Azerbaijan, the country with the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, has a flourishing Jewish community and recently marked an impressive 10% increase in the student body at the Jewish schools in Baku and the large Jewish university campus, Or Avner, operated by Chabad.
The campus was opened by the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, together with his wife, and with the assistance of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the school’s Jewish studies department of state school number 46, which is run under the auspices of The Committee for Torah Revival in the Former Soviet Union and the STMEGI organization.
At the same time, preparations are under way to accommodate hundreds of worshippers in the three largest congregations in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Additional services will take place across the country in Krasnaya Sloboda, a town inhabited exclusively by Jews.
The Chief Rabbi Ashkenazic Rabbi and Chabad emissary, Rabbi Schneuer Segal said: “The Jewish community in Azerbaijan has prepared dozens of food packages for distribution to needy families in the community, and is ready to accommodate the hundreds of Jews who will be attending synagogue services and hearing the shofar blowing over the High Holidays. The main service will take place at one of the city’s luxury hotels, where 400 people will be attending and thereafter participating in a communal Rosh Hashana dinner.”
Rabbi of the Georgian community, Rabbi Zamir Isayev, who is head of the Jewish studies division at the State School 46, pointed out that “the impressive increase in the number of students is a direct result of the wonderful accommodation provided by the government at Jewish educational institutions and for the Jews in general.”
Rabbi Isayev also expressed the Jewish community’s pain in light of the smear campaign conducted against the Azerbaijani government for the “starving to death of thousands of Armenians,” and its comparison to the Holocaust. “There are events in the history of mankind, whose use of the Holocaust other than preserving the memory, is wrong and forbidden, especially when it is cynically used for odious political purposes.
“Who else has suffered years of false accusations without proof, such as the murder of the Palestinian people through foreign media or fabricated rumors and stories, other than the people of Israel? The Jewish nation’s cruelest enemy, Iran, exploits these fabricated stories and exerts its influence over international organizations as it demands to apply sanction measures against Israel, who has been fighting these lies for decades.
“Today, the same is happening to a true friend of Israel – Azerbaijan. As a result of this deep friendship, its enemies accuse it of “starving thousands of Armenians,” – a population that has been occupying a small enclave in the Azerbaijani part of Karabakh for the past 30 years, and who murdered and expelled all Azerbaijanis in the area. A point of note proving that there is no justification for the accusations of genocide or starvation that I can offer, is that the Azerbaijani government paved a road especially for the transport of supplies to the residents of this enclave and it was barricaded by the Armenian separatists.
“The greatest audacity is that in order to vilify the Azerbaijanis, they assent to going to the extent of using the memory of Holocaust victims. In an interview with the AFP, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused the Azerbaijani government of establishing a ‘ghetto for everything’ in the enclave, allegedly in ‘preparation for a new holocaust.’ Ruben Vardanian, head of the separatist organization even stated that ‘the suffering of the Armenians is greater than the suffering of the Holocaust victims, because the Jews were not slaughtered on their own land.’
“And I stand here before the Jewish people and ask, ‘What right do they have to talk about the Holocaust, when a statue commemorating the nazi collaborator, Garegin Nzhdeh, stands in the center of the Armenian capital, and whose streets bear his name throughout the country?’
“The Armenians are the allies and protégés of Tehran. The US has repeatedly warned Armenia against becoming too close with Iran, which included a visit to Yerevan by the head of the CIA in the summer of 2022. However, the Armenians responded with disregard. Over the past year, the Iranian president has emphasized several times the importance of their relations with Armenia, and has supported the reinforcement of the Armenian nation: ‘Iran views Armenia as a close and friendly country,’ says Ebrahim Raisi. Iran’s foreign minister adds that ‘The security of Armenia is Iran’s security.’ It was only recently that Tehran transferred drones and hundreds of missiles. In April this year, the Armenian army used Iranian-manufactured drones for the first time to attack Azerbaijan.”
Rabbi Isayev called on the Jewish leadership in Israel and the Diaspora “to support the Azerbaijani nation who has stood by our side for generations, protected the Jews, and gave shelter to those who fled from the pogroms in the early 20th century and from the Nazi atrocities later. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has lasted more than three decades, and in the most recent war three years ago, Israel assisted Azerbaijan in returning most of the territory with the exception of the Karabakh region, which is home to some tens of thousands Armenians. The U.S. and E.U. are endeavoring to bring about a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, therefore the psychological impact of the mention of genocide only impedes the negotiation process.”
Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, head of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States and Canada, said he “rejects any attempt to equate or compare anything between the horrific Holocaust with local conflicts, and no matter how significant they are – there is no place for mention of the Holocaust; it is complete blasphemy.”
Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt and Chairman of the German Rabbinic Organization, Rabbi Avichai Apel, expressed shock by the use of the Holocaust in a local conflict: “Any attempt to make mention of the Holocaust or its atrocities in the context of conflicts, wherever they may be, needs to be uprooted.”
Additionally, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg and the Rhineland district in France, Rabbi Abraham Weill, appealed to world leaders to condemn these occurrences and to express their objection to the comparison of any conflict with the Holocaust “where the Nazis and their aides sought to annihilate a people by horrific and well-documented methods.”
Rabbi Yaniv Naftaliev, rabbi of the Caucasian (Mountain Jewish) community, said that he is disgusted and rejects any mention of Holocaust victims in national conflicts over land or any other conflict: “The atrocities of the Holocaust cannot be compared with anything at all. It is a degradation.” Rabbi Naftaliev called on the Jewish leadership in Israel and the Diaspora “to support the Azerbaijani people, a nation that has stood by our side for generations, safeguarded and assisted the Jews, and established a warm home, shelter, and practical infrastructure for Jewsih spiritual and material life.”
