Synagogue of the Ashkenazi Jews in Baku

About

The Synagogue of the Ashkenazi Jews in Baku stands at 171 Dilara Aliyeva Street in the capital of Azerbaijan and serves as the principal place of worship for the city's Ashkenazi community while also welcoming the local Georgian Jewish community. The two groups have long shared the building, each maintaining its own liturgical practice.

The present synagogue was inaugurated on the ninth of March 2003, opening in a new building purpose-built for the needs of both communities. The decision to construct the new sanctuary had been taken in 2002, after decades during which the Jewish communities of Baku had worshipped in earlier, more constrained quarters that had served them since the years following the Second World War.

The earlier building, fitted out in 1946 from a former civil defence depot on the corner of Korganov and Pervomayskaya streets, had been adapted to hold two prayer halls, a larger one for the Ashkenazi rite and a smaller one for the Georgian Jewish congregation. Its repairs had been funded entirely by voluntary donations from the Jewish community of Azerbaijan.

Under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Shneor Segal, who also heads the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, the synagogue today continues the worship of the Sabbath, the holidays of the Jewish year and the festivals of Pesach, Sukkot, Hanukkah and Purim.

Significance

The Synagogue of the Ashkenazi Jews in Baku is a living centre of Jewish life in the South Caucasus and an emblem of the unusual continuity of Jewish presence in Azerbaijan. Its joint shelter of the Ashkenazi and Georgian Jewish communities reflects the layered traditions of the region and the warmth with which Jewish religious life has been sustained in this Muslim-majority country.