An attempted coup could not keep the jews from coming home to Kuba for Passover this year as they do every year. They came from business trips or from their new homes. They came from Moscow and Israel, from China and America.
Soviet rule virtually extinguished Jewish life in many of the areas under its control. But Jewish life is thriving in this traditional community of 5,000 Jews, who live much as they have for more than 2,000 years.
The town of Kuba sits in the hills of northeastern Azerbaijan. Muslims live on one side of the river that divides the town, and Jews on the other. The Jewish area is called Krasnaya Sloboda.
These “Mountain Jews,” or Tatim as they are known here, speak Azeri, the national language, but also have their own language — Tat — which they speak among themselves. Tat, a combination of Hebrew and Azeri, is written in Hebrew letters.
Azerbaijan lies on the Caucasus mountain range, on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, bordering Iran to the south. A potentially wealthy country with vast untapped oil reserves, Azerbaijan is plagued by political and economic instability and is surrounded by hostile neighbors.
Chechnya lies to the north, and Russia just beyond. Azerbaijanis fear that Russia may not be content to stop at Chechnya, but may try to regain control here.
Iran is increasingly trying to exert control and export its Islamic fundamentalism.
Azerbaijan has been in a state of war with Armenia for the last four years over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Adding to the chaos are more than a million internal refugees.
President Heidar Aliev successfully quashed the attempted coup by a disgruntled police chief in March. It was a coup attempt that almost became a revolution.
For their part, the Jews here just want stability.
To walk through Kuba is to step back in time. Colorfully painted stone houses with wooden balconies crowd the narrow winding streets.
Children scamper everywhere, darting in and out of the alleyways. Fruit trees blossom behind stone walls. Brightly colored clothing hangs drying between houses.
Old women, their heads tightly wrapped in wool scarves, carry pails of laundry down to the river. Boys sell large round loaves of freshly baked bread from rickety wooden stands.
An enormous stone sculpture of Lenin, which once stood in the center of town, now sits in a back yard, contemplating the green hills that begin where the dirt roads taper off just beyond the houses. Sheep graze lazily under a bright blue sky.
Tea houses are filled with men in flat woolen caps who sit for hours, talking and sipping tea through cubes of sugar held between their teeth.
Most of the men are traders who run shops and businesses. Some have made fortunes trading goods between China and Russia. Some even have second homes in Moscow or Israel.
There used to be 11 synagogues here. Now there is only one, and it is center of religious and communal life. Inside, chandeliers light the intricate and colorful hand-woven carpets and cushions that fill the sanctuary.
Borrowing from Muslims tradition, the Jews take their shoes off before entering the synagogue. Azerbaijani and Israeli flags stand side by side in front of the ark.
There is a minyan every day, and the whole community gathers for holiday celebrations. There is virtually no intermarriage in Kuba.
A large former synagogue at the edge of town, which was confiscated by the Communists and turned into a sewing factory, stands decrepit and teeming with pigeons. The community hopes to reclaim and rebuild it.
“The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee will help the community turn the building into a community center.” says Menachem Elazar, JDC’s representative in Azerbaijan. JDC helps communities throughout Azerbaijan.
Kuba’s only rabbi died last year, but his son, although not a rabbi, is taking his place. There is a shortage of mezuzot here, no kosher meat and the community wants very much to have someone to teach Hebrew.
A kindergarten for 40 children has opened in a crumbling stone building at the foot of a green hill.
Purim Avshlomova, the director, a strong woman with flaming red hair, proudly gives tours of the school. A wood-burning stove in the center of the children’s sleeping area provides both heat and a place to cook the meals.
“Jews first came here from Persia in the 2nd century B.C.E.,” says Professor Pinja Abowitsch, the historian of the Jewish community of Azerbaijan. “And they have lived here ever since.”
About 35,000 Jews now live in Azerbaijan, most in the capital of Baku. All are “Mountain Jews” expect for some 5,000 Ashkenazi Jews who came to Azerbaijan in this century from other parts of the Soviet Union, many fleeing anti-Semitism and the Nazis.
Anti-Semitism is virtually nonexistent in this Muslim country. But there are fears this may change if Iran’s influence strengthens.
The Jews of Kuba have strong attachments to Israel.
“Kuba is my native land. Israel is my pride,” says David Abramov, the officially appointed head of the Jewish section of Kuba.
“You may think that Kuba is a small part of Israel,” he says, “because in the Former Soviet Union, this is the only place where Jewish people live all together.”
Jews throughout Azerbaijan are very proud of the good relations they have with their Muslim neighbors.
“Azerbaijanis and Jews live here in peace,” says Abramov. “And we respect each other.”
“Israel has excellent relations with Azerbaijan,” says the Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan, Eliezer Yotvat.
“Israel was the second country to recognize Azerbaijan in the beginning 1992. Last year, Israel sent $85,000 worth of humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan, including medicine and baby food,” he says.
In the past few decades, about 40,000 Jews have gone from Azerbaijan to Israel, but the flow is slowing.
Despite the chaotic situation, only 50 families have left Kuba in the last five years.
“It is difficult to say how things will be here,” says Boris Simanduev, the head of the community.
“Our future depends on the situation in the republic,” he says. “It it will be stable, then we will have a good future.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
