The "Promised Caucasus" Festival draws attention to culture of mountain Jews

The events of the "Promised Caucasus" Festival in Derbent have revealed the culture of mountain Jews in the context of other cultures with which it is intertwined, said Anatoly Golubovsky, the Culture Advisor to the President of the Russian Jewish Congress. Old-timers know and remember the contribution of the Jewish community to the city culture, Robert Ilishaev, the head of the local Jewish community, has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the "Promised Caucasus" Festival opened in Derbent on October 10 and will last until October 15.

The festival centre is the culture of mountain Jews, but in the context of all other cultures with which it is intertwined, Anatoly Golubovsky, who is also the festival curator, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The main goal of the festival is to open the earlier rather hermetic culture of mountain Jews to representatives of other nations and cultures and "to show that everything intersects in the Caucasus," the curator has stressed. For example, within the framework of the festival, a lecture by one of the best experts in the culture of mountain Jews, Valery Dymshits, was given, combined with a performance by the Ensemble of Folk Instruments of the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Dagestan and a master class by a chef cook – an expert in the cuisine of mountain Jews.

However, the festival is not focused specifically on the Jewish content: you can also hear the folk music of North Ossetia, watch the master class of Arkady Kagramanyan – the inventor of the musical instrument cardag (a pipe with valves, like a clarinet), Anatoly Golubovsky has noted.

Robert (Barukh) Ilishaev, the head of the Jewish community of Derbent, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the authorities "not only remember, but also know" about the contribution of the Jewish community to the development of the city and the region. "Not every resident of Derbent now knows about this, since some of townspeople have left, and they were replaced by residents of other dwelling settlements. But the indigenous Derbent residents remember everything quite well," Mr Ilishaev has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 15, 2021 at 03:09 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.