The Derbent Community of Mountain Jews: On the Issue of Group’s Identity [Gorsko-evreiskaia obshchina Derbenta: k probleme samoidentifikatsii]

Cover Page

Cite item

Full Text

Open Access Open Access
Restricted Access Access granted
Restricted Access Subscription Access

Abstract

The article is devoted to the forms of Mountain Jewish identity. It is based on the materials of the Derbent community of Mountain Jews. The Derbent community is one of the largest Mountain Jewish communities. Mountain Jews have retained the idea of internal division into ethnoterritorial and dialect groups. There are many stereotypes and autostereotypes that remain important in various areas of the life of this ethnic group. The article examines the following aspects: what groups and subgroups do Mountain Jews distinguish within their community, what stereotypes and autostereotypes exist in relation to these groups, and the ways in which they are formed. The Derbent group turns out to be central in geographical terms and, in this regard, is perceived by many Mountain Jews as a “model” of tradition and language.

Full Text

Restricted Access

About the authors

Svetlana Amosova

Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: sveta.amosova@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7614-6549

младший научный сотрудник Центра славяно-иудаики

Russian Federation, 32a Leninsky prospekt, Moscow, 119991

References

  1. Agababian, A.G. 2024. “Kak evrei za odnu noch’ vyuchili kabardinskii”: yazykovye strategii gorskikh evreev v gody Kholokosta na Severo-Zapadnom Kavkaze [“How Jews Learned Kabardian in One Night”: Mountain Jews’ Language Strategies During]. Etnografiia 2 (24): 232–256. https://doi.org/10.31250/2618–8600–2024–2(24)-232–256
  2. Agarunov, M.Y. 2018. Kul’tura i pis’mennost’ gorskikh evreev v pervye dva poslerevoliutsionnye desiatiletiia [Culture and Writing of Mountain Jews in the First Two Post-Revolutionary Decades]. In Istoriia i kul’tura gorskikh evreev [History and Culture of Mountain Jews], edited by E.M. Nazarova and I.G. Semenov, 208–227. Moscow: GBPrint.
  3. Amosova, S.N. 2023. Stereotipy i avtostereotipy lokal’nykh grupp gorskikh evreev [Stereotypes and Autostereotypes of Local Groups of Mountain Jews]. Zhivaia starina 2: 32–35.
  4. Anisimov, I.S. 2002. Kavkazskie evrei-gortsy [Jews-Highlanders from the Caucasus]. Moscow: Nauka.
  5. Bram, H. 1992. From “Dag Juhur” to “Kavkazim”: The “Mountain Jews” Immigration to Israel. In Materialy mezhdunarodnogo kollokviuma po voprosu “Gorskie evrei: istoriia i sovremennost”, 12–13 fevralia [Proceedings of the International Colloquium on the Issue of “Mountain Jews: History and Modernity”, 12–13 February], 11–16. Baku: AN Azerb.SSR; Assotsiatsiia iudaiki i evreiskoi kul’tury.
  6. Chlenov, M.A. 2000. Mezhdu Stsilloi deiudaizatsii i Kharibdoi sionizma: gorskie evrei v XX veke [Between the Scylla of Dejudaization and Charybdis of Zionism: The Mountain Jews in the 20th Century]. Diaspory 3: 174–198.
  7. Danilova, S. 2017. Gorskie evrei [Mountain Jews]. In Evrei: bukharskie, gorskie, gruzinskie v vodovorote istorii [Jews: Bukharan, Mountain, Georgian in the Whirlpool of History], 168–284. New-York.
  8. Dreier, L.M., I.V Kuznetsov, and R.S. Kuznetsova. 2024. Iz istorii izucheniia gorskikh evreev: ekspeditsiia 1994 g. v Azerbaidzhan i Dagestan (po materialam polevogo dnevnika) [From the History of Mountain Jews Studies: The 1994 Expedition to Azerbaijan and Dagestan (According to the Field Data)]. In Problemy i issledovaniia arkheologii, etnologii i vseobshchei istorii [Problems and Researches of Archeology, Ethnology and General History], edited by A.G. Ivanova, 109–122. Krasnodar: Kubanskii gosudarstvennyi universitet.
  9. Dymshits, V.A., ed. 1999. Gorskie evrei: istoriia, etnografiia, kul’tura [The Mountain Jews: History, Ethnography, Culture]. Moscow: DAAT; Znanie.
  10. Kaganovich, A. 2016. Druz’ia ponevole: Rossiia i bukharskie evrei, 1800–1917 [Friends Against Their Will: Russia and the Bukharan Jews, 1800–1917]. Moscow: NLO.
  11. Khirsh, F. 2022. Imperiia natsii. Etnograficheskoe znanie i formirovanie Sovetskogo Soiuza [Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Formation of the Soviet Union]. Moscow: NLO.
  12. Kolesov, V.I. 2020. Gorskie evrei, urymy, cherkesogai: tipologiia nemusul’manskikh grupp Severo-Zapadnogo Kavkaza serediny XIX veka [The Mountain Jews, the Uryms, the Cherkesohays: The North-Western Caucasus Non-Muslim Groups Typology in the Middle of 19th Century]. Judaic-Slavic Journal 4 (2): 33–59. https://doi.org/10.31168/2658–3364.2020.2.05
  13. Kolesov, V., and D. Sen’. 2009. Vybory, elity, identichnost’ (sluchai gorskikh evreev Kubanskoi oblasti) [Elections, Elites, Identity (On the Example of the Mountain Jews of Kuban)]. In Materialy Shestnadtsatoi ezhegodnoi mezhdunarodnoi mezhdistsiplinarnoi konferentsii po iudaike [Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Jewish Studies], 401–413. Moscow: Tsentr “Sefer”.
  14. Kupovetsky, M.S. 2009. Sotsiokul’turnyi analiz formirovaniia kollektivnoi pamiati i mifologem o proiskhozhdenii evreev Vostochnogo Kavkaza do 80-kh godov XIX v. [Sociocultural Analysis of the Formation of Collective Memory and Mythologems About the Origin of the Eastern Caucasus Jews Until the 80s of the 19th Century]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6: 58–73.
  15. Kupovetsky, M.S. 2010. K istoricheskoi demografii territorial’nykh grupp gorskikh evreev Azerbaydzhana v XVII–XIX vv. [About the Historical Demography of the Azerbaijan Mountain Jews Territorial Groups at 17–19 Centures]. In Studia Anthropologica: sbornik statei v chest’ prof. M.A. Chlenova [Studia Anthropologica: A Festschrift in Honour of Michael Chlenov], edited by А.М. Fedorchuk, S.F. Chlenova, and О.V. Belova, 145–173. Moscow; Jerusalem: Mosty kul’tury; Gesharim.
  16. Matatov, M.E. 2002. Taty – samobytnaia narodnost’ Kavkaza [The Tats Are a Distinctive People of the Caucasus]. Moscow: Mysl’.
  17. Miller, B.V. 1929. Taty, ikh rasselenie i govory (materialy i voprosy) [Tats, Their Settlement and Dialects (Materials and Questions)]. Baku: tipografiia Azgiza.
  18. Miller, V.F. 1892. Materialy dlia izucheniia evreisko-tatskogo yazyka. Vvedenie, teksty i slovar’ [Materials for Study of the Judeo-Tat Language: Introduction, Texts and Dictionary]. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaia Akademiia Nauk.
  19. Nazarova, E.M. 2020. Terminologicheskaia situatsiia s nazvaniem yazyka gorskikh evreev [Terminological Situation with the Name of the Language of the Mountain Jews]. Judaic-Slavic Journal 4 (2): 60–85. https://doi.org/10.31168/2658–3364.2020.2.06
  20. Ramazanova, S.G. 2014. Gorskie evrei Dagestana v natsional’noi politike sovetskoi vlasti v 1920–1930-e gg. [Mountain Jews of Dagestan in the National Policy of the Soviet Government in the 1920s – 1930s]. Moscow: Parnas.
  21. Semenov, I.G. 2003. Gorskie evrei. Nekotorye aspekty etnicheskoi identifikatsii (konets XIX – nachalo XXI veka) [Mountain Jews: Some Aspects of Ethnic Identification (Late 19th – Early 21st Century)]. Tsentral’naia Aziia i Kavkaz. Zhurnal sotsial’no-politicheskikh issledovanii 3 (270): 191–200.
  22. Semenov, I.G. 2018. Vvedenie [Introduction]. In Istoriia i kul’tura gorskikh evreev [History and Culture of Mountain Jews], edited by E.M. Nazarova and I.G. Semenov, 13–29. Moscow: GBPrint.
  23. Semenov, I.G. 2018. Istochniki po istorii i kul’ture gorskikh evreev. Osnovnye etapy izucheniia. In Istoriia i kul’tura gorskikh evreev [History and Culture of Mountain Jews], edited by E.M. Nazarova and I.G. Semenov, 13–29. Moscow: GBPrint.
  24. Shakhbanova, M.M. 2018. Politika tatizatsii i ee otrazhenie na etnicheskom samochuvstvii gorskikh evreev [Tatization Policy and Its Reflection on Ethnic Health of Mountain Jews]. Istoricheskaia i sotsial’no-obrazovatel’naia mysl’ 10 (4–1): 108–117. https://doi.org/10.17748/2075–9908–2018–10–4/1–108–117

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML
Download

Copyright (c) 2024 Russian Academy of Sciences