mountain jews

Matzahs travel on the production line of the Tiferet HaMatzot factory in Dnepro, Ukraine on Dec. 8, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)

Jews in the former Soviet Union eat pounds of matzah per person — the most in the world — every year. Here’s why.

The Passover food, which used to be unavailable under communism, was for many the only link to their people’s faith and culture.

Zoya Avadayev discusses cooking Jewish dishes with Rabbi Tsadok Ashurov Krasnaiya Sloboda, Azerbaijan on July 21, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

No pickles, no shankbone, no cemetery visits: Central Asian Mountain Jews try to preserve centuries-old Passover traditions

An organization is working to catalog the traditions of the holiday they call “Nisonu” in Juhuri, their ancient and dying Farsi-based Jewish language.

‘A Christian cannot be an anti-Semite,’ Pope Francis tells Jewish delegation at Vatican

The pope for the first time at the Vatican received delegates from the World Congress of Mountain Jews.

Global

Azerbaijan’s Mountain Jews museum is part of a dying community’s rescue plan

Global

The sale of Azerbaijan’s Jewish community center deals a painful blow to a dwindling community

Global

Why Israelis are ditching Turkey for Georgia

Global

Ancient Russian synagogues rededicated

Global

Baku gives land for Jewish cultural center, kosher restaurant

Global

Jewish shtetl in Azerbaijan survives amid Muslim majority

No more posts to load.

Sections

Get JTA in your inbox

Get JTA in your inbox

Get JTA in your inbox