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Juhuro (Juhuri), the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus. Distinct from Bukharan Jews and from Georgian Jews, though all three are part of the Persian-speaking Jewish world. Settled in Dagestan and Azerbaijan since roughly the 5th-6th c. CE, with traditions tracing the community back to post-Babylonian exile via Persia. They speak Judeo-Tat, a Jewish variety of Tat (a southwestern Iranian language closely related to Persian). About 25,000 worldwide today, with roughly 75,000 of Mountain-Jewish descent in Israel.
Why this matters, In Israel you will meet Mountain Jews under several labels: Juhuro, Juhuri, Kavkazi (קַוְקָזִים), or simply "the Caucasus community." They are not Bukharans, not Georgians, not Ashkenazim from the USSR. Their synagogues, food, music, and surnames are their own. Quba (Krasnaya Sloboda) in Azerbaijan was the only entirely Jewish town in the former Soviet Union and still functions as a living spiritual capital of the diaspora.
Juhuro Identity & Origins
Tat Language (Judeo-Tat)
Major Communities (Quba, Derbent)
Khazar Hypothesis Debate
Warrior Culture & Lezginka
The Story of the Mountain Jews
A short narrative passage, the kind a Juhuro elder in Hadera or Sderot might tell a young oleh. Read it slowly, syllable by syllable.