A Jewish View Of Black January

“Growing up in a multicultural environment, I was happy as a child,” she noted. “I just got married and then Black January happened.  A bride and groom that I knew got married around the same time and they were killed. I always thought that it could have been me. It was the scariest time of our lives. People with masks would come in the middle of the night. You could not even see who was shooting and killing.”   

Three members of the Azerbaijani Jewish community were killed on Black January: Vera Besantina, a teenage girl who was shot by snipers for looking out the window of her home, Jan Meerovich, who was shot 22 times that day and, a Jewish doctor killed inside an ambulance in the line of duty. 

“To be honest, all I remember was the fear,” recalled Halevi. “We had no clue what was going on.  They were killing everyone who got in their way. They did not really care. People who stood underneath the tanks thought they would not be killed, but they came and killed everyone. People stood on their knees in front of the tanks and the tanks just drove over them.”

For Halevi, the most traumatic experience was the funerals: “There were mass funerals. Jews were victims of this instability alongside the Muslims and other people too. The suffering was not only inflicted upon Azerbaijani Muslims. We as Jews were never separated.  Everyone who was killed was buried in the same place. No religious distinction was made. Jews, Muslims, and Christians were all buried together. When you walk past soldiers with guns, imagine how that impacts your life. People live with those memories to this day. The (people) killed could have been any one of us. We are lucky that we survived.”

The deputy head of the Azerbaijan branch of the Jewish organization Vaad l’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel is Rabbi Zamir Issayev. He proclaimed:

“Even after the liberation of the Azerbaijani territories, the effect of such tragedies never fade, as it will forever be part of the national memory of Azerbaijan. I will always remember that on Black January, everyone went out onto the street to take the victims to the cemetery.  Orthodox Priests, Muftis and Rabbis were all together, praying.  So, even under the Soviets, humanity and friendship between the peoples of Azerbaijan was strong.”