In the Hall of the Mountain Jews 🇦🇿

The Jewish people used to live across the islamic world. They lived in Turkey, North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Persia, the Arab states of the Middle East and even as far afield as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Islam traditionally grants Jews freedom of religion as “people of the book”, over the centuries, many rulers of the Islamic world have sought to persecute them. The Jews were in many places subjected to pogroms and forced conversions. For example, the Jews of Yemen, having refused the king’s decree to convert to Islam, were banished en masse to a remote region of barren and inhospitable desert.
This downward pressure on the Jewish population of the Islamic world intensified in the 20th century as the notion of a Jewish state took hold. Nearly a million Jews left, fled or were expelled from countries across the Islamic world. Today, just a handful of isolated pockets remain. A few thousand Jews can be found in Turkey and Iran, and a few thousand more in a small town on a cold grey river in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains in northern Azerbaijan. The Mountain Jews (as they are known) of the Red Village (Qırmızı Qəsəbə in Azeri) have proudly maintained their culture and traditions since ancient times. They are a truly unique group of people, inhabiting the world’s last remaining totally Jewish settlement (a shtetl) outside of Israel and the United States. Let us brave the cold and the rain and venture out on a quest to meet them.
Instagram: joemorgan1

[@MehraliyevFuad]

Wow! Man, you are amazing! Quality of your work just for documentary festivals! I would vote for you!

[@JosephMorganYT]

Far more praise than I deserve Fuad, but thank you very much! I'm glad you like the content. Plenty more adventures in store so stay tuned for what's coming up...

[@MehraliyevFuad]

@@JosephMorganYT I'm native Azerbaijani moved to US in my 50th. It's very rare to see realistic picture of my homeland from POV of the foreigner - or glamour or hatred visions are prevailed. Just enjoyed your simple human touch things & people you meet. This's precious.

[@cottageindustry3040]

Mountain Jews are not Ashkenazi or Sephardi but rather of Persian Jewish origin. They follow some Mizrachi customs, but are considered their own distinct Jewish community.

[@smokescreenOG]

These are the real ancestors of the original lost 10 tribes....that's part of our oral traditions. Mountain Jews are ancient.

[@HoagyCunningham]

Excellent video! Looked up the Khanate, seems to be from Quba Khanate in the 1700s, a brief period between the area being part of the Iranian and Russian Empires. Sad that the population is dwindling, especially being the last shtetl.

[@JosephMorganYT]

Cheers lad :) Impressive that it's managed to stay put through the vicissitudes of that region's history. It did feel like a town in the last phase of its life to me, but they clearly get a good deal of money from past residents and Jewish organisations, so hopefully it lives on in some or other way.

[@Seaghbough]

another great video. thanks for commenting about how few people were out and about. was wondering that myself.

[@ConOdeez]

✡️❤️

[@cobaltbomba4310]

Persian Jews are original Jews, different from European Jews, European Jews who are converted Jews from Christianity to settle in Palestine.

[@erectilereptile7383]

You realize European Jews include Italian Jews, Greek Jews, German Jews, Turkish Jews, etc. They are not a single people.

[@TGRIE402]

You doesn't have any proofs to your words

[@ilanz200675]

בתור אחד שנולד בכפר הזה בשנת 1971, ועלה לארץ ישראל בשנת 1976 אני אומר לך תודה על הסרט שצילמת .

[@Bekov.5]

🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱

[@alextikson7557]

As a Mountain Jew that grew up in Canada this is really cool to see. Thanks for sharing!

[@labricola6993]

You're descendant of khazaria kingdom of self styled fake jews

[@bayramzade01]

We Turks love you🇦🇿💙🇮🇱

[@shainazion4073]

As descendants of Persian Jews, they are not Ashkenazi Jews, which were a diaspora culture of Jews in First central Europe, then moving to Poland, Latvia, Russia. These Jews came from Persia and are called Mizrahi Jews, "of the East". They arrived in the Caucasus in the second to seventh centuries.

[@vioricacoroama7494]

SHALOM!TOT RESPECTUL PENTRU NOBILUL POPOR EVREU DE LA O CRESTINA ORTODOXA DIN ROMANIA!

[@53478]

Hello from a Mountain Jew (Mizrahi sector). I appreciate you fir taking interest in our culture

[@Brsrafal]

That's my people I'm from USA I must visit one day. Juhuro ombar Gordo. Jan azerbaijan!

[@shainazion4073]

Thank you for this video. I believe many of the families had many children years ago. The large houses were needed for the large families. Sometimes they lived in multi-generational families, grandparents,parents, children etc. Many of the children had to leave to get jobs. The older people are left there.

[@Shoon12]

Tremendous work. I was brought to your channel through mhud from chapofym and I've been loving your videos. The way you let the environments breathe and people speak for themselves gives your documentation a truly unique and intriguing style. Hope you eventually achieve the higher profile that you deserve.

[@Bulvan123]

My family is from West Virginia & i thought we were the "Mountain Jews" 😂

[@mynameiskarabakh]

🇮🇱❤️🇦🇿

[@sandraweiss1652]

Wow! That was wonderful. Thank you.

[@JosephMorganYT]

And thank you for watching :) I’m glad you enjoyed it.

[@lavender5765]

Hello Joeseph , nice video, but I was disturbed by the description of a peaceful, quiet, clean village as ugly? I find beauty in serenity .

[@Nightsweat1]

Glad I’ve come across your KZbin after it was posted in r/Azerbaijan. When was this video filmed?

[@JosephMorganYT]

I’m glad you like the content :) I’ll try to keep it coming. This was filmed in March.

[@Yonatan..]

Im not sure you know how this interesting it is. And it was quite a priviledge you had right there. I hope you enjoyed it. Thumbs up. Amazing video. Shalom.

[@JacobIX99]

Ashkenazi?! Lol I don't look like Ashkenazi at all. Caucasian Jews / Mountain Jews relate to the Persian Jew community.

[@erectilereptile7383]

Do you speak Judeo-Tat? Hebrew?

[@shainazion4073]

It would have been nice if you contacted a resident there beforehand so to get someone to bring you through in order to understand things.

[@martijnvincent5]

Great stuff man! Hope you go on another journey and enjoy it. What are the bulb like buildings at 2:33 on your right?

[@JosephMorganYT]

Thanks man :) I think it's this place goo.gl/maps/h2hFr4Qunj26BN1W9 - an old hammam.

[@danielgalastri2638]

really interesting ❤✡

[@JosephMorganYT]

Glad you enjoyed it, Daniel :)

[@kennym-mb3ll]

wonderful video. thank you for it.

[@kananmamishov6598]

Wrong translation in 19:58. He says "but in other countries I cannot do that" while translation says "not everyone can do that".

[@azlanameer4912]

Very very informative video . thanks for showing. I wish jews be living in my country also. The decent people. 😍

[@itssoezy]

Awesome video. Unique community

[@jantirashti-zp3xj]

Is there any stores there?.

[@jantirashti-zp3xj]

Why is so quiet!?.

[@AlexanderKvochkin]

Nice video! Did you film it last winter?

[@JosephMorganYT]

Thanks mate :) it was filmed in early March of this year.

[@MrElliotc02]

Very well done...thank you

[@JosephMorganYT]

Thanks man, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@MrElliotc02]

@@JosephMorganYT It really does look like a grim place...

[@gcolwill]

13:23 - the hebrew says "Garden of the menorah"

[@Lagolop]

Schtetl is a German/Yiddish word for village and THAT is not the last schtetl The schtetls are in Central and Eastern Europe.

[@evelin80]

@joseph Morgan hometown. Reminded me of my childhood. Used to go down those stairs to go to school…..

[@brandon8833]

Great video mate

[@JosephMorganYT]

Thanks mate :) I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@sanaahmadvlogs9896]

thnks 4 shared Stay happy and blessed

[@JosephMorganYT]

Likewise :) I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@sassimaus2]

Hahaha, yes majority of Azerbaijan are Muslims but that doesn’t make it an Islamic country. It’s a secular country, it doesn’t live by Islamic law. People always mix the two together lol just because the majority are Muslims doesn’t mean the country is Islamic. Iran or Saudi Arabia are Islamic countries. They live by Islamic law

[@ironfromicey8700]

Woow it was beautiful there

[@frankcaciques1318]

The struggle between the people and the hatred amongst them, is being nurtured by very specific interested parties, it is a small, rootless, international clique that is turning the people against each other, that does not want them to have peace. It is the people who are at home both nowhere and everywhere, who do not have anywhere a soil on which they have grown up, but who live in Berlin today, in Brussels tomorrow, París the day after that and the again in Prague or Vienna or London and who feel at home everywhere. They are only one who can be addressed as international elements, because they conduct their business everywhere, but the people cannot follow them. The people is bounded to it's soil, bounded to it's fatherland, bounded to the possibilities of life that the state, the nation, offers.

[@sunnyonion3461]

There really doesn't seem to be much difference between Judaism and Islam. Both do a similar call to prayer, no women in the place of worship, both have similar slaughter rituals, and they don't look too different from each other. But so much hatred - yeah I know, it's complicated. But from an outside view, there's more the same than there is different.

[@cottageindustry3040]

We Jews do have women in our places of worship. Orthodox men and women sit separately in synagogue, but women do attend.

[@sunnyonion3461]

@@cottageindustry3040 I think that’s also similar to Islam, the sexes are separated for worship.

[@cottageindustry3040]

@@sunnyonion3461, Only Orthodox Jews separate by sexes during religious services. The other branches of Judaism, i.e. Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, etc. do not separate the sexes.

[@sunnyonion3461]

@@cottageindustry3040 fair comment, I’m not sure there’s anything other than orthodox Islam, but never-the-less, there seems to be more similarities than differences.

[@smokescreenOG]

all monotheistic religions of the last 6-7 thousand come from Judaism. Judaism is like 5000 years older than Islam, which pretty much just borrows. And you might be interested to know that countries that are currently muslim have housed some of the most peaceful jewish communities. Azerbaijan for example has always been welcoming of the jews.

[@Lagolop]

I'm Ashkenazi and the Mountain Jews are NOT the same at all.

[@ajarnwordsmith628]

A Jew is a Jew. The Torah knows no distinction based on whatever it is that prompted you to apply the word "NOT." The Torah's 613 tenents transcend geography, ethnicity, and the mindset of a Jew wherever he might be.