|
2023-11-06 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
|
|
History of the Jewish communities of the North Caucasus
|
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Jews lived in the North Caucasus for many centuries and made a significant contribution to the cultural and social life of Dagestan, Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. The traditions and life of Mountain Jews fit organically into the life of other peoples of the Caucasus, but by now the Jewish communities in the North Caucasus were on the verge of extinction. The history of the indigenous Jewish population of the region is described in the information of the "Caucasian Knot".
MODERNITY AND RECENT PAST
By 2016, there were only about 10,000-11,000 Mountain Jews in the North Caucasus, with the largest of the Jewish communities formed in Pyatigorsk - about seven thousand Mountain Jews who arrived from the republics of the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan live there. The Derbent community, the oldest, then numbered about 400,000 people.
Continued from Page 5
Jews living in the republics of the North Caucasus stated that local communities are fading away due to the outflow of young people and the aging of their representatives remaining in the region. The head of the public relations department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Borukh Gorin, expressed concern that the majority of Jewish communities in the region are in danger of permanent extinction in the foreseeable future 1.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jewish communities in large cities of the North Caucasus were still quite active: a Jewish kindergarten and a Sunday school were created in Derbent; since 1988, the Tovushi socio-political cultural center and a music center have operated in Nalchik Shulamit school (the size of the city community of Mountain Jews at that time was about 10,000people).
In 1990, a new synagogue was built in Nalchik, and since 1993 the newspaper “Jews of the North Caucasus” was published. However, during the 1990s the vast majority of Jews left Nalchik and Grozny. During the fighting, about 600 Jews remained in the capital of Chechnya; by 2000, only 122 ; in Nalchik, by 2021, the community numbered no more than 400 people. 3
In the 1970s, the size of Jewish communities in the Caucasus gradually began to decline due to the departure of many Jews to Israel. Before the repatriation and emigration of Jews from the USSR in the 1970s, approximately half of all mountain Jews in the country lived in the North Caucasus - in Dagestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol Territory, the other half lived in Azerbaijan. 4
In the 1940-1950s, the Jews of Grozny made a significant contribution to the cultural life of the city, but in 1963 the Grozny synagogue was closed. In Derbent in 1959 there were 12,700 Jews, by 1970 - about 14,000, in Grozny in the same years the number of the Jewish community increased from 2,000 people to 2,600. 5
During the 1930s and 1940s, Soviet rule reduced the opportunities for cultural and social development of Jewish communities in the Caucasus. Thus, of the 11 synagogues operating in Derbent in 1926, by the end of the 1930s only one remained, and in 1948 teaching in the Mountain Jewish language in schools was abolished.
During the Second World War, when part of the North Caucasus was occupied by Hitler’s troops, the communities of Mountain Jews escaped extermination thanks to the way of life typical of the region’s population and good relations with all fellow countrymen. The largest community of Mountain Jews among those under Nazi rule, Nalchik, received protection from the National Council of Kabardians: representatives of the council managed to convince the Germans that the traditions of Mountain Jews do not differ from the way of life of Kabardians. Kabardians hid some Jews in their villages, passing them off as members of their own families. 6
After the October Revolution of 1917, Caucasian Jews again found themselves deprived of their rights: the confiscation of land plots forced them to migrate from villages to cities, where there were no opportunities for work and trade. In the 1920s, some of the Caucasian Jews were able to return to traditional craft work, others began to work on collective farms, and some Jews, at the suggestion of the authorities, moved in 1929-1930 from the North Caucasus to Crimea.
In 1926, some Jews from the cities and villages of Dagestan, as well as from Mozdok, Nalchik and Grozny, moved at the suggestion of the authorities to the territory of Stavropol, but over the next ten years their life in the new place was difficult, the farms remained unprofitable for a long time. During the German occupation in 1942, the population of Jewish farms became victims of the Holocaust, and the surviving residents left the area. 7
At the beginning of the 20th century, right up to the revolution of 1917, the Jewish communities of the North Caucasus had the opportunity to actively develop: this is how Jewish schools operated in Derbent; in 1904, the Mountain Jewish School and the Jewish Theater appeared, which operated until 1919. In 1914, the Kele-Numaz synagogue was built, in the building of which the Museum of Mountain Jews of Derbent is now located. 8
Documents stored in the state archives of Kabardino-Balkaria show that the Jews of Nalchik in 1906 freely received foreign passports to visit Jerusalem. In Grozny in the same year, a Mountain Jewish school with teaching in Russian was founded, two synagogues and a Jewish organization "Poalei Zion" 9 operated .
XVIII - XIX CENTURIES, CAUCASIAN WAR
One of the areas of the largest Jewish settlement in the Caucasus was historically the south of Dagestan, although in other parts of it the Jewish population was also present in significant numbers. The main occupation in all Jewish communities in the Caucasus was trade and handicraft work, in particular the manufacture of clothing, shoes, and horse harness. Derbent in the 19th century was the religious center of Jews throughout the North Caucasus; material evidence of the long residence of Jewish communities is best preserved in the vicinity of Derbent. 10
Jews settled in Derbent itself at the end of the 18th century, but the bulk of the Jewish population lived in the surrounding villages until the middle of the 20th century - this area was not affected by active hostilities during the Caucasian War . As for the middle and northern parts of Dagestan, the situation there changed greatly by the middle of the 19th century: during the Caucasian War, when the imamate opposed imperial colonial policy, the Jewish population faced increased religious intolerance and was forced to migrate under the protection of Russian garrisons.
As a result, a noticeable concentration of Jewish communities arose in the Russian fortresses - Temir-Khan-Shura (Buinaksk), Port-Petrovsk (Makhachkala), Khasavyurt, Grozny, Mozdok, Nalchik - in the Caucasus. 11
In Chechnya, even before the arrival of the Russians, there was a Jewish settlement of Dzhukhur-Yurt or “Jewish settlement”. Subsequently, the Grozny fortress appeared on this site, so some of the Jews lived in the fortress from its very foundation.
A large Jewish community also formed in Nalchik: in 1867, 74 Jewish families lived in the village near the fortress, and by the end of the 19th century there were two synagogues in the city. In the Western part of the North Caucasus, by the beginning of the 19th century, a significant number of Jews lived among the Circassians, in particular, in the village of Ust-Dzhegutinskaya. 12
During the Caucasian War, Muslims demanded that Jews convert to Islam and actively participate in the fight against the Russians, while the detachments of Kazi-Mulla and Shamil carried out raids on Jewish settlements and pogroms. 13
Thus, during the conquest of the Kumyk plane by Russian troops, the Jews asked for the protection of Russia, which “brought upon themselves the indignation and contempt of the Kumyk inhabitants. In 1822, Jews asked General Ermolov for permission to move from the Kumyk to the Chechen district, to which he did not agree.
In the Andreevskaya village (now the village of Andirei in the Khasavyurt region - note of the “Caucasian Knot”) the Jews remained until 1831, when a seven-thousand-strong detachment of Kazi-Mulla attacked the settlement: several Jews were killed and taken prisoner, and their property and shops were looted. After this pogrom, the Jews with their families and households moved to the Vnezapnaya fortress across the Aktash River and, together with the Russian garrison, endured a difficult 14-day siege.
Subsequently, Jews from the Andreevskaya village settled on the Kumyk plane in Khasavyurt, Aksai (Tash-Kichu) and Kostek; in the Chechen district - first in Staroyurt (now Tolstov-Yurt), and then, after an attack on their settlement, in Grozny; in the Kabardian district - in Nalchik. Shamil's troops attacked Jewish settlements, plundering them, killing or capturing the inhabitants, sometimes returning them to relatives for a ransom 14 .
LEGAL STATUS OF THE JEWS OF THE CAUCASUS AFTER THE WAR
At the end of the Caucasian War, the situation of Jews in the region improved: as a reward for their bravery, they were exempted from paying taxes for 20 years and received equal rights with other peoples of the Caucasus, including the right of free movement throughout the Russian Empire. 15
Before the arrival of the Russians in the Caucasus, Jews did not have surnames - Russian officials assigned them surnames in the second half of the 19th century, after the Caucasus was annexed by the Russian Empire. At the same time, the Russian military administration introduced the very name “Mountain Jews”, considering local Jews as one of the many mountain peoples of the Caucasus. 16
By virtue of this definition, the Jews of the Caucasus, unlike the Jews of the rest of Russia, who were seriously deprived of their rights and settled in the so-called “Pale of Settlement,” were subject to relatively more liberal laws on mountain peoples. Subsequently, the term “Mountain Jews” became an ethnonym, and the Caucasian Jews themselves adopted it 17 .
At the same time, some of the restrictions that were imposed on all Jews of the Russian Empire were extended to Mountain Jews. Thus, they were forbidden to build new synagogues and open religious schools 18 .
DISTANT TIMES
Historians do not have a single idea of how the initial formation of the Jewish community in the Caucasus took place. One of the main versions of researchers, in particular A. Novoseltsev, is that the Tats and Mountain Jews, who owned the lands of Southern Dagestan and Northern Azerbaijan, adopted Judaism at the end of the 8th century. 19
Other historians believe that the Jewish religion was adopted by the ancestors of the Tats and Mountain Jews, who were previously Zoroastrians and had long lived on the territory of Azerbaijan. Along with this, there is an opinion in the scientific community that Judasm came to the Caucasus along with the descendants of the Jews, who in the 6th century BC. were taken into captivity or slavery by the Persian king Cyrus from the Achaemenid clan after the conquest of Babylonia and Judea. 20
Another version dates back to the beginning of the 3rd century AD, when the Sassanid dynasty evicted Judaic tribes from Iran in order to colonize the neighboring regions of the Caucasus in Azerbaijan and Southern Dagestan. Researchers also point to several forced expulsions of Jews in the 70s and 130s AD. by the Romans from Iran. 21
At the end of the 12th century, Judaism was preserved among a large community of Mountain Jews and Tats in the Caspian cities. In the late Middle Ages, many Jews also lived in mountain auls and villages with Lezgins, Tabasarans, Azerbaijanis, Dargins, Kumyks and Avars. Large and wealthy communities invited rabbis from Iran to the Caucasus, whose activities preserved the involvement of Mountain Jews in the Rabbani tradition 22 .
See the link to follow the links to the notes, all likely in Russian
NOTES
Jews in the south of Russia considered the outflow of young people to be the main threat to the communities // "Caucasian Knot", December 30, 2016. ↑
Mikhail Elizarov, Community of Mountain Jews of Chechnya // Mirvori Publishing House, 2013 ↑
Svetlana Danilova, candidate of historical sciences, “Mountain Jews in history and today” // New York, USA, 2021, 2018, 2017.. ↑
Svetlana Danilova, candidate of historical sciences, “Mountain Jews in history and today” // New York, USA, 2021, 2018, 2017. ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Kazikhanova A.A., Abdulpatakhova Kh.M. ON THE QUESTION OF THE SPREAD OF JUDAISM IN KHAZARIA // Bulletin of the Dagestan State University. Series 2: Humanities. 2006. No. 3. ↑
Valery Dymshits, Mairbek Vachagaev. Mountain Jews in the North Caucasus // Caucasus.Realities, November 19, 2021. ↑
Z. Kubashicheva, Ethnic composition of the North-West Caucasus at the beginning of the 19th century // magazine "Cultural Life of the South of Russia", 2009. ↑
Mountain Jews // Jewish Encyclopedia Toldot, https://toldot.com/gorskieEvrei.html ↑
Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko, Ilya Anisimov, Judas Cherny - Caucasian Mountain Jews (collection) // Tsentrpoligraf, Moscow, 2017 (ISBN 978-5-227-06630-5) ↑
Svetlana Danilova, candidate of historical sciences, “Mountain Jews in history and today” // New York, USA, 2021, 2018, 2017. ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Igor Semenov, “Mountain Jews of the North Caucasus and Dagestan” // “Notes on Jewish History” No. 11, April 28, 2002 ↑
G. Kurbanov, Doctor of Philosophy. Historical and modern aspects of Judaism in Dagestan // Social and political magazine "Peoples of Dagestan", July 12, 2002. ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
Ibid ↑
|
Posted by badanov 2023-11-06 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [16 views ]
Top
|
|
01:37 Angealing+B.+Hayes4677
00:50 DarthVader
00:01 Skidmark
|
