0ulture&Society

Jews in Armenia
The Hfdden Diaspora
Vartan Akchyan
Whi l e the terri tory of Arrneni a has shrunk consi stentl y, the
Armeni an rnap of the worl d has wi dened and now encorn-
passes al most every si ngl e conti nent. A pi ece of Arrneni an
culture lives and thrives in the most rernote areas of the
world, while Arrnenia itself only houses approxirnately
30
percent of the gl obal Arrneni an popul ati on. Thi s di spersi on
gives birth to quests for personal identity among rnany
Armeni ans i n the Di aspora.
Although Armenians are usually thought of as a single
group, similar to the
Jews,
there are several subgroups that
rnake up the greater Armenian ethnicity.
-Western
Arrnenians
are comprised of the Diaspora while Eastern Armenians are
comprised of Arrnenians in the Republic of Arrnenia. These
two groups, in turn, include smaller communities of Armeni-
ans living throughout the world, such as North and South
American Armenians, Australian Armenians, Iranian Arme-
nians, etc. While these cornmunities have shared traits that are
distinctively Arrnenian, there still exist important differences,
which can be used as identity rnarkers to distingrrish arnong the
various subgroups. This creates syntheses of identity based on
national, religious, territorial, and ethnic characteristics. Is a
person living in the United States with an Armenian grandfa-
ther really an Armenian? Who decides? Much about the
Vart an Akchyan i .
associ at ed wi t h
Geor get own Uni ver si -
t y' s Cent er f or New
Desi gns i n Lear ni ng
and Schol ar shi p. He
di r ect ed a documen-
t ary {i l m on
Jews
i n
Ar meni a, whi ch pr e
mi ered i n New York
Ci t y i n J u n e 2 o o 2 .
Wi nt er / Spr i ng zoo3 [ B
r ]
J E WS I N A RME NI A
Armeni an i denti ty, both at home and
abroad, remai ns uncl ear.
Ambiguity and uncertainty are the
children of such prescriptive labels, and
when fantasy of the future and nostalgia
in order to function. His only presence
in Armenia is through his English lan-
Suage,
which is foreign to Armenia. Only
when l ocated i n Canada i s he seen as an
effectively powerful and perhaps Armen-
M UCh abOUt thg atttteni an i denti ty, both
at horne and abroad, rernains rr.nclear.
for the past are conflated in the Armen-
ian psyche after the traumatic experience
of near anni hi l ati on at the begi nni ng of
t he t went i et h cent ur y, t he pr esent
becomes further distorted-a mere fable.
Cur r ent l y, Ar meni an col l ect i ve con-
sci ousness preoccupi es i tsel f wi th the
shared collective rnernories of the past
among a disparate and diffuse ethnic
group of the present. It is important to
note that, from the perspective of the
Diaspora
(approximately
lo
per-cent of
Ar meni ans i n t he wor l d) , an Ar meni an
in Armenia is narneless and faceless-she
i s merel y a part of Armeni a. As a resul t,
Armeni a i tsel f becornes somethi ng l ess
than real . It becomes a utopi an i dea
without a strong foundation to support
it, while it is this foundation that renders
the group capable and the individual
i mportant. Otherwi se, the i ndi vi dual i s
facel ess and i ncapabl e, nei ther an actor
nor a creator-a mere shadow.
In Atom Egoyan's Calendar, for exam-
pl e, the Armeni an protagoni st of the
fi l m i s, i n effect,
"dead"
i n Armeni a. He
is nameless and faceless, powerless and
out of pl ace. Vi sual l y, he i s never present
i n Armeni a. He i s i n hi s ancestral horne,
while the very Armenian environment
and hi s presence there turn hi m i nto a
stranger and
"make
hi m from somewhere
else.
"'
While recognizing that
"he
is from
there," he i s i n need of an i ntermedi ary
ian character. One that is able to over-
come per sonal t r auma
( t he
l oss oF hi s
Arrnenian-speaking wife) by reducing
historical, cultural, and religious baggage
to a sel f-created wal l hangi ng
(a
cal endar
of Ar meni an chur ches) and by r econ-
structing and facing the reality of his loss
through the presence of foreign-speaking
women in his home, which represents his
unconscious attachrnent to a fragmentary
ternporal and spatial relationship with
Armenia. Such complex identity searches,
marked by dispersion and personal jour-
neys of revel ati on, become the reference
poi nts of sel f-di scovery and common
ground for Diaspora Armenians, who
look inward towards Arrnenia, andJewish
Arrnenians, who look outward towards
Israel .
H i stori c 0vervi ew of Jews i n
Af meni a, Var i ous
Jewi sh
communi -
ti es have l i ved i n A:-meni a. Perhaps the
fi rst appearance of
Jews
took pl ace i n
the fi rst century BCE, when Armeni an
King Tigran the Great exiled thousands
of
Jews
from the Hol y Land to the
Armeni an Empi re. The ul ti mate fate of
thi s communi ty remai ns uncl ear, but
the works of Khorenats' i i nform us that
they fi rst settl ed i n the Armeni an ci ti es
of
"Artashat
and Val arshapat."" Whi l e
accordi ng to Khorenats' i ' s account the
Jews
were converted to Chri sti ani ty, the
I B Z ] Geor get om
Jour nal
of I nt er nat i onal Af f ai r s
Greek geographer Strabo claims that
"the tri besmen and townspeopl e, except
for those of
Jewi sh
and Greek bi rth,
spoke the Armeni an l angrrage."3 Si nce
there are no cl ear hi stori cal accounts
that recorded the fate of this particular
comrnuni ty at a l ater date, we can spec-
ulate that they were either eventually
assimilated into the Armenian culture
or have abandoned Armeni a. In parti c-
ul ar, theseJews may have been the pre-
decessors of today' s Zoks, who are often
consi dered ethni c Arrneni an
Jews.a
As
Rabbi Burshteyn claims,
Unofficially, Zoks are the descen-
dants of ancientJer,rs who lived on the
territory of Arrnenia and later con-
verted to Christianity. Today, they
consider themselves to be Arrnenians
and their point of view is also shared
by the
Jewish
world. However, I do
believe that one day the world will
know who the Zoks really are-
whether they are a rnlth or reality.5
An i nteresti ng account of possi bl e
Jewish
presence in Armenia beginning in
the seventh century cornes from Ya'qubi.
The medieval kingdom of Khazaria exist-
ed from 65o to 1016 when "the far east of
Europe was ruled by
Jewish
kings who
presided over nurnerous tribes, includ-
ing their own tribe: the Turkic Khazars.
After their conversion, the Khazar peo-
pl e used
Jewi sh
personal narnes and
spoke and wrote in Hebrew."o Ya'qubi
writes that
"the
Khazars were they who
conquered al l the l ands ofArrneni a."T
Another community ofJ ewish converts
living in Armenia is the Subbotnils-a
community of ethnically RussianJews that
escaped religious persecution in Russia
and has found its home in Armenia on
the shores of Lake Sevan since the begin-
AKcHYAN Cul t ure & Soci et y
ning of eighteenth century., Subbotnils
are
"The
People of the Sabbath," a dis-
tinctively
Jewish
identification. Previous-
ly, the Subbotnil<s were considered a sect,
"but
in today's reality, after studying their
experience, we come to an understanding
that they are not a different sect at all,
because the Torah constitutes the very
basis of their beliefs, and there is nothing
except the Torah."e Thus, the Subbotnik
experience lacks notJudaism, but the cul-
tural identity of
'Jewishness."
They are
ethni cal l y and l i ngui sti cal l y Russi an.
Although the early history of the Subbot-
nils has yet to be uncovered, there is some
certainty that they carne to Arrnenia from
three Russian cities: Thrnbov, Saratov.
and Voronezh.'o They established their
own srnall town in Armenia and narned it
Yel enovka. An el der Subbotni k sai d,
"Our ancestors had their own synagogue,
their own Rabbi, and their own prayer
books-whi ch were transl ated frorn
Hebrew to Russian. To this date we con-
ti nue usi ng those bool s.""
Many Subbotnils still live in Armenia
and practice their religion freely, but lile
thei r Armeni an peers, most of the
younger rnembers of the community have
now left Armenia due to economic diffi-
culties and have established themselves in
Russia, the birthplace of their late ances-
tors. Currently, the elder members are
the only people who argue that there has
been a continuity of the Subbotnik corn-
munity in Armenia. As an elder Subbot-
nik suggests, "I was born here, and will
most likely die here. Where else can we
go? This is our homeland. We love our
horneland. We love our Armenia."'"
Historical evidence of another
Jewish
community in Arrnenia was found in
rggJ with the discovery of a thirteenth
centuryJewish cemetery in the Arrnenian
hi ghl ands. Accordi ng to Dr. Mi chael
Wi nt er / Spr i ng zoo3 [ 8
3 ]
J E WS I N A RME NI A
Stone, a professor at the Hebrew lJniver-
sity ofJerusalem and head of excavations
at the site, indications ofJewish commu-
nities in Armenia have been vague and
sporadic,
"We
didn't know that Armenia
had a
Jewish
community.
'We
saw a hint
here or a word there, but nothi ng from
thi s peri od."' 3 The di scovery of seventy
tombstones i nscri bed i n Aramai c wi th
Hebrew letters, which date frorn the
thi rteenth and fourteenth
centuri es,
consti tutes the fi rst physi cal evi dence of
a
Jewish
community in Armenia before
the ni neteenth century.
It i s di ffi cul t to g.enerate an al l -
i ncl usi ve pi ct ur e of t heJewi sh
pr esence
i n Ar meni a due t o t he i mpr eci si on of
some hi st or i cal account s and l ack of
val i dati on by other avai l abl e data. How-
ever, the avai l abl e combi nati on of hi s-
t or i cal account s and ar chaeol ogi cal
fi ndi ngs, whi l e certai nl y l ess than com-
pr ehensi ve and r nost l y i nf r equent ,
provi des for a modest wi ndow i nto the
general hi story of
Jewi sh
presence i n
Armeni a, but ul ti matel y bel i es the cl ear
i ndi cati on of a strong and l asti ng rel a-
ti onshi p between
Jews
and Armeni ans
char act er i zed by i nt er mar r i age and
cr oss- cul t ur al pol l i nat i on.
Jews and Modern Armeni an
Real i t y. Dur i ng t he past decade and a
half, the people ofJewish origins living
i n Armeni a have undergone a rel i gi ous,
cul t ur al , and l i ngui st i c r enai ssance.
After the col l apse of the Sovi et l Jni on
and i ts unsl ,ccessful attempt at creati ng
a uni fi ed congl omerate of peopl es and
rel i gi ons under the umbrel l a of Com-
muni sm, the fi rst synagogue andJewi sh
Sunday school to open i n more than a
century was establ i shed i n the Armeni an
capi tal . They offered Hebrew cl asses,
Shabbat services, holiday celebrations,
and a range of other
Jewish
programs.
The fall of the Iron Curtain and the
emergence of pluralisrn and dernocratiza-
tion have, in turn, Ied to the awakening
of
Jewish
identity in post-Soviet Armenia.
It is important
to note thatJewish pres-
ence in Armenia during the Soviet epoch
was, to a large extent, transparent. Shared
traditions, values, and aspirations in the
two cultures broughtJews and Armenians
together throughout the territory of the
Soviet lJnion and, specifically, within
Armenia. In addition, deep solidarity
grew between the two peoples in the after-
math of the tragic events of the first and
second world wars. While there was an
influx of
Jews
into Armenia during the
I94Os and through the rg$Os, a repatri a-
tion of Armenians from Europe and the
Middle East was simultaneously taking
place, makingArmenia
home for the sur-
vi vors of
l oth
Armeni an and
Jewi sh
tragedies. The factor rnost responsible for
the integration
of
Jews
into Arrnenian
society, however, was the establishrnent of
matrirnonial unions between representa-
t i ves of t he t wo gr oups. Due t o i h" . o- -
bination of these elements, Arrnenians
no longer perceived theJews as outsiders,
but rather as insiders.
The uniqueness of Armenia's
Jewry
cannot be under st ood out si de t he
greater context of Armeni an real i ty as a
whol e. Speci fi cal l y, thi s real i ty
comes to
l i f e i n t he f usi on of Ar meni an home-
l and wi t h t he Ar r neni an Di aspor a,
char act er i zi ng
Jewi sh
exi st ence i n
Ar meni a as a pr esence of one Di aspor a
peopl e i n anot her Di aspor a
peopl e' s
homel and, whi ch gi ves bi rth to a mul -
ti pl i ci ty of outl ooks and frames of ref-
er ence i n t he Ar meni an consci ence.
Interesti ngl y,
even wi th such di spersi on
and vari ety, bei ng Armeni an i s to be i n
a
" cl osed
uni t , " si nce
" Ar meni anness"
t S
+ ] Geor get ownJour nal of I nt er nat i onal Af f ai r s
(anal ogous
to
' Jewi shness")
does not
provi de any real wi ndows of i ncl usi on
apart from ki nshi p. Si mi l ar to
' Jew
and
Genti l e,
"
there exi sts an
"Armeni an
and Otar
(forei gn)"
di chotomy, both
of whi ch are ethni c-rel i gi ous i denti ti es
forrnul ated frorn and rei nforced by the
fami l i al i nsti tuti on.
Indeed, the modern
Jewish
presence
in Arrnenia reproduces itself rnainly
through intermarriages betweenJews and
Armenians-comrnonly labeled in the
AKcHYAN Cul t ure& Soci et y
To the ground I bow in front of these
people, who in this little village on top of
the mountains, in the rniddle of their joy-
or.rs moments, spoke of the suffering of
the
Jews.
To those I bow, who in solernn
silence listened to those words."'a
Such e*pressi ons of sol i dari ty and
exchanges of feelings were characteristic
of the relationship between
Jews
and
Arrnenians. Even rnore, such mutual
acknowledgements have elevated the rela-
tionship between the two groups to a level
PfOCeSS has beCOme rnore i rnportant than
sagaclty.
former Soviet lJnion as
"the
thundering
merger." Stereotypically, this
"rnerger"
rneant a
"uni on
of paral l el s," i n whi ch
two strong cultural groups with collective
pain and confidence in their own ethnic-
ity and religion came together to create a
magneti c bond founded upon thei r si m-
ilar paths. But, at the sarne tirne, there
was an i roni c di stance stemmi ng from
their conscious awareness that a union of
parallels was in fact irnpossible.
This is illustrated by the experience of
Russian-Jewish writer Vasiliy Grossman,
who, in rg62, was dispatched to Arrnenia
to write short stories about Soviet life in
the peripheral republic. In one of his sto-
ri es, he descri bes an i nci dent at an
Armenian wedding where an old Arrnen-
ian veteran, after learning that Grossman
wasJewish, drank a glass of vodka to com-
memorate the deaths of hisJewish friends
duri ngWorl dWar II. Thi s sort of publ i c
display of sympathy and grief for the vic-
tims of the Holocaust was unheard of in
the r96os. Grossrnan was so rnoved and
affected by this gesture that he later wrote:
"Never
have I bowed in front of anvone.
often characterized as "unique and spe-
ci al ,
"
as
"eni gmati c
and rnysti cal .
"' 5
Al though physi cal l y cl ose,
Jews
and
Armeni ans are often far apart; but,
despite their differences, their fates were
strangely similar. Historical events turned
these groups into sur-yivors and trans-
forrned their continued existence from
rnere subsistence to an imperative of per-
sistence and prosperiry into the future.
"And
the chain, the continuurn of this
people's life was unbreakable," continues
Grossrnan.
"In
it were united youth, old
age, and sorrows of the dead. The contin-
uum seemed firm and everlasting. Mis-
fortunes. death. invasion did not break
the chain."'o These words, while describ-
i rg Grossrnan' s perspecti ve on the
Armenian people, are peculiarly charac-
teristic of bothJews and Armenians.
Sirnilar to the
Jews,
the Armenians
have come to acquire a concentricity of
hi story, of nati onal consci ousness, and
of linguistic and religious difference. In
contrast to other Christian churches-
and aki n to practi ces of
Judai sm-the
Arrneni an Church has been hi stori cal l y
Wi nt er / Spr i ng zoo3 [ 3
51
J E WS I N A RME NI A
a non-prosel yti zi ng i nsti tuti on con-
stantly struggling to maintain its own
i denti ty
(even
wi thi n Chri stendom),
si nce, accor di ng t o t he wr i t i ngs of
El i she, spi ri tual and secul ar model s
paral l el to and borrowed from the Mac-
cabees were uti l i zed to shi el d Armeni an
customs and cul ture from outsi de forces
as earl y as i n the fi fth century.' 7
Establ i shi ng an organi zed ethno-cul -
tural framework is absolutely essential
for a successful salvaging of the Armen-
i an real i ty.
"Go
ahead, destroy thi s
r ace. . . See i f you can do i t , " suggest s
Wi l l i am Saroyan.' t Armeni ans have
struggled throughout much of history in
order to protect and mai ntai n thei r
soci al rnemori es and way of l i fe. They
have struggled to such an extent that
st r uggl e has become a maj or component
of their culture and identity. Who else
extends an i nvi tati on to be destroyed so
that they can rebuild again?
Process has become more i mportant
than sagacity; it has become a deeply-
rooted trait of Armenian character to be
extremely rational and irrationally whim-
sical at the same time, to live life to its
fullest while rnanaging to fulfill the
irnperative of survival. The fear of escap-
ing the bliss of denial and thus con-
fronting the traurna that suspends the
choi ce- t hat - must - be- made and t he
act i on- t hat - must - be- t aken pr event s
Armeni an real i ty from transforrni ng
from
"process"
i nto
"choi ce/acti on."
The
fear of movi ng beyond thi s cycl e
(or
pa.u-
dox) is what
"successfully"
sustains conti-
nuity. Armenian reality has now entered
the
"domain
of the closed circular palpi-
tation which finds satisfaction in endless-
ly repeating the sarne failed gesture."'e
The constant Armeni an deni al of i ts
own hi stori cal trauma has to be derai l ed
before Armenia, along with its
Jewish
cornmunity, can become a full member
of the twenty-fi rst century wori d. Today,
however, Arrnenian reality is a culture of
fantasy, with a suspended present and a
pressingly uncertain future.
NOT E S
r Cal endar, di r. Atom Egoyan, perf. Atom Egoyan,
Ar si ne Khanj i an, and Ashot Adami an, Ego Fi l m
Ar t s/ ZDF, I g93.
2 Moses Khorenats' i , Htstory of the Armeni cnJ, trans.
Robert W. Thomson
(Cambri dge,
Haward l Jni versi -
t y Pr ess, r 978) , zg3.
3
David Marshall Lang, Armeniu: Cradle of CiuilQotion,
znd ed.
( London:
Geor ge Al l en & Unwi n, 1978) , 126.
4
For mor e i n{ br mat i on about t he Zol c, pl ease
refer to the documentary fi l m enti tl ed
l ews
i n Armeni a:
The Hidden Diaspora.
5
Rabbi Ger sh- Mei r Bur sht eyn, i nt er vi ew wi t h
aut hor , r J ul y 2Oot .
6
"Khazari a
In{b Center,
"
http, //w.l <hzari a. com
( Dat e
Acce. r ed, z8 August 2oo2) .
7
D. M. Dunlop, The History of the
Jewish
Khoaors
( Pr i ncet on:
Pr i ncet on Uni ver si t y Pr ess, l g54) , Zo.
8 The aut hor ' s per sonal i nt eni ews wi t h t he Sub-
bot ni ks yi el ded t he I 73os as t he dat e of t hei r ances-
t or s' ar r i val i n Ar meni a.
g Rabbi Ger sh- Mei r Bur sht eyn, i nt er vi ew wi t h
aut hor , I J ul y 2OoI .
to Yo' av Karny, Hghl anders: AJourne] to the Cqucosus rn
Quesl
of | l temog, (New
York' Fanar, Straus and Gi roux.
zooo) ,
3o9.
t t I nt ewi ew wi t h aut hor ,
Jul y
2oor .
12 Nacha Cat t an,
" Pr of
di scover s r emnant s of
bur i ed Ar meni an ci t y, " Fr eedon, 18
Januar f
2oo2.
l 3 Vasi l i y Grossman, Pouest' , l assAc4i , Ocherfri
(Mosk-
va: Vagr i us, r 998) , 22o.
r{. Dr. Igor Ul anovsky, i ntervi ew wi th author, t{.
J une
2oOI .
l g Gr ossman, ZZl . Thken f r om
" Dobr o
Vam"
[ Peace Be Wi t h You] , an account of Gr ossman' s j our -
ney t o Ar meni a, t 96z - 63.
t6 El i she, Hi stog ofVoul on and the Armeni onWur
(Cam-
br i dge, Massachuset t s: Har var d l Jni ver si t y Pr ess,
r 98z) , r 56.
I 7 Wi l l i am Sar oyan, I nhol e &Exhal e
( NewYor k,
Ran-
dom Hous e, 1936) ,
+18.
r8 Sl avoj Zi zek, The Pl ogue ofFantosi es
(London,
Vet
s o , I 9 9 7 ) , 3 0 .
i 8 6 I Geor get own
Jour nal
of I nt er nat i onal Af f ai r s