Azerbaijan’s Mountain Jews A Model for Jewish-Muslim Coexistence

^{Image: Nurlan Mammadzada/Shutterstock}

To those of us desensitized by modern news — hate crimes, racial tensions, and the disturbing resurgence of rampant antisemitism, — an existence of a corner of the world where Muslims and Jews refer to one another as family may sound more idyllic than believable.

The history of the Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan, and their unity and coexistence with Azerbaijani Muslims, extends back two centuries, and to date remains a model for the rest of the world to emulate. In fact, most would be surprised to learn that world’s last surviving shtetl, and the only all-Jewish town outside of Israel and the United States, is located in — and is protected by — a Muslim-majority country.

While most of the 30,000 Azerbaijani Jews live in the capital of Baku, the heartland of Azerbaijan’s Mountain Jewish community is a quaint town in the picturesque region of Quba, called Qirmizi Qesebe. It’s translated from Azerbaijani to English as the “red town” — a name inspired by the red tiles that line its many rooftops. Often referred to as the Jerusalem of the Caucasus, the Red Town’s history of Jewish settlement in the remote mountains of the Caucasus dates back to the 5th century. Some say that Mountain Jews, also known as the Kavkazi Jews, are the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.