Abstract. The Republic of Azerbaijan is not among the countries that have historically hosted major Jewish centers; nonetheless, the Jewish presence in the country has been notable for centuries. The Jewry of Azerbaijan is characterized by at least four partially overlapping vectors of socio-cultural, ethno-civic, and transnational identification. These include affiliation with sub-ethnic Jewish groups and their local segments; a gradually developing sense of belonging to a new ethno-civic group of "Azerbaijani Jews," which is emerging from various components of the "Jews of Azerbaijan" communities; the affiliation of all Azerbaijani Mountain Jewish groups with the global Mountain Jewish diaspora, which is uniting on the basis of Caucasian origin, historical memory, and a shared cultural heritage; and the ongoing affiliation of all Jewish groups in Azerbaijan with the "transnational diaspora of Russian-speaking Jewry."

While Jews have limited representation in the government structures of Azerbaijan, the tolerant attitude of the country's leadership and the majority of Azerbaijani society toward the Jewish minority, combined with the notably friendly relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State of Israel, create favorable conditions for preserving and even strengthening the organized Jewish community in this country.

The Republic of Azerbaijan is not among those countries where major Jewish centers have historically existed, yet the Jewish presence there has been notable for centuries.  The case of the "Jews of Azerbaijan" is of particular interest, as it allows for a comprehensive examination of a number of issues in Jewish history, as well as social and cultural anthropology. The picture of the Jewish presence in Azerbaijan raises several questions that are not only significant for studying this segment of the Jewish diaspora but are also fundamental to the further development of academic Jewish Studies as a whole.

This topic was the subject of a quantitative study of the Jewish community of Azerbaijan, conducted by Valeriy Dymshits, Velvl Chernin, and the author of this article, initiated by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and German Zakharyaev's STMEGI Foundation for the Development of Mountain Jews, under the auspices of the IEAJS.

The key findings of this study are presented below.

Community Demographics

Due to historical factors, the size of the Jewish population in the country has fluctuated, at times quite significantly.  A notable increase in the Jewish population of Azerbaijan was recorded in the early twentieth century, when, in addition to the long-established Mountain Jewish community, Jews from the European part of the then-Russian Empire migrated to the rapidly developing economic region. This process continued after the revolution, during the interwar years, as Azerbaijan continued to require specialists to develop its oil extraction and petrochemical industries.

The Jewish population of the Azerbaijan SSR reached its demographic peak in 1970, when the All-Union census recorded 49,057 Jews in the republic. In subsequent years, the number of Jews in the republic steadily declined (due to assimilation and emigration, including to Israel and Western countries), amounting to 44,345 and 39,297 people, respectively, according to the final two Soviet censuses of 1979 and 1989.[1]

In all cases, these figures did not include several thousand Subbotniks (Gery) from the village of Privolnoye who were recorded as Russian by nationality (their ancestors, Russian peasants, embraced Judaism and adopted a Jewish ethnic identity under circumstances that are not fully clear some two centuries ago), but did include Mountain Jews registered as "Tats."

In any case, the decline of the Jewish population progressed, and at the very end of the Soviet era and following the collapse of the USSR, this process accelerated sharply, primarily due to emigration, with the main destinations being Russia and, in particular, Israel. Consequently, by the end of the first post-Soviet decade, the core of the country's Jewish population had decreased by 80% to 7,900.  Current estimates of the size of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan vary from the demographically calculated 7,200 people for the "core Jewish population" (individuals of homogeneous Jewish descent and those of mixed origin with a stable Jewish identification) and approximately 20,500 members of the "enlarged Jewish population" (which includes all individuals meeting the criteria of the Israeli Law of Return).[2] On the other hand, Jewish organizations in Azerbaijan operate with figures ranging from 16,000 to 30,000 people, including Jews and their family members who, according to their records, went uncounted in recent censuses, as well as fourth-generation descendants of mixed marriages and other family members who do not meet the criteria of the Law of Return but are involved in Jewish community activities.

Jewish Identity in Azerbaijan and Its Local Context

Despite the decline in numbers or even the near-complete disappearance of several Jewish ethnolinguistic groups from Azerbaijan, their history and culture remain part of the collective history and memory of the country's Jewish community and, indeed, of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a whole. However, this could also be said of many other countries where no Jews have lived for centuries.

In Azerbaijan, however, we are speaking not merely of a "unit of memory" within the local society, but of a fully living, functioning, and complexly structured entity.  While Azerbaijan, like many other post-Soviet republics, is still far from strict democratic standards, it is a wealthy country offering broad professional prospects.  Furthermore, it is a secular state, meaning that, unlike in other Muslim-majority nations, religious minorities, as well as those oriented toward secular culture, can feel entirely secure.

The era of social and demographic dominance of Ashkenazi Jews in Azerbaijan concluded with the collapse of the USSR and mass Jewish emigration, primarily the aliyah to Israel in the 1990s and 2000s. The cultural influence of "European" Jews in the country remains significant, and this situation is unlikely to change in the near future, but the "first violin" in the Jewish community of Azerbaijan is now played by Mountain Jews. One of the unique characteristics of this group is that it has remained connected to its historical territory—the Eastern Caucasus—to a greater extent than any other Jewish sub-ethnic group. For instance, Georgian and Bukharian Jews have almost entirely departed Georgia and Uzbekistan, respectively, whereas Mountain Jews are still represented in the Caucasus by viable communities. This attachment is driven not only by the deep integration of Mountain Jews into the Caucasian lifestyle but also by a high degree of traditionalism.

The Jewry of Azerbaijan is characterized by at least four partially overlapping vectors of socio-cultural, ethno-civic, and transnational identification. First, there is a mental, cultural, and, in many cases, organizational affiliation with sub-ethnic Jewish groups and their local segments, dictated by origin and current place of residence.

Second, there is a gradually growing sense of belonging to a new ethno-civic group of "Azerbaijani Jews," which is emerging from various components of the "Jews of Azerbaijan" communities.  As noted above, the strengthening of this identification is observed to varying degrees among all Jews in the country, particularly during and after the final phase of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in 2020.  This trend has also been reinforced by the antisemitic campaigns launched by pro-Iranian Islamist circles and their attempts to delegitimize the "Zionist regime of Ilham Aliyev."[3] However, at this stage, such a definition applies most strongly to the Mountain Jews residing in Azerbaijan.

Third, there is the affiliation of all Azerbaijani groups of Mountain Jews, regardless of their location, with a new phenomenon in the Jewish world—the global Mountain Jewish diaspora, uniting on the basis of Caucasian origin, historical memory, and a shared cultural heritage. At the same time, the primary impulses for this unification, including the reinforcement of the communicative function of the Juhuri language and its role as a symbol of sub-ethnic identification, originate mainly from the financial, intellectual, and political elite of Mountain Jews living outside the Caucasus.  It is possible that the interest in preserving the culture and language will gradually trickle down from this "secondary diaspora" to the "metropolis," namely, the Caucasus itself.  Sooner or later, the Jews of Azerbaijan will begin investing resources in preserving their language and cultural identity.

Fourth, due to a number of historical and contemporary factors, there remains a high level of identification among all Jewish groups in Azerbaijan—not only those of Ashkenazi origin—with the "transnational diaspora of Russian-speaking Jewry."[4] This identification is maintained because the majority of Mountain Jews are fluent in Russian, enroll their children in Russian-language schools, and maintain close personal, cultural, and business ties with the Jewish communities of Russia and "Russian Israel."

The current trend of Jewish emigration and re-migration to the South Caucasus from Russia could become a new cultural and demographic factor. It is currently impossible to predict whether these are temporary transit migrants or if some portion of them will choose to settle permanently in Azerbaijan. Their choice will depend primarily on developments outside Azerbaijan—especially in Russia—as well as on the policy of the State of Israel regarding the new wave of mass repatriation from the post-Soviet space.  However, the organizational and lobbying efforts of Jewish organizations in Azerbaijan could undoubtedly play a role, provided there is corresponding interest.

Barring catastrophic changes (which have become difficult to rule out over the past year), the size of the Jewish population should stabilize. Consequently, a small but stable Jewish community will remain in Azerbaijan for a long time. If the processes occurring in such "synthetic" communities (formed from several distinct groups) follow expected patterns, a new entity—Azerbaijani Jews—will gradually emerge through deeper integration based on the state language and the assimilation of the remaining Jewish minorities by Mountain Jews.

Jews and the Authorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan

Regardless of its size, the Jewish community of Azerbaijan will continue to play a notable role both in the life of the country and in its relations with Israel and the post-Soviet space. It is difficult to overlook that over the past 31 years of independent Azerbaijan's existence, Jews have played and continue to play a unique role in fostering good-neighborly and mutually beneficial relations between this country, Russia, and Israel.

Jews have limited representation in the government structures of Azerbaijan (indeed, this is typical for most Jewish leaders in the former USSR, who have preferred informal lobbying of their communities' interests with ruling elites over the direct participation of organized Jewish communities in the national politics of specific countries).[5] Nevertheless, the tolerant attitude of the country's leadership and the majority of Azerbaijani society toward the Jewish minority, combined with the distinctly friendly relations of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the State of Israel, create favorable conditions for preserving and even strengthening the organized Jewish community in this country.

In this sense, the role of Jews in Azerbaijan is more significant than anywhere else in the post-Soviet space. (In local Jewish circles, the view of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is frequently cited: the Azerbaijani leadership's support for the local Jewish community is not so much the result of a strategic partnership with Israel as, conversely, the key role of Azerbaijani Jews in building the partnership with the Jewish state allows them to enjoy the support of the authorities).[6]

All of these processes—a better understanding of which, in our view, can assist all those involved in shaping development policies for the organized Jewish movement in this country—will keep the Jews of Azerbaijan in the focus of research interest for anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists for years to come. The same applies to the leaders, activists, and professional staff of local Jewish communities and their umbrella organizations at the regional, continental, and global levels.

[1] Tolts M. A Demographic Profile of the Jews of Azerbaijan, 1959-1989. p. 133 http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2016/0693/analit01.php#_ftnref9

[2] Sergio DellaPergola, “World Jewish Population, 2019,” in:  Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin, eds., The American Jewish Year Book, 2019, Volume 119 (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019), p. 335.

[3] For more details, see: Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin, “Russia’s War in Ukraine Shifts Dynamics in the Israel-Iran-Azerbaijan Triangle,” The Russian File. Washington: The Wilson Center, November 3, 2022, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/russias-war-ukraine-shifts-dynamics-israel-iran-azerbaijan-triangle

[4]  For more details on the phenomenon of Russian-speaking Jewry as a distinct ethnic group, see: Chernin V. "On the Question of Russian-Speaking Jews as a Sub-Ethnos": https://institute.eajc.org/eajpp-42/

[5] See: Vladimir Khanin, “Institutionalization of the Post-Communist Jewish Movement: Organizational Structures, Ruling Elites and Political Conflicts, Jewish Political Studies Review, Vol. 14, Nos. 1-2, (2002), pp. 5 – 28;  Haim Ben Yakov, "Myths of the 'Fifth Column' and the Problem of Double Loyalty: Jews of Post-Soviet Euro-Asia and the State of Israel," Euro-Asian Jewish (EAJ) Policy Papers, No 17 (March 27, 2019) https://institute.eajc.org/eajpp-17/

[6] On the "Jewish aspect" and the Israel factor in Azerbaijani foreign policy, see: Khanin Z.  "Antisemitism and the Jewish Theme in Military Conflicts in the Post-Soviet Space" / Euro-Asian Jewish (EAJ) Policy Papers, No 47 (26 December 2022) https://institute.eajc.org/eajpp-47/