For all the Tats' strictness about observing the Sabbath, evening services are as much a town meeting as a religious event. Sliding into the hard pews, the men exchanged the day's news, chatting while a rabbi visiting from Israel intoned in Hebrew. The work of the Israeli Jews has become a sore subject here. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when food was in short supply and the future uncertain, they were welcomed by the Tats. But as thousands began leaving, many Mountain Jews began to fear for the survival of their culture.
Every emigrant is mourned now.
Perhaps because so many Mountain Jews consider the Caucasus their homeland, they have ambivalent feelings about Israel. They say they feel comfortable in Azerbaijan. President Heydar Aliyev has visited the Tats synagogue in Baku, and his portrait hangs in the office. I went to Israel. I liked it.