The Jews of the Caucasus (Mountain Jews) and their traditions

The Mountain Jews (in Russian Gorskie Evrei), also called Jews of the Eastern Caucasus, are a community established principally in Azerbaijan and Dagestan, whose origins are said to go back to migrations from Persia during the first centuries of the common era. Their language, Judeo-Tat (juhuri), is an Iranian idiom related to Persian, traditionally written in Hebrew characters. Long relatively isolated from the major centers of rabbinical Judaism, they maintained religious traditions, vestimentary customs, and a social organization strongly marked by their Caucasian and mountainous environment. Under Russian and then Soviet domination, they experienced both modernization and the restrictions imposed on religious life. The twentieth century, and especially the end of the Soviet Union, saw growing contact with world Judaism and significant emigration to Israel, the United States, and other countries, where they strive to preserve their distinctive linguistic and cultural heritage.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill