Astrakhan Jews are people of Jewish ethnicity and

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

originating from or living in the historically Central Asian city and region of

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

in South-Western Russia. They are a culturally heterogenous entity, coming from various sub-ethnic backgrounds such as

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Juhuri Judeo-Tat or Juhuri (, , ) is a Judeo-Persian dialect and the traditional language spoken by the Mountain Jews in the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan, parts of Russia and today in Israel. It belongs to the southwestern group of ...

Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

and

Bukhori Bukharian, also known as Judeo-Bukharic and Judeo-Tajik (autonym: Bukhori, , , ', ), is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from—and largely mutually intelligible w ...

, but share a common Jewish identity and form a united community.

History

The first significant group of followers of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

in Astrakhan were the Turkic-speaking

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

who disappeared as a

khaganate A khanate ( ) or khaganate refers to historic polity, polities ruled by a Khan (title), khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. Khanates were typically nomadic Mongol and Turkic peoples, Turkic or Tatars, Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe, ...

and a distinct ethnic group over a millennium ago. After that, there was no significant Jewish population in and around Astrakhan until the 18th century, occasional

and

merchants being the only known exception. The Jews of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

were granted the right to settle in the area in 1791, and the first known Russian Jewish settler in Astrakhan was Leiba Davydov from

Viciebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

. Virtually all Jews living in Astrakhan were Ashkenazi, until an influx of

Mountain Jewish Mountain Jews are the Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi Jewish subgroup of the eastern and northern Caucasus, mainly Azerbaijan, and various republics in the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. M ...

settlers began around 1850. Many of them settled in the southern part of the Old Town to the west of the Bolshiye Isady market along and around the street now known as ''Shaumyana''. The quarter was informally known as ''Jewish Street'' or ''Jewish Town''.

Religion

Even though historically Astrakhan had four synagogues, only one exists today. It was originally built in 1879, but was then destroyed in the 20th century and rebuilt in the same place in 2003. It is located within the historically Jewish quarter, on the street now known as ''Babushkina'' (historically ''Katolicheskaya'' after the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church located in its opposite end). It was originally maintained and frequented by the local Sephardic community and thus called ''Sphard''. It still bears this name, even though many of the regular worshippers, including the current rabbi, are Ashkenazi. The bigger Ashkenazi synagogue was demolished by the order of the

Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...

during its anti-religious campaign. Another synagogue was built during/after World War I, in the 1910s. It was designed by two Hungarian prisoners (Teofil Makra, Sándor Gerő) of war who were interned there and won the construction in a design competition.https://epiteszforum.hu/nagyobbat-almodok-trianon-es-a-magyar-epiteszet-i-

Language

The Jews who remain in Astrakhan typically speak Russian as their native language, with some being native or fluent in various

Jewish languages Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following the Babylonian capti ...

such as

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and

. Those who practice Judaism are also familiar with

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Notable people

Sergey Lagodinsky - lawyer and politician.

References

{{authority control Ethnic groups in Russia Jewish Russian and Soviet history