User:AbigailStern0702/Sephardic Judaism in the Soviet Union

Sephardic Judaism was practiced by several different groups of ethnic Jews throughout the Soviet Union, including the Mountain Jews of the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan, the Georgian Jews, and the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. The Sephardic rites originated in Spain, but after the expulsion of the Jewish population from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, the Sephardic Jews that did not remain in Spain primarily migrated eastward, and the rituals and traditions were adopted and practiced by many Eastern groups of Jews in the regions of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the territories of the Soviet Union later on. Despite the frequent pogroms and religious repressions that occurred during the Soviet period, much of the religious traditions remain and continue to be observed by the ethnic Jews of the Soviet Union.

The languages, practices, and characteristics of Sephardic Judaism were, and continue to be distinguished from the form of Judaism observed by Ashkenazi Jews. Throughout the years of the Soviet period and after its dissolution, conflicts prevailed between the groups of Jews that practiced each different form of Judaism, as well as a common trend of antisemitism that stemmed from the nationalism of different populations who encountered the ethnic Jewish groups.

Background

The Soviet Union had been home to a myriad of different groups of Jews since the period of the tsarist regime. Ashkenazi Jews dominated the population of Jewish peoples in the Soviet Union, but Mountain Jews, Bukharan Jews, and Georgian Jews existed as well in smaller communities throughout the Russian empire and its surrounding countries. The disparate nature of the Jewish population, combined with the geographic and religious differences between the existing ethnic groups, made for a disorganized nation characterized by tension and ethnic nationalism. The majority of Russian Jews were Ashkenazi, and thus Ashkenazic religious practices and customs prevailed throughout the Soviet Union, which made the other groups of Jews who practiced Sephardic Judaism automatic minorities. The emergence of Russian nationalism in the years of the Bolshevik Revolution amplified this sentiment, as any Jew residing in the Soviet Union was seen as foreign and a minority population.

Mountain Jews at a Mountain Jewish school in Guba, Azerbaijan

Mountain Jews

A majority of the Mountain Jewish population resided in the North Caucasus, having immigrated there from the northern areas of Persia and settled primarily in the Republic of Dagestan, as well as some areas of Azerbaijan. This took the form of special Jewish settlements scattered throughout towns across the North Caucasus, and later on, the Soviet Union. The Mountain Jews, as well as the land they resided on, became part of the Soviet Union when the North Caucasus was annexed in the early 19th century. Many Mountain Jews began to migrate into larger cities in Russia and Azerbaijan as a result, in search of more opportunities outside of their homeland. At this time, the Caucasus was a region marked by the absence of prominent antisemitism, despite the prevalence of it in other regions of the Soviet Union. There was little existence of any majority of Jews in the region, except for the Mountain Jews of Dagestan, and as a result, they were not subject to the same level of distrust and discrimination as in other parts of Russia at the time. In the years before 1918, the most common occupation for the Mountain Jewish population were jobs as farmers and merchants, and this remained a common practice, particularly with the formation of Jewish collective farms in Azerbaijan and other parts of the Caucasus later on in 1929, as well as the advent of NEP (New Economic Policy). Mountain Jewish families were characterized by a strong adherence to religious tradition and a patriarchal family structure, with emphasis on traditional gender roles evidenced in their religious customs. Mountain Jews, like many other Eastern Jews, followed the religious practices of Sephardic Judaism, as supposed to the more prevalent form of Ashkenazi Judaism that was followed by the majority of Russian Jews. Having come from Persia, a region into which Sephardic rites had disseminated after the 1492 expulsion, the Mountain Jews adopted Sephardic rituals and brought their customs with them as they migrated eastward. By 1914, approximately sixty synagogues had been instituted throughout the areas inhabited by Mountain Jews, and were active places of worship for the Mountain Jewish population.

Georgian Jews commemoration at Tbilisi Synagogue in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Georgian Jews

After existing under a system of serfdom perpetrated by the Mongols until 1871, Georgian Jews were able to migrate into small villages throughout Georgia -- territory that would later on come under the leadership and control of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Occupations of the Georgian Jews primarily consisted of trading, though some of them worked as artisans. At the beginning of Soviet rule, the Jews of Georgia were allowed a certain degree of religious freedom, in which activities such as gathering at local synagogues were permitted. Georgian Jews, similar to other ethnic Jewish groups of the Soviet Union, practiced Sephardic rituals and customs while retaining their cultural identity as Georgians. This did not last, and in 1924, specifically Jewish collective farms (kolkhozi) were created for the Soviet government to utilize the labor of the Georgian Jews for agricultural purposes. Religious practice was strictly curtailed during this period, and later on in the 1930s through the 1950s, the Soviet leadership in Georgia effectively liquidated centers of Jewish cultural significance and closed synagogues in order to suppress the following of Judaism. However, mass protest against these government actions by the Georgian Jews allowed them to remain practicing Jews and observing certain religious customs, albeit in a much more restricted manner. The patriarchal structure of the family characterized how these practices were carried out, with the women holding subservient roles, and much of the religious knowledge and customs of Georgian Jews was gained through family traditions, as supposed to outside sources of religious education. Keeping kosher was also a common observance of Judaism for the Georgian Jews, as their economic success gained from trade ventures in the later years of the Soviet Union allowed for a majority of them to afford the purchase of specialized foods.

A group of Bukharan Jews celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles.

Bukharan Jews

Another prominent ethnic Jewish group in the territories of the Soviet Union, Bukharan Jews resided in Central Asia in the areas now known as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. After these regions were annexed by Russia in 1865 and the population of Bukharan Jews came under Russian control, they experienced a lengthy period of religious freedom and equality that was unique in its absence of antisemitism. However, having previously endured forced Islamization centuries before, Bukharan Jewish culture did not begin to thrive until just before the Russian annexation, with the aid of a prominent Sephardic Jew from Morocco, Rabbi Joseph Maman Maghribi, in 1793. He reinvigorated the Bukharan Jewish community and effectively reminded Bukharan Jews of the Sephardic rituals they had long ceased to practice, which characterized the Bukharan Jewish faith as it developed in the centuries after.

The Bukharan Jews in the Russian-controlled territories were not subject to the same levels of religious interference as many other Jewish populations were at the time, and were supportive of the Russian regime and its presence up until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Many strong, prominent religious institutions were present throughout the Bukharan Jewish community, and were targeted in the 1920s by the new Soviet government as a response to their restrictions on religious autonomy. Under the Soviet nationality policies originally implemented, a certain degree of religious freedom was allowed, but this decreased in the later years as Stalinist policies began to appear in Central Asia. The Bukharan Jews followed (and continue to follow) Sephardic Judaism and its rites, but certain beliefs that are held stem from Islamic influence, such as the idea that an individual's Jewish identity is inherited in through the father, and not the mother. The religious infrastructure of the Bukharan Jewish community provided opportunities for education and schooling, and remained present for decades, despite Soviet efforts to quell religious practices and close synagogues in 1928. The Bukharan Jews enjoyed the longest tenure of religious freedom of the ethnic Jewish groups residing in the Soviet Union, and many of the attempts at forcibly eradicating religious tradition by the Communist Party were not successful in erasing the presence of religion from the area. Bukharan Jewish women were specifically targeted during the Bolshevik government's campaign (Hujum) to forcibly liberate Central Asian women from their traditional religious customs, which were viewed by the Soviet government as oppressive and contrary to their goal of equality between the sexes.

There exists some ambiguity surrounding the makeup of the Bukharan Jewish population, due to the additional presence of a community of Ashkenazi Jews in the same Central Asian territories. The Bukharan Jews and the Ashkenazi Jews did not intermix, but in the case of the Uzbek government, they were not distinguished from one another, and simply categorized together as Jews, despite having different religious customs and practices.

Psalm 138.1-2 in the Sephardic language (Ladino)

Sephardic religiosity

Sephardic Judaism originated in Spain, and the term Sephardim stems from the Hebrew word for Spain, Sefarad, meaning 'from Spain'. Following the mass expulsions of the Sephardic Jews in 1492 as a result of the edict known as the Alhambra Decree, the population expanded both westward and eastward into other geographical areas, bringing along traditional Sephardic practices and culture. It most prominently occurred throughout the regions of Middle East and the Caucasus, with many communities adopting customs and traditions of Sephardic Judaism while still retaining their distinct cultural identities. Specifically in the territories of the Soviet Union, Sephardic practices are followed by the Mountain Jews of the northern Caucasus and Azerbaijan, the Georgian Jews, and the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. These practices are distinguished from the ways in which Ashkenazi Jews observe certain religious customs, and there is a common sense of the "other" found in the contrast between the two types of Judaism.

There has been some overlap with regards to nomenclature, as the term ‘Mizrahim' or 'Mizrahi Jew' can also refer to Sephardic Jews, as a majority of Eastern Jews (as supposed to Western Jews, who were primarily Ashkenazi) practiced Judaism in the Sephardic rite. However, the characterization of Mizrahim is not looked at favorably by some groups of Jews, including a lot of the eastern ethnic Jews, as it can be seen as effectively betraying each individual community’s heritage and history. The characterization of Jews as Sephardim can grown to encompass not just the Jews expelled from Spain that settled in other regions, but also other ethnic groups of Jews that practice Sephardic religious traditions.

Sephardic language among ethnic Jews

Sephardic Judaism was distinguished by several languages, including Judeo-Spanish (also known as Ladino), Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo-Tat. Judeo-Tat was the language most frequently found in the Soviet Union and used by ethnic Jewish populations, particularly notably by Mountain Jewish communities in the Caucasus. It was adopted by the Mountain Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the use of it throughout the Caucasus (specifically Dagestan) blossomed in the Soviet period from 1920 to 1960. Judeo-Tat was not commonly found in many realms of cultural life before the beginning of the Soviet period, with only few pieces of literature -- including the Sephardic prayer book -- being published in the language. Judeo-Tat was given the status as one of the official languages of the Dagestan republic during this period as well, as the Mountain Jews in the area constituted a notable portion of the population. Many forms of cultural representation emerged through the Soviet Union's influence on the Caucasus, with the formation of schools taught in the Judeo-Tat language, and the publication of literature and newspapers. However, the processes of "Latinization" of the languages in the Soviet Union and the subsequent adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet affected the use of Judeo-Tat, and its prevalence has somewhat faded over the years, with some Mountain Jews still continuing to claim the language as their mother tongue.

Synagogue in Krasnaiya Sloboda (Qırmızı Qəsəbə), Azerbaijan.

Contemporary practice

While the populations have dwindled significantly in the later years of the Soviet Union, Sephardic Judaism is still practiced by many remaining communities of Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, and Bukharan Jews. In Azerbaijan, most Mountain Jews reside in either the capital city Baku, or smaller settlements like Krasnaiya Sloboda (Qırmızı Qəsəbə) and Oğuz. After years of repression, Mountain Jewish religious life is expanding, with the construction of new synagogues, a museum dedicated to Mountain Jewish culture and practices, and the creation of yeshivas in towns populated by Mountain Jews. Krasnaiya Sloboda in particular is a thriving center for Mountain Jews to practice their religion openly, as they make up the majority population and have numerous active synagogues throughout the community.

A synagogue in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Despite a greatly reduced population due to the popularity of aliyah, Georgian Jews still maintain their cultural and religious life throughout Tbilisi, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Kutaisi, Kareli, Oni, and other areas. Synagogues are spread throughout the various cities, as well as a mikveh and a shochet in Tbilisi that serve the Georgian Jewish communities. As observing traditional Jewish laws closely is a tenet of Georgian Jews' religious beliefs, the Georgian Jewish population is centered around these areas.

The number of Bukharan Jews that remain in Bukhara to uphold their religious community is extremely small, with increasing migrations of Bukharan Jews to Israel and America. According a 2015 article, less than 150 Bukharan Jews actually reside in the city of Bukhara, and the total population throughout Uzbekistan is also very small. As a result, the community faces myriad challenges in preserving their culture, as there are only two synagogues in Bukhara, as well as no yeshiva that would allow Bukharan Jews to study to become rabbis. A Jewish school exists in the city, but few of its students are Bukharan. There has been somewhat widespread anxiety that Bukharan Jewish community in Bukhara will eventually disappear, due to the decreasing population and lack of young Bukharan Jews to assume leadership roles. In contrast, however, a growing population of around 50,000 Bukharan Jews exists in the borough of Queens, New York, and approximately 40 synagogues attended by Bukharan Jews are spread throughout the area, as well as several Bukharan schools.

Aliyah

A common phenomenon, especially in the later years of the Soviet Union, was the making of aliyah (the immigration to Israel) by many ethnic Jewish groups. Throughout the Soviet period, many ethnic Jews made aliyah as a result of religious repression and violence in the Soviet Union and its republics. Aliyah was frequent in the period of the 1920s and 1930s in particular, with over 4,000 Bukharan Jews from Central Asia immigrating -- albeit secretly due to strict emigration laws. In addition, during the decade of the 1970s alone, an estimated 30,000 Georgian Jews made aliyah, as well as around 10,000 Mountain Jews, after the Soviet Union lessened its restrictive moratorium on Jewish emigration. A large number of Bukharan Jews immigrated to Israel during this time as well, due to increasingly tense relations with Muslim populations in Uzbekistan and other countries with prominent Bukharan Jewish communities. The wave of immigration only increased un the years of the 1990s, with approximately 20,000 Georgian Jews immigrating to Israel, and about 100,000 Bukharan Jews from Central Asia. Particularly in Uzbekistan, migrations became very frequent after Uzbekistan's independence was instituted, as a result of a rise in local nationalism and widespread fear of Jewish persecution. The desire for these ethnic Jewish groups to make aliyah and leave their native countries has caused the populations to decrease significantly, with only very small numbers remaining in the communities today. While aliyah was not as prevalent as in other areas, approximately 65% of Mountain Jews have immigrated from Azerbaijan during this period of the 1990s, leaving many Jewish towns empty and and largely uninhabited.

Antisemitism

Mountain Jews

Considered by some to be the poorest and most uneducated ethnic Jewish group, Mountain Jews faced antisemitism from varying populations over time. Ethnic tensions and land disputes resulted in discrimination and hatred towards Mountain Jewish communities, as they were primarily engaged in agriculture, and were seen by other groups in the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan as 'aliens', despite their long history in the region. Mountain Jews fell victim to countless blood libels and pogroms in the early Soviet years of the 1920s, and this only worsened in the years leading up to World War II. Through their collectivization efforts, the Soviet government aimed to quash distinct religious cultures like that of the Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan, and this culminated in the formation of Jewish collective farms in the North Caucasus and in various Azerbaijan villages. During the German occupation of parts of the Soviet Union in World War II, many Mountain Jewish communities were exterminated in areas of the Northern Caucasus like Kislovodsk. Russification of the Mountain Jews continued after the war as well, with schools ceasing to be taught in the traditional language of Judeo-Tat, and many places of religious significance closed. A massive portion of Mountain Jewish culture was effectively destroyed in these years -- in the predominately Mountain Jewish town of Kraisnaya Sloboda, twelve out of the thirteen synagogues were shut down.

Jobs as traders and merchants were common among Mountain Jews, despite the common antisemitic stereotype that they were unassimilated and primitive, and after a large Mountain Jewish migration to Moscow in the later years of the Soviet Union, antisemitism in Moscow significantly increased. The antisemitic stereotype of the “Jewish tradesman” was prevalent, portraying Jews as the root cause for the Soviet Union's unfavorable economic and social conditions. A significant quantity of Mountain Jews were engaged in trade, and this discrimination and vitriol was primarily directed towards their community. However, religious tradition still was somewhat retained throughout the Soviet period and remains today, despite the decreasing populations of Mountain Jews. While the majority of Azerbaijan's population is Muslim, antisemitism is said to be less of a serious issue in Azerbaijan after its independence, and relations between Azeri Muslims and Mountain Jews are reportedly not acrimonious.

Georgian Jews

Antisemitism has been a significant phenomenon plaguing Georgian Jews since the 19th century, having been forced into serfdom by the Mongols until 1871. Despite the later annexation of Georgia by the Soviet Union, antisemitism only increased, as local Georgians felt threatened by the Jews and saw them as encroaching on work opportunities. The beginnings of the Soviet years were characterized by continual blood libels, and Georgian Jews migrated to Israel and Palestine in droves after the 1921 invasion by the Soviet Red Army. With the formation of specifically Jewish collective farms in Georgia, the community was allowed to continue observing religious rituals and practices relatively uninterrupted by the state. This short period of relief allowed for slightly more freedom for the Georgian Jews to practice their religion and maintain their culture, but did not last for long. In the years of the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet government permanently closed forty Georgian Jewish synagogues -- a large blow to the community, as synagogues were deeply important centers of cultural life, even more so than for other groups such as Ashkenazi Jews. However, Georgian Jewish religious life managed to survive the Soviet years, as most remained dedicated to attending synagogue, observing kashrut, and retaining their traditional Sephardic rituals, despite disapproval from the authorities.

Bukharan Jews

As with other ethnic Jews, Bukharan Jews were subject to centuries of antisemitism and violence. However, they uniquely experienced antisemitism from not only non-Jewish Soviet citizens, but from the Muslim populations residing in areas where Bukharan Jews were populous -- primarily Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. While they were somewhat exempt from the same levels of antisemitism that plagued the Georgian Jews and Mountain Jews, Bukharan Jews were subject to a large wave of antisemitism beginning in the later 1920s, with numerous blood libels and the destruction of most synagogues. In the Soviet Union, the state actively suppressed Bukharan Jewish culture, eradicating Bukharan Jewish schools and halting publication of Judeo-Tajik literature. In the largely Muslim-populated Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, antisemitism against Bukharan Jews skyrocketed after Israel became a nation in 1948, as local Muslims felt threatened and saw Islam as being under attack. This lessened slightly in the post-Soviet years, but there still exists a repressive attitude in Uzbekistan towards any religious group that may have more democratic or radical beliefs, disproportionately affecting Jewish groups. However, Bukharan Jews are actually subject to less antisemitism than their Ashkenazi counterparts in Central Asia, as they assimilated into the local population at a greater degree and are seen as less 'foreign'.

Ashkenazi-Sephardic relations

Prior to the annexation of the territories of the Caucasus by the Soviet Union in the 19th century, the different groups of ethnic Jews had not previously had a high level of interaction with each other, as they lived in widespread areas and their living situations did not allow it. There was almost no intermixing of the different Jewish groups, until the Bolshevik government opened up the Pale of Settlement and created opportunities for migration to other areas of the Soviet Union for its inhabitants, primarily Russian Ashkenazi Jews. Given the religious and cultural differences between Ashkenazi Jews and other groups of ethnic Jews in the Soviet Union that practiced Sephardic Judaism, tensions between the communities were prevalent when they did interact.

The Moscow Choral Synagogue, located in Moscow.

Relations in Russia (Moscow)

Many Ashkenazi Jews who became involved with the Communist Party actively engaged in the spreading of anti-religious propaganda, which were aimed primarily at the ethnic Jews of the Caucasus and Central Asia, as they had a firmer hold on religious tradition and were not subject to the same extent of religious restriction. The Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, and Bukharan Jews generally tended to adhere more strictly to Jewish law than the Russian Ashkenazi Jews, but a sense of religious superiority was present on both sides. In the later years of the Soviet Union, many ethnic Jews (particularly Mountain Jews) migrated to Moscow in search of better economic opportunities, and many Russian Jews saw this as an invasion of their territory. Nationalism was prevalent during the Soviet period, and Russian Ashkenazi Jews asserted this in their objections to the presence of Mountain, Georgian, and Bukharan Jews occupying jobs in Russia, as well as in a religious setting. Russian Jews mainly followed Ashkenazic rite, whereas the ethnic Jewish groups primarily followed Sephardic rite, and this created a sense of cultural conflict between the populations. The population of Russian Ashkenazi Jews that resided in Russia was the dominant Jewish population throughout the Soviet Union, with the Mountain, Georgian, and Bukharan Jews constituting the minority. Despite the presence of Sephardic-practicing Jews, an Ashkenazic style of prayer was prominent throughout most synagogues, including the Moscow Choral Synagogue, one of the main synagogues in Russia. Prayer and ritual differences, as well as language barriers, added to the tension between the groups, with each group developing their own sense of religious nationalism.

An additional element of discrimination that occurred between Russian Jews and the Mountain Jews was based on skin color. Some Russian Jews, most of whom had pale complexions, saw the Mountain Jews, with their much darker skin tones, as being "savage" and uncivilized, in addition to their geographical differences of West versus East.

Relations in Georgia

Similar to that of Russian Ashkenazi Jews, the relationship between Ashkenazi Jews in Georgia and the Sephardic-practicing ethnic Jews of Georgia was equally tense and prone to conflict. Due to forced migration at the hands of the Russian empire in the 1800s, Ashkenazi Jews residing in Georgia and the more traditional Georgian Jews were at odds from the very beginning. Georgian Jews practiced a much more traditional form of Judaism, in addition to following Sephardic rites, and thus saw the Ashkenazi Jews as "godless and secular," inciting significant animosity between the two populations. In contrast, Ashkenazi Jews saw the ethnic Georgian Jews as inferior and primitive due to their more traditionalist style of worship.