History

Description

The Jewish community of Nalchik comprises all Jews who have ever lived in the city.

In 1866, 74 Jewish families lived in Nalchik; in 1886, 335 Jews; in 1897, 1,040 Jews (32.4%); in 1908, 1,307 Mountain Jews; in 1926, 1,458 (11.3%); in 1939, 3,007 Jews; in 1959, 2,168 Mountain Jews (2.5%); in 1970, 5,171 Jews (including 2,581 Mountain Jews and 2 Krymchaks); in 1979, 2,851 (1.4%); and in 2002, 955 Jews.

By the mid-19th century, Mountain Jews were concentrated in the Jewish Kolonka, located 1 km from the city center.

In 1848, a synagogue was opened in Nalchik, for which a house was purchased in 1868. The city’s rabbi in the 1850s was Yagya Kudanatov, and in the 1860s, Geshey Amirov.

In the second half of the 19th century, Nalchik’s Jews were mainly engaged in trade and crafts, primarily leatherworking.

By the late 19th century, the city had two synagogues.

In 1902, an attempt was made to establish a school for Mountain Jews in Nalchik. In the 1910s, three cheders (Jewish schools) operated in the city. In 1914, Jews owned 11 shops and stores, including a jewelry store, both leather goods shops, two textile stores, and the only dishware shop.

The city’s rabbis in the late 19th to early 20th century were Khazkiyagu Abramovich Amirov (1855–?), in the 1910s, Itzhak Gilyadov (?-1918), and from 1918–1923, S.R. Shaulov (1880–?).

In 1918, Hanaan Efraimov (Hanon Ifraimov) served as deputy chief of the local militia formed by residents. During the Civil War, he was deputy commander of the city’s self-defense unit. His eldest son, Binyamin Hananovich Efraimov, a candidate of economic sciences, led the vocational education department of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic for many years and later served as its minister.

In the summer of 1920, a Jewish cavalry unit was formed in Nalchik for dispatch to the front «to protect against pogroms organized by Poles».

From 1921, a branch of the Jewish Communist Youth League (Evkomol) operated. In the early 1920s, Zionist organizations, such as a branch of Poalei Zion, were active in the city.

In 1925, Nalchik’s Jewish quarter was designated a separate administrative district within the city. That same year, a school for Mountain Jews was established (director: Kamuil Isaakovich Gilyadov, who in 1923 published a primer in the Mountain Jewish language using the Hebrew alphabet in Nalchik).

In 1927, a council for the quarter was elected (dissolved in 1938), including a Jewish militiaman and a paramedic. That year, Jewish shoemaker and leatherworker cooperatives were also established.

From 1928, a branch of the Society for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers (OZET) operated in Nalchik.

In the late 1920s, 57% of Nalchik’s Mountain Jews were engaged in agriculture.

In the 1930s, Nalchik’s Jews began moving to other parts of the city. The rabbi during this period was Rabbi Nehemya.

From 1924–1931, one of the four languages of the newspaper «Krasnaya Kabarda» was the Mountain Jewish language.

On October 28, 1942, Nalchik was occupied by Nazi German forces. From November 1942 to early January 1943, an «open» ghetto existed in the city, housing several thousand people. Mountain Jews lived compactly in a specific district, where local Jews from other areas were relocated after the occupation. In early November 1942, several dozen Ashkenazi Jews and 10 Mountain Jews were killed in Nalchik as «Soviet activists». After a registration of Jews, some of their property was confiscated. Jews were ordered to wear six-pointed stars, but after negotiations with local authorities, the order was lifted on December 16, 1942. A «Tat National Council» (15 members) was established under the occupation authorities’ national council.

In the first days of the occupation, the following members of the Mountain Jewish community were executed: Miho Shamilov and his 10-year-old son, Boris Nisonovich Davydov and his father, the family of Red Army soldier Shaulov (his wife and five children aged 5 months to 11 years), 60-year-old Novid Migirovna Istakhorova, the Efraimov family (70-year-old Gugush, her three daughters, the youngest, Ruspo, aged 20, her 23-year-old daughter-in-law Zoya, and six grandchildren aged 2 to 12), and others. However, there was no mass extermination of Jews in Nalchik. The German occupation of Nalchik was relatively brief compared to Bogdanovka and Menjinsky. Hundreds of Mountain Jews were saved thanks to the courage of Kabardians and Balkars, who hid Jewish families in their homes, convincing the Germans they were not Jews but Tats. Local cultural figure Markel Shabaev played a significant role in this. In December 1942, an order from the commander of Army Group A, von Kleist, declared Mountain Jews a «Caucasian tribe», protecting them from extermination. Nevertheless, shortly before the German retreat from the Caucasus, Einsatzgruppen commanders were ordered to «relocate all Mountain Jews in occupied territories».

On February 22, 1943, Erhard Wetzel wrote to the German Foreign Ministry, noting that there was no consensus among experts on the ethnic status of Mountain Jews. While Soviet science considered them part of the Jewish ethnos, he believed the issue required further on-site research. On May 24, 1943, Walter Gross criticized G. Keitel’s stance in a letter to the German Interior Ministry, citing an article on Mountain Jews by G. Taih and H. Ryubel. On November 27, 1943, the German Foreign Ministry officially recognized Mountain Jews as «true Jews», but by then, the North Caucasus had been fully liberated.

Many Mountain Jews fought in the war, with over 2,700 perishing. Two Mountain Jews, Isai Illazarov, who died in battle, and Shatiel Abramov, were named Heroes of the Soviet Union.

During World War II, synagogues reopened under Soviet control, which regulated even religious practices. For example, in 1949, the Commissioner for Religious Affairs in the Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR, H.T. Ivanov, was instructed to:
- Prevent the distribution of matzah to the poor;
- Record the number, social status, and gender-age composition of worshippers;
- Identify instances of nationalist agitation;
- Characterize sermons delivered in the synagogue;
- Prohibit the expansion of synagogue premises with canopies;
- Ban the use of loudspeakers inside or outside the synagogue.

Nalchik was liberated on January 4, 1943.

In 1945, the previously closed synagogue resumed operations, with 35–45 regular attendees and 350–450 on holidays. Rabbis included S.R. Shaulov and Shamulya Hazkeevich Amirov (1880–?). Rabbi Nahamshiya Hazkeevich Amirov (1882–1968), son of H. Amirov, served as shochet and mohel.

In 1947, teaching of the Mountain Jewish language in schools ceased.

In the 1940s–1950s, most of Nalchik’s Mountain Jews worked in the sewing and footwear industries. In 1959, a vocal-instrumental «Mountain Jewish Ensemble» was formed at a footwear factory, later renamed the «Tat Folk Vocal-Music Ensemble» under Viktor Shabaev’s leadership.

Since 1988, Nalchik has hosted the «Tovushi» socio-political cultural center, founded by Svetlana Aronova Danilova (born 1940 in Nalchik), granddaughter of K.I. Gilyadov; the «Shulamit» music school (director: Nina Kardailskaya); the «Mekhina» Sunday Jewish school; and a Sunday kindergarten.

By the late 1980s, 10,000 Jews lived in the city.

In 1990, a new synagogue was built. Since 1993, the newspaper «Jews of the North Caucasus» has been published (editor: Mikhail Zavelevich Iofin). In the mid-1990s, a Jewish general education school began operating. In the 1990s, the city’s rabbi was Ovshalum Ilkhanovich Shamilov (1942–1996).

Since 2005, the rabbi has been Levi Meirovich Shabaev, a representative of M.-M. Schneerson. Since 2000, the chairman of the Jewish community has been Boris Sherbetovich Izgiyaev (born 1938 in Nalchik), and in 2005–2006, the chairman of the religious community was Gersil Rubinovich Rubinov (born 1946 in Derbent).

In 2005, about 2,500 Jews lived in Nalchik.

Notable figures from the city include V.M. Kirshon, D.A. Shabaev, S.S. Shabaev; Ilya Ilyagumovich Davydov (born 1932), a painter exhibiting since 1957; Vladimir Moiseevich Shabaev (born 1959), a physicist, doctor of physical-mathematical sciences (1992), professor at SPbU (1998), and specialist in quantum mechanics. Singers include Efrem Amiramov, Israel Ifraimov, Garik Davydov, Zakhar Gilyadov, and Hatzeron Alkhasov.

One community member, Benzion Israilov, was held captive in Chechnya but was later freed.

The Alkhasov musical dynasty is also notable, including composer Hatzeron Alkhasov.

In 2012, Israel’s Supreme Court recognized Nalchik’s Jews as Holocaust victims.
In the same year, thanks to Ahaz Abramov’s sponsorship, construction of a mikvah began.