While approaching the last month of the summer and already almost getting ready for the awesome months Av and Elul, we would like to look back at the amazing things that took place at Beit Juhuro in July. It was great to have such a strong attendance our Gorsky Wednesday (where we welcomed the special guest speaker Rabbi Uri Nahum) and the new Prayer Crash Course series. In the Prayer Crash Course we discussed the Shema Israel prayer, donning of Tzitzit & Tefillin and the main Jewish prayer- the Amida. Thank you Rabbi Ephraim for...

Today we visited Quba, a peaceful country town famous for its apple orchards and carpet making, located in the foothills of Great Caucasus.  Quba has been inhabited by Jews since the 13th century. In 1742, the Khan of Quba gave the Jews, who were being persecuted by Islamic fundamentalists, permission to settle opposite his town. The settlement was organized without fear of discrimination, retribution, or clashes with neighboring towns and states. The flourishing community of 18,000 people became known as Yevreskaya Sloboda or Jewish settlement, but was renamed as Krasnaya Sloboda when the Bolsheviks came...

  THURSDAY – FRIDAY This is Yanar Dag — meaning “burning mountainside”, or also called “eternal flame” is a hill with natural gas burning on its slope from ancient times, located 25 km to the north from Baku, in Mehemmedi village. Tall flames dance restlessly across a 10-meter stretch of hillside, making a hot day even hotter. Then we continued to our next trip destination- the Gobustan State Reserve, located west of the settlement of Gobustan, about 40 miles southwest of the centre of Baku. It was established in 1966 when the region was declared...

After a crazy week of touring and exploring, Shabbat was exactly what we needed.   Friday night we went to the Gorsky Synagoge in Baku, Saturday morning for Shacharit we visited the Georgian Synagoge and for Mincha we were at the Ashenazi Shul. Wherever we went we mentioned that we are a group of Gorsky Jews from New York and expressed our appreciation to the local Jews in Baku for being so welcoming and treating us so warmly. No matter where we are all from, which languages we speak, how we look and how for how...

LAST DAY in the land of fire The last day we had the unique opportunity to visit the village Mudju Haftaran and its last Jew- the living momument of what Gorsky Jewish life used to be. In the 19th Centruy Jews started to settle Mudju Haftaran making it an etirely Jewish village. They spoke Tatzki (Gorsky Jewish language that orginated from the Iranian language). In the 1950s the Jews had started to leave the village and in the 70s they moved to into different parts of the world.  Their village remained until today.    We had...