History of the Jews in Makhachkala

Makhachkala Jews
יהודי מחצ'קלה
Махачкалинские евреи

Total population
300–430
Languages
Hebrew (in Israel), Judeo-Tat, Russian
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Mountain Jews, Ashkenazi Jews.

The Jewish community of Makhachkala are Jews who have ever lived on the territory of modern Makhachkala, a city in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. During the Persian campaign in 1722 in Makhachkala was a camp for the troops of the Russian Emperor Peter I. Mountain Jews and Ashkenazi Jews were allowed to settle there.[1]

## History[edit]

The Makhachkala Synagogue

### Khazars[edit]

During the era of the Khazars Khanate, near Makhachkala in the village of Tarki, there was a Khazars settlement.[2] Many Khazar scholars believe that the capital of the Khazar Khanate, the city of Samandar,[3] was located on the site of Makhachkala. According to Ibn Hawqal, in the city of Samandar back in the 10th century there lived Jews who had their own synagogues.[2]

### Russian empire[edit]

In 1862, the first synagogue was built in the city, in which both Ashkenazi Jews and merchants Mountain Jews prayed there (including 61 artisans and 20 soldiers of the local garrison).[1]

* The city's rabbi in the 1860s was Rabbi Benjamin ben Rabi.[4]
* In 1880, 93 Mountain Jews lived here.[4]
* In 1886, ethnographer Ilya Sherebetovich Anisimov registered 15 Jewish families consisting of 123 people. There was a Jewish school in the city. Jews owned 4 manufacturing shops and 7 grocery stores.[4]
* In 1890, there were 143-230 Jews living in the city.[4]
* In 1895 there were 436 Jews. There were 2 synagogues.[4]
* According to the 1897 census, 97 thousand inhabitants lived in the district, among them 2,795 were Jews. Makhachkala (Petrovsk) had 9,753 inhabitants, of which 563 were Jews (5.8%).[4]
* In 1899 there were 739 Jews here. There was a school at the synagogue (9 male students). The rabbi of the Ashkenazim was Abram Movshovich Lozner, the rabbi of the Mountain Jews was Morduchai Iliazarov.[4]
* In 1910, 379 Jews lived (11.8%), there were 3 synagogues, a Jewish cemetery, and a Jewish public elementary school.[5]
* In 1912, 453 Mountain Jews lived in Makhachkala.[4]
* In 1914, a men's gymnasium was established.[4]
* In 1917, the group "Kings of Zion" was organized.[4]

### Soviet Union[edit]

* In 1919, the "House of the Jewish People" opened, in which work was carried out among the youth of Mountain and Ashkenazi Jews.[4]
* In the 1920s, a "Judeo-Tat" school operated in the city (the director until the 2nd half of the 1920s was Rabbi Meir Rafailov), and a drama club for Mountain Jews. At the same time, in the 1920s, during the Soviet Union, 2 synagogues were closed.[4]
* In 1925, there were 222 Jewish.[4]
* In 1926, 3,481 Jews lived in the city (including 2,050 Mountain Jews), approximately 11% of the population of Makhachkala.[4]

Also in 1926, a Jewish pogrom took place in Makhachkala, provoked by a blood libel. In the fall of that year, a rumor spread in several villages of Dagestan that supposedly Mountain Jews had killed a Muslim boy (or two) for some "ritual purposes." The angry mob organized several pogroms in Makhachkala, Derbent and other populated areas of Dagestan.[4]

* In 1930, a viticultural artel named after Joseph Stalin operated (about 26 farms, including 22 farms of Mountain Jews).[4]
* In 1939, 1,930 Jews lived in the city.[4]
* In 1959, there were 2,692 Jews, including 1,900 Mountain Jews (1.6% of the city's population).
* In 1970, 5,213 Jews (including 1,684 Mountain Jews) and 4 Karaites lived in the city. That year, the synagogue building in Makhachkala was requisitioned, and the community was given a smaller building on the outskirts of the city.[4]
* In 1971, Bobi Iosifovich Ashurov was appointed rabbi.[4]
* In 1979, 4,226 Jews lived in the city.[4]

### Russia[edit]

* In the 1990s, Shimi Migirovich Dibiyaev was appointed chairman of the Jewish religious community of Makhachkala.[1]
* In the late 1990s, a Jewish Sunday school was opened.[4]

During the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1998−1999, several representatives of the Jewish community were kidnapped for ransom. Many Jews of Makhachkala left for Israel and other countries and regions.[6]

* In 2002, according to the census, there were 430 Jews in the city (0.08%), there were 61 Mountain Jews (0.01%), and 417 Muslim Tats (0.08%).[4]
* On the night of December 24, 2007, in Makhachkala, anti-Semites broke the windows in the synagogue building. Anti-Semites also desecrated a Jewish cemetery and distributed anti-Jewish leaflets in the 2000s.[7][8][9]
* In the 2020s, the city had a synagogue, a Jewish cultural center, a Sunday school, and a club for older people. The size of the community, according to some sources, ranges from 300 to 430 Jews.[1]

Amidst the 2023 Hamas-Israel war, a group waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-semitic slogans forcefully entered the Makhachkala airport, looking for Israeli and Jewish travelers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. The incident resulted in about 20 injuries, as reported by local health authorities. Passports of some passengers were scrutinized by the crowd.[10][11]

## Notable Jews of Makhachkala[edit]

* Eduard Akuvaev (1945-2015), artist
* Hizgil Avshalumov (1913-2001), novelist, poet, playwright
* Mishi Bakhshiev (1910-1972), writer and poet
* Mark Eliyahu, musician
* Iosif Prigozhin, music producer
* Eduard Puterbrot (1940-1993), artist
* Anatoly Yagudaev (1935-2014), sculptor
* Gavril Yushvaev, businessman and investor

## See also[edit]

* Judeo-Tat
* Judeo-Tat literature
* Judeo-Tat Theatre
* Mountain Jews
* Judaism in Dagestan

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Hana Rafael. In the homeland of our ancestors: the Jews of Makhachkala. 2013.
2. ^ a b Ilya Karpenko. Juhuro In The Country Of Mountains. 2007.
3. ^ Dictionary of modern geographical names. — Ekaterinburg: U-Factoria. Under the general editorship of an academician. V. M. Kotlyakova. 2006.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Makhachkala
5. ^ "Petrovskoye." Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron. Russia, St. Petersburg, 1906—1913
6. ^ Jewish hostages
7. ^ Anti-Semitic incidents in Russia
8. ^ Attack on a synagogue in Makhachkala
9. ^ A sharp outbreak of anti-Semitism in Dagestan
10. ^ "Hundreds storm airport in Russia in antisemitic riot over arrival of plane from Israel - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2023-10-30. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
11. ^ "Anti-Israel mob storms Dagestan airport in Russia". BBC News. 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2023-10-30.

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