will operate a Jewish kindergarten, high school and yeshiva, was officially opened in Baku. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ilham Aliyev, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, prominent busi- nessmen G. Nisanov an L. Levayev, the president of the American Jew- ish Committee, David Rosen, repre- sentatives of the diplomatic corps in Baku and guests from Russia, the the time, and the newspaper “Pales- which is well-known outside Azer- United States and Israel. tina” and the magazine “Molodezh baijan, emerged. Back in 1990, the Siona” were launched. In 1921, two Azerbaijan-Israel friendship soci- Ebraelis Jewish clubs were opened Baku ety was created on the initiative Georgian Jews also refer to - Bezalel and Borokhov.

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