16 | DECEMBER 8 • 2022
and teach Hebrew, Jewish studies and
Jewish history as part of the national
curriculum. The principal of one
school told us that 30% of his pupils
are dual Israeli citizens, the children of
Azerbaijanis who made aliyah to Israel
and moved back.
In contrast to many other parts of the
former Soviet Union, one leader of the
Ashkenazi community recalled, “I did
not have to hide my [Jewish] nationality,
but was also never asked.”
When I asked him why he did not
emigrate like the majority of Jews in
the former Soviet Union, he said, “We
are comfortable living here as different
nationalities. I never needed to leave here
to start another life elsewhere.”
ISRAEL AND AZERBAIJAN
Israel and Azerbaijan established dip-
lomatic relations in 1993, and I was
surprised to see the Israeli flag flying
predominantly outside the embassy,
given that it is the nearest Israeli embas-
sy to Tehran. Azerbaijan has the world’s
second-largest Shi’a Muslim population,
but unlike the largest Shi’a state, Iran,
Azerbaijan is very friendly to Israel.
Israeli Ambassador George Deek is an
Arab Christian and the youngest serving
Israeli ambassador. He described both
Israel and Azerbaijan as “beacons of tol-
erance surrounded by countries that do
not permit religious coexistence.”
Azerbaijan supplies Israel with 30-40%
of its oil, and the two countries cooper-
ate extensively on security and defense.
In fact, Israel was the main supplier of
arms to Azerbaijan in its 2020 war with
Armenia and is now assisting Azerbaijan
to defuse the one million landmines scat-
tered throughout Nagorno-Karabakh.
A recent opinion poll commissioned
by the Israeli Embassy found that Israel
is the second most favorable country
in the eyes of the Azerbaijani public,
after Turkey. Despite their extensive
cooperation, Azerbaijan did not open
an embassy in Israel to prevent inciting
its Muslim neighbors and the Non-
Aligned Movement. Our meeting with
Ambassador Deek turned out to be ser-
endipitous, as minutes after we left his
office, Azerbaijan’s Parliament voted to
open an embassy in Israel.
Metro Detroit is home to a substantial
community of Mountain Jews, who are
the descendants of Jews who migrated to
the Persian Empire after the Babylonian
Exile. Their native language is Juhuri, a
Jewish dialect of Persian.
We spent our final day in the coun-
try visiting Krasnaya Sloboda, known
as Red Village, in the Quba district,
close to the Russian border. Red Village
Dan Brotman at the
Gilaki Synagogue,
the only year-round
active synagogue in
Red Village
OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER
continued from page 15