Saffron, silk, and black gold. Just three of many reasons people have been conquering or just plain visiting Azerbaijan since the Bronze Age.
Mongols, Persians, Russians, Soviets, and Brits are among those who controlled Azerbaijan, which only gained true, full independence as a nation-state in 1991. But with 26 distinct ethnicities and languages, some existing in just a single village, there are many traditions and cultures to explore.
Welcome to Azerbaijan
Four times larger than Israel, the country lies on the western shore of the Caspian Sea and neighbors Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran.
Given its location, the country is frequented by tourists from India, the Middle East, and Europe. Israelis visit in considerable numbers. There are up to a dozen weekly flights from Tel Aviv to the capital Baku. Some 40% of the country’s 10 million people live in this bustling, walkable city.
Downtown Baku has a mix of medieval, European, Russian, and impressive 21st century architecture. Depending on where you’re standing, you might imagine you are in Berlin, Vienna, Dubai, or even Dubrovnik.
While this is a Muslim country, it greets Israeli and Jewish visitors with open arms – even post-October 7. It’s a secular state with extremely close ties to Israel. As one Azerbaijani explained, “The warm relationship is like an iceberg – you only see the tip of the friendship above the surface but so much more goes on behind the scenes.”
“The only time it’s difficult to walk around in a kippah or hat is when wind picks up,” says Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shneor Segal of the city that shares a nickname with Chicago.
Azeri Jewry
The Jewish communal buildings are prominently located in the heart of the city with prayers every day in both synagogues. The Ashkenazi synagogue also houses a smaller Georgian sanctuary. The shul hosts Shabbat meals, and pre-ordered dishes can be delivered to hotels.
Opened in 2011, the second synagogue is for Mountain Jews, who moved to the city from the Caucasus Mountains. Visitors are asked to remove their shoes prior to entering the prayer hall, whose floor is covered with locally made rugs. The synagogue is fronted by a double ark and the furniture is hand carved.
The walls are a mix of fascinating wall hangings and modern rainbow-colored stained glass depicting the usual Jewish scenes but also something perhaps unique in a Jewish house of worship. To the right of the ark and parallel to the women’s gallery are three square windows whose imagery portrays recent Azerbaijani military victories in the Karabakh region: An Azerbaijani flag held aloft, fighter jets in formation, and the gate to Shusha, a city in the region.
The synagogue is very similar in style to a much older Mountain Jews shul around a two-hours drive from the capital. It’s located across a river from the larger town Guba (pronounced Quba).
While Ashkenazi Jews only reached Azerbaijan in numbers in the last 185 years with the oil boom, some say the Mountain Jews can trace back their presence some 2,000 years. The Red Village, known as Qırmızı Qesebe in Azerbaijani, claims to be the last Jewish shtetl outside of Israel (and the United States) – though some historians do not like the use of the word shtetl, which is very much an Ashkenazi term.
It’s the largest of the remaining Jewish communities throughout the Caucasus region. With a summertime population of around 3,000 (many of the younger residents live elsewhere the rest of the year), there are several sites of interest for visitors. The Mountain Jews Museum is the best starting point.
It tells the story of the local communities through the ages via wonderful multimedia presentations in a converted synagogue. Local artifacts highlight Jewish rituals and the museum proudly boasts the region’s famous Jewish sons and daughters, including billionaire businesspeople, notable scientists, and Israeli celebrities including Yafa Yarkoni, Omer Adam, and Sarit Hadad.
There are two active synagogues in town, one open year-round with daily services with the fancier Six-Domed Synagogue operating in the summer. Other spots to visit include the mikveh and the burial site of the Admor Rabbi Gershon ben Reuven. A stroll through the village is an eye opener – modest homes abut palaces and it’s a fun place to play “Spot the Mezuzah.”
Back in Baku, the Rimon restaurant, with its mehadrin kosher certification, offers Azerbaijani and Israeli cuisine on two floors. Try the upper level with its greenery and tent-like ceiling.
Familiarising with the locals
Local dishes are herb-rich but not spicy. Lamb is plentiful, accompanied by salads galore.
“We grow everything in the country other than mangoes and pineapples,” says Suleyman Ali, a tour guide with fluent Hebrew. There are four regions in the country with vastly different climates serving up ski slopes, mud volcanoes, and candy-cane mountains.
The country produces some excellent wines such as the Meysari collection from the recently opened Shirvan winery in Abqora. A 45-minute drive from the winery leads you to Demirchi, a village in the middle of nowhere. En route you’ll pass a safari park for local animals, mud volcanoes, and an astrophysical observatory open to the public.
Hussein looks older than his 67 years. For six decades he has been one of Demirchi’s blacksmiths. Today he proudly wears the title of master craftsman. His workshop is cramped and dark other than the flying red sparks as he hammers away at his latest creation, an ax-head, which he sells in his adjoining Aladdin’s cave of a store, which houses every trinket imaginable. A friendly chat will also earn you boiling-hot Azerbaijani tea, which he pours from what looks like an ancient samovar. It’s probably quite modern though.
The museum buildings in Baku are modern too. Stunning. In particular, the Heydar Aliyev Center designed by Iraqi-British architect Dame Zaha Hadid. The center is a tribute to the eponymous former president from his son Ilham. Everyone stops in the cavernous, curvaceous, airy, white lobby to admire one of the latest exhibits. The large pieces of silk are blue, red, and green, the colors of the national flag. They perpetually fly through the air creating an ever-changing mosaic. Visitors gape in awe before the inevitable selfies. The center mixes the latest technologies with traditional museum styles to whisk you through the country’s cultural and political story.
Within a building shaped like a rolled-up rug is the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum with dozens of rugs on display alongside carpet-making workshops.
The funicular across the road brings you to Highland Park with its magnificent vistas of the city and Caspian Sea. The area also includes an impressive war cemetery and the national monument to the fallen. Opposite the park are the Flame Towers – three skyscrapers incorporating a hotel that are illuminated at night to appear like burning flames.
Modern tributes to the old
They are a fitting modern tribute to a city whose historic emblem includes three flames – perhaps representing its two centuries of oil and gas exploration or maybe its Zoroastrian roots that significantly predate Islam. And from down in the 12th-century fortified old town, whose walls remain here and there, the towers dominate the skyline. But closer at hand visitors are drawn to the scents of street food, the remains of the caravanserai – inns along the Silk Road, unexpected sculptures, the defensive Maiden Tower, and much more.
Talking to locals is also part and parcel of the experience. And if they ask “Where are you from?” You can proudly say that you are Israeli – and don’t be surprised by the warm handshake or hug you will get in response: Like the barber who gives a hug through a car door when he hears the writers are Israeli, adding the surprising, “My sister works in Rehovot.”
PS, if you are Israeli and don’t keep kosher try the Sharg restaurant in Baku. Just let them know you are Israeli and watch in amazement at what happens next.
DAVID ZEV HARRIS, MARK GORDON
