The Jews of Azerbaijan

Abstract The deep historical roots of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan go back hundreds of years and are characterized by an enduring existence within a pluralistic Muslim society. This community comprises two main groups: the Kavkaz Jews (“Mountain Jews”), seamlessly integrated into the general local Shiʿite Azeri society, and the Ashkenazi Jews (“Russian Jews”). Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of an independent Azerbaijan in 1991, a significant part of the local Jewish community chose to emigrate. Those who chose to stay underwent three simultaneous processes: (1) they became part of a transnational community; (2) they developed a diasporic identity, aligning themselves with Zionist national currents; and (3) they adopted the emerging Azerbaijani nationalism. This chapter explores these interlinked processes and argues that they are dependent on singular geopolitical coincidences that enable all of these processes to be complementary and to support each other.