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Purim Livens Up Southern Russian Community
Purim went over very well in Russia's southernmost Jewish community,
located in the North Caucasus city of Derbent. Several hundred people
gathered in the great hall of the Synagogue to mark this holiday of joy.
Chief Rabbi of
Derbent Ovadiya Isaakov opened the event, underlining that although Purim
celebrates an occasion that took place 2,000 years ago, the joy it brings
to Jews worldwide carries through to this day....
www.fjc.ru
Program for Caucasus youth in Israel
The UJA-Federation of New York is reaching out to the Caucasus Jews
in Israel with youth intervention programs.
The initiative, announced Wednesday, will focus on the community also
known as Kavkazi Jews, or "Mountain Jews,"
who immigrated to Israel in
large numbers from Azerbaijan and Dagestan in the 1990s.
The pilot program being launched by the
federation will have a budget of $500,000 in the first year and grow to $1
million over the next two years. It will...
www.jta.org
Caucasus In The City
In the
Jewish area of Flatbush where elders occupy benches and the sidewalk is
filled with Orthodox power walkers, lays a synagogue most are too
oblivious to notice.
The Caucasian Jewish Congregation on Ocean Parkway
is about the size of a private house, small and orderly.
Though there are plenty of synagogues in the area, this particular one
must welcome a whole community.
Being the
only synagogue for Mountain Jews in New York, and one of the few in the
world, it redefines the Mountain
Polina Pinkhasova (New York Jewish Week)
Brooklyn lights
Nearly 200 members of the Jewish community of Kensington gathered for the
menorah lighting ceremony on Caton Avenue overpass
crossing the
Prospect expressway for the menorah lighting ceremony organized by the
Chabad of Kensington in collaboration with the Gorsky – Kavkazian Jewish
Center.
Joined by the New York City Comptroller William C.
Thompson, World Renowned Boxing Champion Dmitry Salita, Pinchus Haikind,
Executive Assistant of Deputy Comptroller and other...
Juhuro.com
Birth of a New
Magazine
Avraam Ilyaguev /Natania, Israel/
Juhuro.com
The Jewish New
Year was marked for Mountain Jews living in Israel with
an important cultural event – publishing edition of new
magazine, “Kavkazi Jews.”
The idea about
the new edition grew ripe for a long time. To inform the
reader on different aspects inner and inter-communal
life, to give it a key to understanding different
historical - social processes, occurring now in the
environment of Mountain Jews, - command of time.
In fact
very much many families of Mountain Jews by virtue of a
different sort of circumstances have separated and
settled in a number of the countries of Europe as well
as United States and Israel........
Translated by Yeva Rakhamimova
 Where the Mountain Jews
came from is a source of much scholarly speculation.
Many of these Jews, who sometimes call themselves Tats,
insist that they are descendants of Israel's Lost Tribes
who began their wanderings after the destruction of
Jerusalem's first temple in 722 B.C. Others say the Tats
migrated north from Persia a mere 300 years ago, at the
invitation of a local khan, or chieftain and were cut
off from their cousins in Iran as the borders of empires
shifted.
"According to Kings II -
and oral tradition - when ancient Israel was destroyed,
some citizens headed, in the eighth century B.C.E., to
the conquering land of Assyria and beyond to Media on
the Caspian's southern shores.
More...
Photo:
Sionist congress in Basle.
Mordechaev
and Bogatirov
with Theodore Harzel.
1903.
Uphill
Battle: Mountain Jews Struggle to Maintain Centuries-old Traditions
By Frank Brown
More...
Why Be
Jewish?
You are young and you have the choice that the
Almighty gives to all, young and old: life and death, good and evil,
truth or illusion. If you choose the transitory pleasures of your
present chapter of life, you will awaken some day with the taste of
ashes in your mouth. If you really believe that the things for which our
people struggled and fought and died and then continued to live for so
long, are so cheap that they can be thrown away for drugs or a
job-surely you will awaken one day with a broken heart and a broken
soul.
More...
The
Open letter from Israel to all people of the World
Ilya Bruskin
I am a Jew, a citizen of Israel, one of those people who are being shot
on while walking in the streets or being blown up in the buses,
restaurants and discotheques. I am not writing this to make you feel
sorry for us, but to show you that your governments are putting our
lives in jeopardy by helping our killers
More...
 JEWISH COMMUNITY OF
AZERBAIJAN Country Report
There are three Jewish
communities on the territory of the present-day Azerbaijan: Mountain
Jews, Jews-ashkenazi and Georgian Jews. The most ancient is the
community of Mountain Jews, which according to the opinion of the
majority of historians appeared here more than 15 centuries ago.
More...
 Trip
to Earth
In
the "Jewish accent" newspaper, which was published on
September 16, 2001, I saw a picture of woman in the black scarf at the
memorial service in Brooklyn. I was not able to take my eyes off the
grieving face. I recognized the address and visited the house. It's more
than a month since the tragedy has happened, but the parents of Daniel
Ilkanayev still cannot believe what has happened. It is not only
them that cannot believe, but the whole Mountain Jewish community.
More...
 Sergeant
Chani Abramov: I will rise again.
Chani Abramov,
who was heavily wounded by Arab terrorists two weeks ago, wanted to
become a model. The army uniform, gave this beautiful girl, youngest of
three sisters in the Abramov family, a unique charm. This was obvious
from the picture of Chani in the French Magazine "Elle", which
published an article about Chani. For foreign reporters Chani had an
exotic beauty. Israel is the only country in the world where, according
to Government laws, women are mandatory participants in the army. Women
even participate in battle forces. And for Chani, who was interviewed by
French reporters, patrolling in Arab areas was a hard and dangerous
work. She was enlisted to the army year ago and she was there in the
most difficult times of Intifada.
More...
The Remaining Jews of
Dagestan
 During the recent
holiday period, over 150 more olim arrived from Dagestan. In
spite of the tense situation in the region, JAFI
representatives continue to work relentlessly processing the
hundreds of Jews who are choosing to make aliyah. Currently
five JAFI ulpanim are functioning with a total of 300
students. Estimates are that ten percent of the remaining
Jewish population of 10,000 in Dagestan will make aliyah by
the end of this year. Bimonthly direct flights from the capital city of Mahachkela bring
the olim to Israel where many of them join family members.
More...
Right: Father and
daughter from a town near the Chechnyan border arrrive in
Israel.
 Jews of the long
dagger
By Meir Ronnen
A fascinating new show in the ethnology wing of the Israel Museum, devoted
to the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus, has been curated by a scion of the
Kuba community in Azerbaijan, Liya Mikdash Shamailov, who immigrated here
just a decade ago. Kuba is the only entirely Jewish town outside of
Israel.
More...
Models display Dagestani Jewish dress
and the uniquely Jewish woman's head covering. (Israel Museum)
Riches from the Caucasus
Yosef Matayev decided on his life's work one summer when he was five and naked as a jaybird.
That jaybird became a bird of paradise, a legend in his own place, the artistic director of Lezginka, the most famous Caucasian dance troupe in the FSU, if not in the world. Then he came here and became just another anonymous Russian immigrant.
But Caucasians are stubborn, so tomorrow, the Yosef Matayev Caucasian Dance Troupe will make its professional debut on the main stage at Suzanne Dellal within the framework of MahoLohet. The dances are mainly those of the Caucasus, but Matayev has created an Israeli medley too, a salute to the country that restored his heart - literally.
More...
 Famous
Mountain Jews
Photo: The IDF
Deputy Commander of General staff, Gen. Yekutiel
('Kuti') Adam, WITH YITZHAK RABIN AND ALUF
SHARON IN TASSA CAMP IN SINAI 19/02/1976
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The Music of the Mountain
Jews
This music was recorded on location
among the Jewish communities of the Caucasus and, more recently,
among the Mountain Jews who immigrated to Israel in large numbers
after 1989. A large recorded collection of Mountain Jewish music
is now stored at the National Sound Archives, the Department of
Music at the National Jewish and University Library in Jerusalem
(the reference number of each item at the NSA is included with the
title in the list of contents). Most recordings were carried out
by Piris Eliyahu, however, a substantial number of them are from
the archives of Radio Makhachkala.
ANTHOLOGY OF
MUSIC
TRADITIONS IN ISRAEL
The Jewish Music Research Center
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gavreil Ilizarov
Professor Gavreil Ilizarov
was born in the Caucasus, in the Soviet Union in 1921. Although of
illiterate parents, and not beginning his formal education until he was
11, he advanced quickly through medical school, eventually going on to
practice medicine in the Kurgan region of Siberia.
More...
 Yaffa'Yarkoni.
In israel, where her name as been a household for years, she is
known simply and effacionely as "Yaffa", no explanations
needed.
Coming of age in turbulent time Israel's creation, the battle
front was her stage, and the soldiers her believed audience. The
figure of a stunning brunnet singing in Khaki uniforms several
sizes too large, has been attached into the memory of an entire
nation. During the Six days war, a new generation of Israelis
watched a "repeat performance" culminating in
"Jerusalem of Gold" - Sung infront of the ancient
Wailing Wall, immediately after its capture.
More...
 Sarit
Hadad has become a star through perseverance and faith in her
own music. 'I do what I feel like doing" (La'asot Ma Sheba Li) is
not only the title of pop singer Sarit Hadad's latest disc; it is also
the motto that she has followed since first deciding to become a singer
at the tender age of eight.
More...
The Mountain Jews Of Azerbaijan Adapt To Freedom
A EurasiaNet photo essay by Jason Eskenazi
More.
English version of site by
Esther Mordechai e-mail
mordechai@look.ca
Web-design by Vadim Alhasov
juhuro@juhuro.com
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