Mountain Jews

As Mountain Jews (Russian Горские евреи, Gorskije ewrei ) refers to the indigenous Jewish population in Dagestan and Azerbaijan.

Most of Mountain Jews ( about 50,000 ) live today as immigrants in Israel. The Russian census in 2002 identified 3394 Mountain Jews who are citizens of Russia.

The Mountain Jews speak an Iranian language ( Juvuri or Juhuri called ), which is very close to the language of the deeds. They describe themselves as Juhuro ( Juvuro in Cuba dialect), which translates to " the Jews " means. An alternative self-designation is indeed. The Jewish religion and the Jewish customs were retained and nurtured over centuries.

Origin and History

The ancestors of the Mountain Jews came from ancient Persia, probably from Atropatene that in pre-Islamic times had a large Jewish minority, from Fars and probably earlier from Iraq. First settlements and the oldest synagogues were found in Derbent in Dagestan, further, they settled in the region of Quba in Tabasarans area and at the eastern end of the Caucasus. Until the 20th century they lived north of the Kura in the Shirvan region.

It is still not clear when Jewish and non-Jewish " acts " by Albania and immigrated Aran. Presumably it was a pre-Islamic settlement to 510 Al- Baladhuri reported Chosroes I, who extended the " Huns wall " around " the locked gate " to a fortification of 400 km in length against northern steppe peoples had on the fixtures loyal Zoroastrian and Jewish population settled. The Derb Enter Local History Darband - nama explained in detail, Khosrau have settled people from Atropatene and Fars in Derbent and the surrounding area, further south on the other hand people from Fars and Iraq. A minority opinion of historical research sees the attribution of the settlement on Khosrau II as a legend and hypothesized, most deeds and Mountain Jews had fled only in the early Islamic period in the region. This minority opinion is not recognized by most researchers. However, it is proved that the occupants of individual tatischer and mountain villages immigrated Jewish only in the Islamic period.

Mountain Jews were from the Khazar Kagan, who had previously converted to Judaism, was added and placed under protection. In the customs of non-Jewish acts there are Zoroastrian remnant.

Muslim and Jewish " deeds" were in Tsarist Russia as a belligerent hill tribes.

Holocaust

As in World War II vorfanden German troops in late 1942 the northern Caucasus occupied and there a few thousand Mountain Jews, it was under Nazi authorities ( including Theodor Oberlander ) discussions on the question of whether these them until then little-known minority as by confession or by race criteria Jewish rate was. Hundreds of Mountain Jews were murdered by the German retreat in 1943. How 850 Mountain Jews were murdered near Mozdok ( kolkhozes Bogdanovka and Menžinskoe ) on 19 August and 20 September 1942 another 1000 fell to the Germans in October 1942 in Nalchik in the hands, forced to wear the Jewish star and forced labor were. However, the majority remained of the scheduled destruction spared. However, most of Mountain Jews in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan, regions that had not reached the Wehrmacht lived.

Development after 1990

Early 1990s were some of the town Qırmızı Qəsəbə (Russian: Krasnaya Sloboda, German: Rote settlement ) grown Mountain Jews as Telman Mardanowitsch Ismailov, Sarach Ilijew or God Nisanow active in the newly formed Moscow markets, such as the Tscherkisowoer market and have been in over the years, rich through their businesses. Today, they dominate a part of the Moscow shopping centers and possess real estate in Moscow, for example, the built in Stalinist style Hotel Ukraina. An attachment to their homeland remains, which is reflected in the quality of the roads, the Jewish cemeteries, the new synagogue Bet Knesset and the exterior of the houses in Krasnaya Sloboda.