Judaism in Azerbaijan

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Judaism in Azerbaijan refers to the situation of Jewish people in Azerbaijan.

[edit] Backround

There are three communities of Jews in Azerbaijan: Azerbaijani Jews (Juhuro), Ashkenazi Jews and Georgian Jews. Nearly 16,000 Jews reside in the country. Of them 11,000 people are mountain Jews, including 6000 people living in Baku and 4000 in Guba while a thousand people live in other cities. Ashkenazi Jews are 4.3 thousand in number. Most of them live in Baku and Sumgayit. There are 700 Georgian Jews in the country.

Mountain Jews currently dominate the whole Jews Diaspora of the country. They speak in tat language yet one can come across a great many of words of Turkish, Persian and Russian origin in their speech.

Mountain Jews are of Rabbinic Judaism. Along with the Tanakh, they also base their religion on rabbinic rulings and Talmudic legends. Due to the lack of religious education they explained the rules of Talmud in a perverted way and adopted some concepts connected with the idolatry of the Caucasus people. The belief in women Dedeyol, that lives in the forest and feeds on the hearts and lungs of pregnant women, Ilan-Ajdaha (Dragon-snake) that kills new-born children and the tradition of jumping over the fire two weeks before Christmas originate from the local beliefs rather than from Judaism.

Mountain Jews are more orthodox compared to Ashkenazi Jews. On the whole, the Jews of Azerbaijan are quite far from the political and religious trends common among Polish and Ukrainian Jews since the 18th century as well as reform Judaism.

A number of synagogues of Mountain Jews exist in Baku, Oghuz and Guba. Krasnaya Slobada of Guba is the only place of compact residing of mountain Jews on the whole post Soviet area. Mountain Jews arrive here from all the countries of the world as pilgrimage or for visiting the burial places of their relatives on the ninth Day of fasting. The region accounts for three synagogues and a mikva, constructed for conducting ceremonies.

Ashkenazi Jews originate from Europe and in fact come from medieval Germany. Though small in number, the community of Georgian Jews is very active. A synagogue of Georgian Jews was restored by the financial aid of the Joint in 1997.

After Azerbaijan gained independence, the Jewish community of the country intensified their activity, strengthened relations with international Jewish organizations and created their religious schools: yeshivas, cultural centers (as the cultural center of Jewish community), societies (as the women's society Eva, Hesed-Hershon charitable society), clubs (as Alef, Hillel youth clubs, Mishpaha videoclubs), newspapers (as Az-Iz, Bashnya, Amishav). The Jewish agency (Soxnut), the Joint and Vaad-I-Hetzola operated for preserving Jewish traditions among the Jewish Diaspora, assisting synagogues and conducting various cultural arrangements.

A new Jewish synagogue, which became the biggest synagogue of Europe was opened in Baku on March 9, 2003. The first Jewish school has been operating in Azerbaijan since September of 2003.

[edit] External links

• Chabad centers in Azerbaijan

[edit] See also

Mountain Jews

Krasnaya Sloboda