Caretaker of Oghuz Synagogues In Azerbaijan Passes At 66

When visitors who wanted to know more about Jewish Oghuz history arrived at the two locked synagogue buildings on days other than Shabbat, neighbors knew to call Natalemov. A well-known figure in the town of 7,000, he was always happy to show guests around. He concluded tours by handing visitors yarmulkes and requesting that they wear them whenever they might travel to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Natalemov’s responsibilities pertained to the Lower Quarter—to the Ashagi Mahalla Synagogue on Gudrat Aghakishiyev Street. The architect who built the 1849 shul is buried on the grounds, and the original wooden platforms that held the two-story building remain intact. The Upper Quarter, or Yukhari Mahalla Synagogue, dates to 1897 and was built under the auspices of Rabbi Baruch Ben Chanuk. With blue menorahs painted on their gates, both shuls are unmistakable.

He politely asked visitors to remove their shoes

Natalemov would tell tourists that Jews there didn’t fear that their houses of worship would be vandalized. They didn’t worry about antisemitism. Security devices or metal detectors were not required for entry, though he would politely ask visitors to remove their shoes before going into a synagogue.

In the 1930s, Oghuz’s Jewish population peaked at 2,000. A typhus outbreak when Natalemov’s parents were alive claimed many lives, Jewish and otherwise. In Mountain Jewish cemeteries, faces are carved on Jewish tombstones—a rarity in Jewish burial practice.