1. Mountain Jews Are a Unique Community
Living in the Caucasus Mountain range, virtually cut off from other Jewish centers, the Mountain Jews (also known as Kavkazi or Gorskie Yevrei in Russian) have their own Jewish culture, traditions, and way of life. Even today, as many of them have left the area and settled elsewhere, they carefully adhere to many of their unique customs.
2. They Came From Persia
Many of the Mountain Jews trace their roots to Jews from the Persian Empire. Exactly when or how they migrated east is shrouded in mystery, but they seem to have been there since the Talmudic era, perhaps even since the destruction of the First Holy Temple"" Some say they were military commanders, while others suggest they came in search of business opportunities.
3. They Have Their Own Language
The traditional language of the Mountain Jews is Juhuri—also known as Judeo-Tat—which is clearly related to modern Persian with which it shares a common ancestor. Since it is a Jewish language, it also includes many words from Aramaic (the language of the Talmud) and Hebrew (the language of the Torah), as well as other later additions from Russian and/or Azeri, depending on the dialect.
Like Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic, it was traditionally written in Hebrew characters.
4. They Excelled in Trade and Crafts
Many Jews in the Caucasus were merchants, who kept the local economy moving. They were also known as excellent tanners and furriers.
5. There Are Several Jewish Centers in the Caucasus Today
Perhaps most famous is the Azerbaijani town of Krasnaya Sloboda (“Red Village”), which is populated almost exclusively by Mountain Jews. Although its population has shrunk significantly, the town still functions as a center of Jewish life with synagogues, communal institutions, and even a gleaming new Museum of Mountain Jews.
There are also Jewish communities in Nalchik, Pyatigorsk, Makhachkala, and Derbent, all part of Russia today, as well as smaller communities throughout the region on both sides of the Azerbaijani-Russian border.
6. They Once Ruled Their Own Valley
For much of the 17th and 18th centuries, there existed a semi-independent state of Mountain Jews. Its capital was Aba-Sava, and it lay just south of Derbent, the capital of Dagestan. As had happened all too many times in their history, however, the Mountain Jews were attacked and killed in fighting that took place between their neighbors. The survivors fled to Derbent, and the Jewish Valley was no longer.
7. They Dressed Similar to Their Muslim Neighbors
Mountain Jews traditionally dressed like their neighbors. Women wore long, dark dresses and covered their hair with headscarves. Men wore tall, fuzzy woolen hats called papakhi, which were common in the region and eventually became part of the uniform of the Russian Imperial Army due to their being worn by the brutal Cossacks.
8. They Share Parallels With Yemenite Jews
On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, there was once another thriving Jewish community surrounded by Muslims and largely isolated from the rest of the Jewish world: The Jews of Yemen. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew pronunciation of the Mountain Jews shares certain similarities with that of the Yemenites, including how they pronounce the letter ayin.
9. Even Communism Could Not Destroy Them
With the rise of the Soviet Union, the Mountain Jews found themselves in a society that actively sought to stamp out religion. When the authorities would close down their synagogues, the Mountain Jews would stoically open another one. Even after generations of persecution, most Mountain Jews still held on to the fundamentals of Judaism, circumcising their sons, marrying in Jewish tradition, and striving to keep kosher and Shabbat to the best of their abilities.
10. They Have a Longstanding Connection With Chabad
As the Mountain Jews struggled to maintain tradition in the face of Soviet Persecution, they were assisted by Chabad rabbis sent by the Sixth Rebbe—Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of righteous memory. Rabbi Shmaryahu Sasonkin (1889-1975) spent several years in Derbent before moving on to Batumi, and Rabbi Simcha Gorodetsky (1903-1983) assisted the community in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Many of the community’s rabbis—those in Russia and Azerbaijan as well as those in Israel, Europe, and North America—studied in Chabad yeshivahs, including the underground yeshivahs in the Soviet Union and the post-Communist yeshivah in Moscow.
11. The Soviets Tried to Erase Their Identity
In the Soviet Union, a person’s nationality was recorded in their passport (this was known as the “fifth line”). As part of the Soviet effort to erase the identity of the Mountain Jews, their nationality was not recorded as Yivrei (“Hebrew”), as was done for Ashkenazi Jews. Rather, they were simply identified as Tat, in the same general basket as their Muslim neighbors.
12. They Mostly Survived the Holocaust
The Nazis entered the northern Caucuses in July of 1942 and began massacring the Jews they encountered in the villages there. When they conquered the city of Nalchik, which had a Jewish population that numbered in the thousands, the local Jews (and their Muslim friends) argued that they were not part of the Jewish race, but belonged to the Tat people.
As part of the frantic effort to hide their Jewish identity, the Jews hid their holy books. Led by Rabbi Nachmiel Amirov, they went as far as to bury their Torah scrolls, all the while pretending they were burying typhus victims.
Their efforts mostly paid off, and the Nazis began extensive research into the racial origins of the Mountain Jews. Fortunately, the Nazis were driven out of the Caucasus on January 4, 1943, just days before they planned to begin murdering Nalchik’s Mountain Jews.
13. Their Rabbis First Came From Persia and Then Lithuania
For centuries, Mountain Jews received rabbinical guidance and training from the large Jewish communities of Persia (Iran). When they were swallowed up by the Russian Empire, this became less practical. A pair of young men traveled to Vilna and studied Talmud and Jewish Law there. They, in turn, trained more rabbis, and a decidedly Lithuanian flavor permeated their observance as a result.
14. Kunaks Are Special Friends
Hospitality (“hachnasat orchim” in Hebrew) is baked into Mountain Jewish culture. Traditionally, many Mountain Jewish houses had a special room reserved for hosting the family’s kunaks, a term for friends with whom they enjoy a longstanding friendship and an understanding of mutual aid.
15. They Have Unique Passover Customs
Passover has its own flavor for Mountain Jews. Here are some of their special customs:
- Like many Eastern Jews, they eat rice on Passover—but not on the first two days of the holiday. Why? Perhaps this was originally to accommodate Ashkenazi travelers and soldiers, whom they would host for the Seders.
- They tend to be quite strict with what they eat on Passover, avoiding pickled foods, chocolate, and other things commercially produced.
- Many families have a sheep slaughtered before Passover, some of which they take home and some of which they distribute among the poor.
- On the day after Passover, they traditionally enjoyed a communal picnic known as govgil. Perhaps this is related to the Moroccan tradition of mimouna.
16. Their Cuisine Includes Regional Favorites and Jewish Traditions
Mountain Jews have their own cuisine, some of it similar to what others enjoy in the region and some of it unique to the Jewish community. Here are some examples:
- Kurze: Dumplings stuffed with ground lamb that are fried or boiled
- Dolma: Grape leaves stuffed with lamb, rice, onion and spices
- Khoyagusht: An omelet made with meat
- Tara: This traditional stew, enjoyed on Passover, includes chard (a leafy green), chopped meat, and rice
17. Their Weddings Are Special and Different
Among Mountain Jews, wedding customs roll out over several days, ranging from solemn to joyous. Some celebrations involve the bride’s family and some are for the groom’s side. Here are some traditions:
- The groom’s family is expected to bring many gifts to the bride. These are brought on trays, known as tabakho, for everyone to take note of and admire. The groom and his family bring the gifts to the bride and her family in a musical procession.
- Before the bride steps over the threshold of her new home, she places her finger in honey and smears it on the door frame. The older women of the family then lick the honey off her fingers. (This custom appears to be defunct.)
- There is a ceremony known as Benigoru—which takes place at the end of the wedding—in which the names of relatives, both living and deceased, are mentioned in a melancholic song.
- Their style of dancing differs from what Westerners are used to, as dancers sway to the rhythm with their arms extended outward.
18. They Face Significant Danger
With the radicalization and tribal violence that has swept the region following the fall of Communism, the situation for Jews has become increasingly volatile. In 2013, Derbent’s Rabbi Ovadiah Isakov, a native Mountain Jew who studied abroad and returned to serve the community, was shot and almost killed.
Read: The Art and Healing of Rabbi Ovadia Isakov
Following the Oct. 7 attacks, violent mobs stormed the Makhachkala Airport searching for Jews. And this summer, as war continues to rage in Gaza, Derbent’s synagogue was set ablaze by arsonists.
19. Mountain Jews Have Spread Far and Wide
Over the past three decades, many Mountain Jews have emigrated to safer homes, often settling with fellow Mountain Jews. Today, there are lively Mountain Jewish communities in Israel, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Moscow, and even a smaller community in Vienna.
The author thanks Alla Digilova of New York and Rabbi David Davidov, rabbi of the Jewish Gorsky Community Center of Ontario, for their invaluable assistance.
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