Posted on 04/27/2003 4:47:57 PM PDT by blam
Life drains away from lost tribe of Mountain Jews
By Tom Parfitt in Azerbaijan
(Filed: 27/04/2003)
One of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world is struggling for survival as its young people leave in droves seeking a better life in the West.
The population of Krasnaya Sloboda in northern Azerbaijan has fallen to 4,000 from the 18,000 who lived here during the Communist era. Lured by the prospect of better wages and an easier life, young Jews are fleeing abroad, raising fears that the community could dwindle and die.
"Soon there may be no one left," said God Yakubov, a native of the town who moved to New York two years ago and had returned for a family gathering.
Krasnaya Sloboda is the last stronghold of the Caucasus Mountain Jews, or Juhuro, a distinct ethnic group thought to be descended from the Lost Tribes that left Israel after the destruction of the first temple in 722bc.
After fleeing persecution in Persia, they migrated north to mountain villages on both sides of the high peaks between the Black Sea and the Caspian. They still speak a dialect of Persian and few Juhuro know more than the odd Hebrew phrase.
For centuries Krasnaya Sloboda - perhaps the only completely Jewish settlement outside Israel - kept its traditions intact, surrounded by Muslims. The fall of the Soviet Union, however, in 1991 prompted a mass exodus. In recent years the population has plummeted as inhabitants pack their bags for Israel, America and Europe.
"What can my people do?" asked Boris Simanduyev, 70, Krasnaya Sloboda's elected Jewish elder, or gabbai. "There's no work here any more. They must seek new lives abroad."
The number of Juhuro in the Caucasus regions outside Azerbaijan is also declining rapidly. In neighbouring Russia, the threat of Islamic fundamentalism has forced thousands of Mountain Jews to emigrate from Dagestan. Earlier this month, vandals desecrated 42 Jewish graves in the region, which borders Chechnya.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, which helps Jews to leave areas where they experience anti-Semitism, estimates that 10 per cent of Dagestan's 10,000 scattered Juhuro will leave by the end of the year.
The Juhuro of Krasnaya Sloboda are treated well by the overwhelmingly Muslim population of Azerbaijan. However, revenues from the country's vast oil reserves have failed to trickle down to the isolated community.
A handful of men work in the nearby Muslim town of Kuba, but most while away their days in the town's many tea gardens.
Mr Simanduyev said: "In Soviet times we had a collective farm and a fruit juice factory. Even when our places of worship were closed at least we had jobs. It's all gone."
Before 1917, Krasnaya Sloboda was a thriving community of skilled leather workers and other tradesmen. Known as "Little Jerusalem", it boasted 13 synagogues. The Communists turned all but one of the synagogues into storehouses and carpet-weaving workshops and banished several rabbis to Siberia. It was the first blow in a long decline.
Mr Yakubov, 23, wearing a skullcap and a denim jacket, is typical of the new generation that sees no future in the town. "The only time people like me come back is for weddings and funerals - or for their own burial," he shrugged, as he sat with friends on a pavement.
He made the visit for the first anniversary of his father's death. Although he lives in Brooklyn, he spends long periods in Russia and China, earning a good living as a trader in cheap clothes.
About 110,000 Juhuro exiles now live in America, Israel and Europe, compared with the decreasing 25,000 who remain in the Caucasus.
Although the average working person in Krasnaya Sloboda ekes out a living on 25,000 manats (£30) a month, Yakubov can clear thousands of pounds on every deal. "I love this place," he said. "I grew up here. If I could I would stay, but I just can't survive."
The exodus from Krasnaya Sloboda has produced some outward signs of recovery. A handful of millionaire emigrants are returning to build palatial houses, lavishly decorated with Stars of David. The town has a shiny new supermarket, a suite for wedding celebrations and a mikva, a ritual bath for women - one of only two in the country.
At the Beit Midrash college, teenagers in smartly pressed suits pore over scrolls from the Torah. Mark Zarbailov, 17, has been trained to teach the language to other young people. "We must save the culture that makes us Jewish," he said.
The positive signs, however, are deceptive. Many of the exiles who have returned have built their vast, ugly homes then disappeared back to the West, never to be seen again. The diaspora continues and there seems little prospect that the town will stage a dramatic economic recovery.
Those who refuse to take the road to exile cling to the hope that, against the odds, a nucleus of Mountain Jews will remain in the Caucasus. "This is our native land," said the town's rabbi, Natan Ilyaguyev, 64. "I pray we will always be here."
"Except for that whole banishing our rabbis to Siberia thing, the Soviets weren't all that bad."
Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
Hosea 1:11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel. 
Beautiful Liberty.
Ok but let us get the facts right--the first temple was not destroyed in 722, it was destroyed by Nebuchednezar in 588 BC (or 586); what happened in 721 (or 723 or 725 or 740 or some variation) was that "in the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes." (II Kings 17:6) The king of Assyria removed the ten northern tribes and took them away and resettled Israel (Samaria) with his own people. Nothing to do with destruction of the temple--the temple was located in Jerusalem, the ten northern tribes were in Samaria. Unrelated.
Ten tribes were not lost--a few members were removed to undocumented locations, but for the most part, we know where they were initially located and can engage in informed speculation about where they went. In this case, investigation about where they went is unnecessary--we know.
"SLOBODA" originated from Russian word "svoboda" (freedom in English) because people were freed from paying taxes and other duties, at least temporarily. Sometimes "slobodka" means "a little sloboda". Sloboda: has three main meanings:
a) From 11th-17th century: a settlement located on government-owned land or private land whose inhabitants had something in common [(engaged in commerce (torgovaia) sloboda, rifleman (streletskaia) sloboda, monks sloboda)] and who temporarily were relieved of paying taxes and other duty assessments in exchange for colonizing this piece of land.
b) A large "selo" (village) usually with more than one church and where large fairs were organized, a type of "nearby villages and hamlets center".
c) A village (selo) where inhabitants engaged in manufactural, industrial work and, sometimes, agricultural goods production only for their own consumption
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Note: this topic is from 4/27/2003. |
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Note: this topic is from 4/27/2003. |
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that is precisely what happened in the San Juan River Basin
Bert’s rule.......
The young folks moved, the old folks died
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