New Jewish cultural centre in majority-muslim nation Architecture of peace and progress

According to an article by Jewish Journal, directly beside Baku’s Synagogue for the Mountain Jewish Community, a ten acre plot of prime real estate has been donated and publicly designated for the upcoming development of a cutting-edge Jewish Cultural Centre. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

Across the Atlantic and all of Europe, in the architecturally and culturally resplendent centre of Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku, a new project is underway in what is perhaps the most posh neighbourhood in town. Directly beside Baku’s Synagogue for the Mountain Jewish Community, a ten acre plot of prime real estate has been donated and publicly designated for the upcoming development of a cutting-edge Jewish Cultural Centre.

Announced earlier this month and expected to unveil in late 2024, this entire project and the parcel that it will call home, has been initiated and funded by the state at the instruction of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. 

With plans to provide a variety of frequent classes for youth, adults, families and seniors alike, including the study of Torah, and both Hebrew and Juhuri, the ancient language of Azerbaijan’s Mountainous Jewish community, the center will include a kosher restaurant and social, meeting and event venues.

For the approximately 30,000 Jews residing in Azerbaijan, and the ever growing confluence of Israeli and world travelers visiting Baku every year, the upcoming Jewish Cultural Center will be a living touchstone of national Jewish identity; an unbridled action of acceptance and celebration of Jewish life in Azerbaijan. 

Distinctive in the entire world, Azerbaijan, a 96 per cent majority-Muslim nation, approaches its Jewish community in ways that we can only dream of in the US and Europe, and many other places in the world. Yet this is far from new. For nearly two milenia, since the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem and the accompanying exile, Jews have called Azerbaijan home.

In the 18th century, Fatali Khan, the regional leader of Quba, granted the land directly adjacent to his protective fortress, as an all-Jewish town, in order to provide immediate and lasting protection to the Jewish populace. Today, this Jewish town, known as Red Town, just a two-hour drive from Baku, remains one of the very few all-Jewish towns in the world; famous for its deep red rooftops, remarkably beautiful synagogues and homes. 

For over 30 years since Azerbaijan reestablished its independence from the Soviet Union, the Republic has also fully recognized and celebrated the other home to its Jewish residents; Israel. Azerbaijan’s strong alliance with Israel goes far beyond strategy and mutual trade and security goals; it speaks to a long abiding vision of understanding and proactive mitigation for the challenges and myriad nuances of the collective Jewish reality. 

In 2014, Azerbaijan became the first and so far the only majority-Muslim nation to host the exhibition “People, Book, Land: the 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land”, curated by Simon Wiesenthal Center International and cosponsored by UNESCO.

Imagine a majority-Muslim nation hosting a permanent exhibition spelling out that Israel is the ancestral homeland to Jewish people. But one only needs to visit Baku to see it in person. 

Antisemitism doesn’t exist anywhere within the carefully protected Republic of Azerbaijan, where the most lauded national virtue is multicultural and multi-faith acceptance and appreciation. 

But virulent antisemitism surely exists nearby, in neighbouring nations like Iran, Russia and Armenia, and throughout regions across the east and in Africa, and even the United States and Europe. And in this crucial backdrop of today, the upcoming Jewish cultural centre is not only a gift to the Jewish residents and visitors of Azerbaijan, but a message to the rest of the world. An exemplar of what it means to actively appreciate and elevate a minority community, with no expense spared. 

For decades, the Azerbaijani government has funded and championed Jewish infrastructural development, particularly in Baku, including the restoration and building of a multitude of synagogues, such as the Mountain Jewish Synagogue, which was fully built and financed by the state; a prominent Chabad day school and a state of the art mikveh.

And even outside of Azerbaijan, the government has initiated funding for the restoration of synagogues as far as San Jose, California, and for decades has donated natural gas each and every winter, to keep every church and synagogue in nearby Georgia warm. 

Where nearby there is antisemitism, in Azerbaijan there is a new kosher eatery, flourishing synagogues and schools, Jewish presence in all facets of government, business, and daily life. Across nationwide classrooms, Muslim, Christian and Jewish alike, a robust Holocaust educational curriculum is studied, including Azerbaijan’s own history during the time, when 400,000 Azerbaijanis perished fighting the Nazi regime, and Azerbaijan stood as a safe haven for 10,000 Jewish refugees from Europe throughout and after the war. 

Israel’s former Minister of Communications, Ayoob Kara wrote earlier this year, that “Azerbaijan is the only country where synagogues remain unlocked at night. It is one of the few places in the world where religious Jews feel free to walk the streets in religious garb without fear of harassment.” 

And next year, upon the completion of this magnificent project, Azerbaijan will continue to stand out in the world as an unparalleled friend and thriving haven to the local and global Jewish community.