Krasnaya Sloboda

Krasnaya Sloboda lies directly across the Qudyalchay from Quba and has been a Mountain Jewish settlement since the eighteenth century, when the khan of Quba invited the community to settle under his protection. It remains one of the few places outside Israel where a Mountain Jewish community lives in a town of its own. There are working synagogues, a museum in a former synagogue building, large houses built by families who prospered in Moscow and Baku, and a cemetery on the slope with Judeo-Tat inscriptions.

History

The first Jewish settlement here, Kulgat, stood on the left bank of the Gudjalchay a few kilometres away, and Mountain Jews had lived around Quba since at least the 13th century; in 1742 Huseynali Khan of Quba allowed them to found a community across the river from the city, free of persecution. His son Fatali Khan, ruler from 1758, let them work in farming, trade and crafts, drawing Jewish families from other villages, from Baku, Iran and Turkey, and the place first called Yevreyskaya Sloboda, the Jewish settlement, was renamed Krasnaya Sloboda, the Red settlement, in Soviet times (Wikipedia, Qırmızı Qəsəbə).

Highlights

• The synagogues - working congregations, with visits arranged rather than dropped in on.
• The museum - the Mountain Jewish museum in a restored synagogue building.
• The houses - substantial nineteenth and twentieth-century houses along the main streets.
• The cemetery - graves with inscriptions in Judeo-Tat on the hillside.

When to go

May to October is the comfortable season. Visits should avoid Shabbat and Jewish holidays unless arranged, when the synagogues are in use. Many families spend part of the year elsewhere, so the town is fullest in summer.

What to expect

This is a living community and not a museum village; walking around photographing houses and people is not welcome without asking. Synagogue interiors need arranging in advance through the community. Much of the population now divides its time between here and Moscow or Israel, so the town can feel empty.

Nearby

Quba is across the bridge, and the road to Khinalug climbs from there.

Key facts