{{Short description|none}} {{more citations needed|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Armenian Jews<br />{{Unbulleted list|{{lang|he|יהדות ארמניה}}|{{lang|hy|Հրեաներ}}}} | image = A Jew from Armenia (Ermakov).jpg | caption = An Armenian Jew | population = 118 (2022 census data) | languages = {{hlist|Hebrew|Armenian}} | religions = Judaism | related = Other Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi), Georgian Jews, Mountain Jews, German Jews, Czech Jews, Polish Jews, Hungarian Jews, Russian Jews, Ukrainian Jews | footnotes = }} {{Jews and Judaism sidebar}} {{History of Armenia}} The '''history of the Jews in Armenia''' is one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Caucasus region. There is evidence of Jewish settlement in the Armenian Highlands dating as early 1st century BC.
==Historical Armenia== There are historical records that attest to the presence of Jews in pagan Armenia, before the spread of Christianity in the region by St. Gregory the Illuminator in 301 AD. Early medieval Armenian historians, such as 5th century historian Moses Khorenatsi, held that during the conquest of Armenian King Tigranes the Great (95–55 BC) he brought with him 10,000 Jewish captives to the ancient Kingdom of Armenia (which encompassed what is commonly known as Greater Armenia) when he retreated from Judea, because of the Roman attack on Armenia in 69 BC. Tigranes II invaded Syria, and probably the northern (Roman province of) Judea as well.<ref name=retso>Jan Retsö, ''The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads'', 2003. p. 347.</ref> A large Jewish population was settled in Armenia from the 1st century BC. One city in particular, Vartkesavan, became an important commercial center.<ref>Movses Khorenatsi II, 65</ref> Like the rest of Armenia's population, they suffered the consequences of regional powers trying to divide and conquer the country.<ref name="arm-jews">[http://www.ncsj.org/Armenia.shtml Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia: Armenia and Jews] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706153235/http://www.ncsj.org/Armenia.shtml |date=2011-07-06 }}</ref> By 360–370 AD, there was a massive increase in Jewish Hellenistic immigration into Armenia; many Armenian towns became predominately Jewish. After the conquest of Armenia in the 4th century AD by the Sassanid King Shapur II, he deported thousands of Jewish families from Persian Armenia and resettled them at Isfahan in modern Iran.<ref name=foa>{{cite web|url=http://www.friends-of-armenia.org/institutional/history-of-armenian-jews/44-jewish-community-of-armenia|title=Բեն Օլանդերի հատուկ ներկայացումը Նյու Յորքում նվիրված Ռաուլ Վալլենբերգին,Երեքշաբթի 9 Նոյեմբերի 2010 թ.|website=www.friends-of-armenia.org}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2023}}
[[File:Հրեաների գերեզման 13-րդ դար, Եղեգիս10.JPG|thumbnail|right|Jewish cemetery in Yeghegis, 13th century]]
In 1912 the archaeologist Nikolai Marr announced the discovery in 1910 of a tombstone in the village of Yeghegis that carried a Hebrew inscription.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amit|first1=David|last2=Stone|first2=Michael E.|date=Spring 2006|title=The Second and Third Seasons of Research at the Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Eghegis, Vayots Dzor Region, Armenia|journal=Journal of Jewish Studies|volume=57|issue=1|page=108}}</ref> In 1996 investigations at Yeghegis, in Armenia's province of Vayotz Dzor, discovered the remains of a medieval Jewish cemetery from a previously unknown Jewish community. In 2000, a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem excavated on the southern side of the Yeghegis river, opposite the village, a Jewish cemetery with 40 gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions dating between 1266 and 1347. One non-Hebrew word in the inscriptions may indicate the origin of the community. Michael Nosonovsky has stated that "The word khawajah is of Persian origin and it probably indicates that the Jews who settled in Yeghegis came from Persia and kept Persian as their spoken language. Biblical quotations and Talmudic formulas are evidence of a high learning standard in the community."<ref name=eghegis>[http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/armenia/eghegis-eghegiz-or-elegis.html Yeghegis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511203643/http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/armenia/eghegis-eghegiz-or-elegis.html |date=2017-05-11 }}, International Jewish Cemetery Project – International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies </ref> A group of Armenian and Israeli archaeologists and historians excavated the site in 2001 and 2002 and found 64 more tombstones. Some are decorated with motifs of the Orbelian kingdom. The archaeological team also found three mills, which the bishop says show that the community had a business because one mill could feed several families. 9 of these tombstones had inscriptions, all in Hebrew except for two, which were in Aramaic. The oldest dated stone was from 1266 and the latest date was 1336/7.<ref> David Amit & Michael Stone, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23431459 A Jewish Cemetery in the Middle Ages in Eghegis in Southern Armenia] (Hebrew)</ref>
==Modern period== {{Missing information|section|Armenian Jewish history during the Armenian genocide|date=September 2022}} {{Historical populations |title=Historical Armenian Jewish population |type = Russia |footnote = |1926|335 |1939|512 |1959|1042 |1970|1049 |1979|962 |1989|747 |2001|109 |2011|127 |source =<br/> *<ref name="demoscope1">{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/census_types.php?ct=6 |title=Приложение Демоскопа Weekly |publisher=Demoscope.ru |date=2013-01-15 |access-date=2013-04-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012173257/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/census_types.php?ct=6 |archive-date=2013-10-12 }}</ref> *<ref name=ajcarch>{{cite web |url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2002_13_WJP.pdf |title=World Jewish Population, 2002 |access-date=2013-04-14 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222240/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2002_13_WJP.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> *<ref name=autogenerated6>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Rv2hLhme008J:www.jewishdatabank.org/Reports/World_Jewish_Population_2010.pdf+world+jewish+population+2010&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShFmlEo2XYeBjYVUGgz_STm8ZXvaFqIMHdpfxUC8uWpDuLqb9l7GvJbF2piXHqxgDaGkOY3jfCA_RkpUlKLSByoSQC3cLV-5LcpxgXggqUIYwzK9hdfmwVv4Sz0BdeFMxJ_-2To&sig=AHIEtbT5tVUek4PSi_N_5f0Dwe-11sBzMg |title=Jewish Data Bank – World Jewish Population 2010 |access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref> *The Jewish population data includes Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Bukharan Jews (or Central Asian Jews), Krymchaks (all per the 1959 Soviet census), and Tats.<ref>[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Population_and_Migration/Population_since_World_War_I YIVO | Population and Migration: Population since World War I]. Yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-14.</ref> }}
In 1828, the Russo-Persian War came to an end and Eastern Armenia (currently the Republic of Armenia) was annexed to the Russian Empire with the Treaty of Turkmenchai. Polish and Iranian Jews began arriving, as well as Sabbatarians (''Subbotniks'', Russian peasants who were banished to the outskirts of Imperial Russia during the reign of Catherine II. They were Judaizing Christians and mostly converted to mainstream Judaism or assimilated). Since 1840 they started creating Ashkenazi and Mizrahi communities respectively in Yerevan.<ref name=foa/> Up to 1924 the Sephardic Sheikh Mordechai Synagogue was a leading institution in the Jewish community.
According to the 1897 Russian Empire Census there were some 415 people in Alexandropol (Gyumri)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=573|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> and 204 in Erivan (Yerevan)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=570|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> whose native language was "Jewish" and significantly smaller numbers elsewhere 6 in Vagharshapat,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=589|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 15 in Novo-Bayazet.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=580|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> The number of self-reported Jewish-speakers was the following in other Armenian-populated areas of the Russian Empire that now lie outside Armenia: 4 in Shusha (Azerbaijan),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=397|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 93 in Elizavetpol (Ganja, Azerbaijan),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=376|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 4 in Iğdır (now Turkey),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=583|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 424 in Kars (Turkey),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=403|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 111 in Ardahan (Turkey),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=406|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 189 in Akhalkalaki (Georgia),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=448|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 438 in Akhaltsikhe (Georgia),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=528|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref> 72 in Shulaveri (Georgia).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=534|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref>
thumb|200px|An Armenian Jew, photographed in the Bourne and Shepherd Calcutta studio
As for Western Armenia (Turkish Armenia), according to official Ottoman figures from 1914, 3,822 Jews lived in the "Six vilayets" that had significant Armenian population: 2,085 in Diyarbekir Vilayet, 1,383 in Van Vilayet, 344 in Sivas Vilayet, 10 in Erzurum Vilayet, and none in Bitlis and Mamuret-ul-Aziz (Harput). There were further 317 Jews in historical Cilicia: 66 in Adana Vilayet and 251 in Maraş Sanjak.<ref>{{cite book|last=Karpat |first=K.H. |title=Ottoman population, 1830-1914: demographic and social characteristics |url=https://archive.org/details/ottomanpopulatio00karp |url-access=limited |publisher=University of Wisconsin Pres |location=Madison, Wis |year=1985 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ottomanpopulatio00karp/page/n102 189]–190, 242 |isbn=9780299091606 }}</ref> The Russian Jewish communities moved to Armenia on a larger scale during the Soviet period, looking for an atmosphere of tolerance in the area that was absent in the Russian SSR or Ukrainian SSR.
Following World War II, the Jewish population rose to approximately 5,000. In 1959, the Jewish population peaked in Soviet Armenia at approximately 10,000 people. Another wave of Jewish immigrants arrived in the country between 1965 and 1972, mainly intelligentsia, military, and engineers. These Jews arrived from Russia and Ukraine, attracted to the more liberal society. However, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union many of them left due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Between 1992 and 1994, more than 6,000 Jews immigrated to Israel because of Armenia's political isolation and economic depression. Today the country's Jewish population has shrunk to around 750.<ref name="arm-jews" /> In 1995, a Chabad House was established in Yerevan.{{citation needed|date=November 2024|reason=No reference to this event}}
==Present day== thumbnail|right|Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Yerevan
There are about 500–1000<ref name=Avrum>{{cite encyclopedia|author= Irena Vladimirsky|title= Jews in Armenia|editor= Mark Avrum Ehrlich|encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture|volume= 3|publisher= ABC-Clio|year=2009|page= 1107|isbn= 9781851098736|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&dq=shiek+mordechai+yerevan&pg=PA1105}}</ref> Jews presently living in Armenia, mainly in the capital Yerevan.<ref name=Avrum/>
There is a tiny community of Subbotniks (believed to be a Judaizing community that evolved from the Molokan Spiritual Christians) whose ancestors converted to Judaism, and who are quickly dwindling.<ref>[http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/090806JTA_Armenia.shtml Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia: Small community in Armenia strives to preserve its heritage] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929152507/http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/090806JTA_Armenia.shtml |date=2006-09-29 }}</ref>
The Jewish Community in Yerevan is currently headed by Chief Rabbi Gershon Burshtein from the Chabad Lubavitch, and the sociopolitical matters are run by the Jewish Council of Armenia.
===2022 influx of Russian Jews=== The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered mass emigration from Russia caused by fear of mobilization and political repression. Over 40,000 Russians moved to Armenia thanks to its geographic proximity, relatively low cost of living and lax immigration rules. At least several hundred of these immigrants identify as Jewish. As a result, Armenia's Jewish population has at least doubled. A Russian Jewish community club called "Yerevan Jewish Home" was established by Nathaniel Trubkin, a Moscow journalist who immigrated to Armenia in March 2022.<ref>{{cite web|last = Shabashewitz|first = Dor|title = Jews escaping from Russia find a home in Armenia|website = The Forward|url = https://forward.com/forverts-in-english/562231/jewish-russian-refugees-armenia/|date = 28 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last = Mejlumyan|first = Ani|title = Following war, Russian Jews congregate in Yerevan|website = Eurasianet|url = https://eurasianet.org/following-war-russian-jews-congregate-in-yerevan|date = 15 June 2022}}</ref>
==Human rights== The President of the Jewish Community in Armenia, Rima Varzhapetyan-Feller, has stated on January 23, 2015, that "The Jewish community feels itself protected in Armenia, and the authorities respect their rights, culture, and traditions. There is no anti-Semitism in Armenia, and we enjoy good relations with the Armenians. Of course, the community has certain problems that originate from the general situation of the country."<ref name=rima>[http://armenianweekly.com/2015/01/23/varzhapetyan/ World Jewry Cannot Become a Tool in the Hands of Anti-Armenian Propagators. Rimma Varzhapetyan-Feller], Armenian Weekly, January 23, 2015</ref>
In 2005, Armen Avetisian, the openly anti-Semitic leader of the Armenian Aryan Union, a small ultranationalist party, alleged that there are as many as 50,000 "disguised" Jews in Armenia. He promised that he would work to have them expelled from the country. He was arrested in January 2005 on charges of inciting ethnic hatred.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1057091.html|title=Armenia: Country's Jews Alarmed Over Nascent Anti-Semitism|newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=8 April 2008 |last1=Danielyan |first1=Emil }}</ref>
There have been two recorded incidents, in 2007 and in 2010, of vandalism by unknown individuals on the Jewish side of the Joint Tragedies Memorial in Aragast Park, Yerevan that commemorates both the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. This monument had replaced a smaller monument that had been defaced and toppled several times.<ref name=onesixeight>[https://archive.168.am/en/articles/1506 Who continues to destruct the Holocaust monument in Yerevan?] February 2, 2006</ref><ref name=freund>[https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Vandals-deface-Holocaust-memorial-in-Armenia Vandals deface Holocaust memorial in Armenia. Michael Freund], The Jerusalem Post, December 23, 2007</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/176727.htm#ftn4a1|title=2010 Anti-Semitism Compendium}}</ref>
==See also== * Armenia–Israel relations * Armenian–Jewish relations * Armenian Quarter * Armenians in Israel * Antisemitism in Armenia * Israelis in Armenia
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402142231/http://www.jewish.am/Home.html Official webpage of the Jewish Community in Armenia] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130807155711/http://www.friends-of-armenia.org/ Site on the Armenian Jewry] *{{in lang|en}} [http://www.haruth.com/jw/JewsArmenia.html Jews of Armenia] *{{in lang|en}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20090313021919/http://jinafilm.net/ Jews in Armenia – A documentary by Vartan Akchyan (aired on public TV station KCET Los Angeles Dec. 9, 2008)] *{{in lang|hy|en|fr|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20081025053156/http://archive.hetq.am/eng/photostory/2007_apr_pesach_01.html Hetq Online: Photo Story: Armenian Jews Celebrate Passover], Text by Hasmik Hovhannisyan, Photos by Nelli Shishmanyan *{{in lang|hy|en|fr|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215150818/http://archive.hetq.am/eng/society/0705-sevan.html Hetq Online: The Jewish Community of Sevan]
{{Religion in Armenia}} {{Armenia topics}} {{Asia in topic|History of the Jews in}} {{History of the Jews in Europe}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Jews In Armenia}} History Category:Jewish Armenian history