CONGRESS OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF RUSSIA READY TO COOPERATE WITH MOUNTAIN JEWS
The director of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia (KEROOR), the assistant of the chief rabbi of Moscow, Shimon Levin, welcomed the creation of a new centralized Jewish organization, the Federation of Communities of Mountain Jews of Russia [Federatsiia Obshchin Gorskikh Evreev Rossii—FOGER] and expressed hope for cooperation in religious and social activity.
"One can only rejoice at the appearance of the new organization," the rabbi told RIA Novosti. He added that in the last 10 to 15 years "Mountain Jews have played an ever greater role in the Russian Jewish community, constituting its most active and dynamic part. A clear example is the STMEGI foundation which today is the leading organization of Mountain Jews of the world, and so far as I know, the president of the foundation, German Zakhariaev, gave his blessing to the new organization." "However the significance of the new structure will depend not on its name but on its activity," the news agency's source emphasized.
Shimon Levin recalled that the Mountain Jews have their own unique customs and traditions, which they have preserved over the course of thousands of years and continue to maintain. "Nobody besides them has coped with this task," the KEROOR director said.
He expressed hope for future cooperation with FOGER. "They have still not sent to us a suggestion about cooperation, but we are open, since we have already helped communities of Mountain Jews," the rabbi noted.
He observed that the difference between Mountain and Ashkenazi Jews have been erased. "Children of Mountain Jews have come, for example, from Azerbaijan and joined the Moscow Jewish community and there are more and more of them in the capital's choral synagogue," Shimon Levin stated. Therefore, he said, KEROOR and FOGER already have a common ground of activity. "We hope and expect that the new organization will show itself in the best light," the director of KEROOR added.
The rabbi of the Moscow community of Mountain Jews, Anar Samailov, reported that the organization of Mountain Jews plans in the near future to construct in Moscow a large community center. Historically, Mountain Jews have lived in Persia and the Caucasus and on the territory of modern Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. In the north Caucasus region of Russia, communities are active in Nalchik, Grozny, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, Derbent, and other cities. There are now community centers also in a number of western countries and Israel. In all, there are 120,000 persons in these communities in the world. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 April 2015)
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