Zionist movement Azerbaijan
The organised Zionist movement in Azerbaijan: a Baku religious community of European Jews that decided to apply for membership of the World Zionist Organization in 2023, its single 2025 Congress mandate, national institutions, aliyah and links to "Israel"
The Zionist movement in Azerbaijan is organised through the Zionist Federation of Azerbaijan, which the World Zionist Organization (WZO) lists under that name with Evgeniy Brenneysen ("Evgeniy (Xaim) Brenneysen") as contact person.[1][2] The member behind the listing is the Baku Religious Community of European Jews (BRCEJ), a state-registered religious community. The WZO's documents say its general meeting of 9 November 2023 decided to apply for membership of the WZO, and the election rules it approved in April 2025 open with the statement that "Baku Religious Community of European Jews (Federation) is a member of the World Zionist Organization".[3][4] The WZO publishes the community's 2009 charter, which describes a community "created for the purpose of worshipping Judaism", as "The Azerbaijan Federation's Constitution".[5] Azerbaijan had one mandate at the 39th World Zionist Congress in 2025, held by Yisrael Beiteinu World; it has no entry in the WZO's results table for the 38th Congress in 2020.[6][7] The World Jewish Congress (WJC) names the same community as its Azerbaijani affiliate.[8] Keren Hayesod and KKL-JNF list no Azerbaijani office, and the Jewish Agency for Israel's Russian-language office list has no Azerbaijan entry.[9][10][11] Israel.com records 154 immigrants from Azerbaijan to "Israel" in 2025.[12] The population figures conflict. Sergio DellaPergola put Azerbaijan's core Jewish population at 6,800 (the 30th largest in the world), rising to 10,000 if people with a Jewish parent are counted, 13,500 in an "enlarged" definition and 17,000 for those eligible under the Law of Return.[13] The WJC says "approximately 7,200".[8] The United States State Department says a 2020 Stanford University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem study estimated 7,200 to 20,000 Jews, and that Jewish community leaders estimate 15,000 to 20,000.[14]
History
The Baku Religious Community of European Jews
The charter that the WZO publishes is an English translation of the community's 2009 charter, which carries a stamp "Accepted for state registration" by the State Committee on Work with Religious Institutions of Azerbaijan, certificate 100109A3-131, dated 24 December 2009, and a stamp "Approved" by the general meeting of founders on 1 December 2009, protocol 01. It gives the legal address as Dilara Aliyeva (D. Aliyev) Street 171, Baku, and says the community is created "for the purpose of worshipping Judaism in the area of its activities".[5] It is a religious-community charter and the copy the WZO publishes does not mention Zionism or the WZO.
The WJC lists the same community, as the "Baku Religious Community of European Jews", with Alexander Sharovsky as president and the website www.ashkenazijews.az, and says that Azerbaijan Jewry "has no umbrella organization", that there are 10 to 15 Jewish bodies in Baku "including Zionist groups, youth associations, and an Azerbaijan-Israel Friendship Organization", and that the "Jewish Community of Azerbaijan" was affiliated with the WJC in 2009 and is affiliated with the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. The page is undated.[8]
Entry into the WZO (9 November 2023)
The WZO's "Azerbaijan- General Assembly" document is an extract from the minutes of the general meeting of the BRCEJ on 9 November 2023, with 101 members present, Sharovsky in the chair and A. G. Pitelman as secretary. The agenda was "entry into the World Zionist Organization". E. Brenneysen spoke on the first item, and the meeting "decided to support the demands and conditions of the World Zionist Organization" under Article 7 of the WZO constitution, including adopting the Jerusalem Program. The twelve constitutional amendments it lists include cooperation with the WZO and other countries' Zionist organisations, "Contribution to the aliyah of the Jewish people of the republic", "Protection of the constitutional rights of Jews through cooperation with international institutions and the State of Israel", "recognizing the leading role of Israel" and "Facilitating contacts with the State of Israel". The decision was to "accept all of the above constitutional amendments, and apply for membership in the WSO" (sic); it was "Voted: unanimously". The extract is signed with a stamp and a signature over the name Brenneysen.[3]
2020 World Zionist Congress election
Azerbaijan has no entry in the WZO's results table for the 38th Congress.[7] The Zionist Supreme Court's ruling in File 018/2020 of 1 October 2020, which tabulates the federations' elections by area, does not name Azerbaijan either.[15] The community's general meeting decided to apply for WZO membership only in November 2023 (above). No source consulted shows that an Azerbaijani federation took part in 2020.
2025 World Zionist Congress election
The WZO's Azerbaijan page for the 39th Congress links the federation's "constitution" (the 2009 charter), a "General Assembly" document (the 2023 minutes above), a protocol and rules for the area election committee, an announcement, election results and a second announcement.[2]
The community's board met on 27 April 2025 with Sharovsky in the chair and Brenneysen as secretary. Ten board members were present: Sharovsky, Brenneysen, A. A. Garber, A. V. Mordvinkin, V. L. Huseynov, E. P. Leznik, A. G. Pitelman, I. V. Fainshtein, G. G. Mirza-Hesenov and B. Y. Mushailov. It created an Area Election Committee (AEC) whose functions the board itself performs, elected Mordvinkin its chairman, approved the voting and registration rules, and approved a list proposed by Pitelman: Brenneysen as the main candidate and Mushailov and Sharovsky as his deputies. Every vote was 10–0.[16] The rules say the community "(Federation) is a member of the World Zionist Organization"; give the electorate as members of the federation aged 18 or over who live in Azerbaijan; set a candidate registration fee of 100 manat; require a list from an organisation not represented at the previous Congress to carry 50 signatures; bar candidates who "do not recognize the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State"; and provide that if only one list is filed, no vote is taken.[4]
A bilingual announcement dated 11 June 2025 says the BRCEJ announces the election of "the representative of the Zionist organization" to the 39th Congress, to be held in October 2025, and gives 24 June 2025 as the deadline for candidate lists with at least 50 voters' signatures.[17] A notice from the "AEC Azerbaijan WZO" dated 23 July 2025 says that only one application had been received, from the BRCEJ, and that under Article 20 of the Rules for the Election of Delegates to the Zionist Congress it declared elected Brenneysen as the main candidate, with Mushailov and Sharovsky as deputies; appeals could be sent by email within 21 days.[18] A photograph of a community information screen dated 24 July 2025 shows a thumbnail of a document, a Hebrew tile reading "Beit Chabad Baku Azerbaijan" and Sabbath times.[19]
The WZO's results table gives Azerbaijan one mandate, held by Yisrael Beiteinu World,[6] and its delegates list (which spells the country "Azerbeijan") names one person:[20]
| Name | World union or faction (WZO listing) |
|---|---|
| Evgeniy Brenneysen | Yisrael Beiteinu World (including Yisrael Beiteinu and the American Forum for Israel) |
No source consulted explains how the community came to hold its seat for Yisrael Beiteinu World.
National institutions
| National institution | Azerbaijani affiliate or presence |
|---|---|
| World Zionist Organization | Zionist Federation of Azerbaijan, whose member is the Baku Religious Community of European Jews; see above. The WZO gives a contact person and an email address but no telephone number or website.[2] |
| Jewish Agency for Israel | The Jewish Agency's Russian-language office list has no Azerbaijan entry.[11] The WJC says an educational centre was opened by "the Jewish Agency office in Baku" in October 2006.[8] No current Jewish Agency office or head in Azerbaijan was found. |
| Keren Hayesod | The organisation's list of affiliates has no Azerbaijan entry.[9] |
| Jewish National Fund | KKL-JNF's list of offices worldwide has no Azerbaijan entry.[10] |
| Women's International Zionist Organization | No WIZO federation in Azerbaijan was found. |
Major Zionist and Jewish communal organisations
- Baku Religious Community of European Jews (BRCEJ; Bakı Avropa Yəhudilərinin Dini İcması). The religious community that is the WZO member and the WJC affiliate, at Dilara Aliyeva Street 171, Baku.[3][8] In January 2022 Azerbaijan's APA news agency named its deputy chairman as Brenneysen ("Eugene Brenneysen") when he attended a meeting with the American Jewish Committee (AJC)'s executive director David A. Harris in Baku; the meeting also included the MP Anatoly Rafailov, the chairman of the Religious Community of Mountain Jews in Baku, Milikh Yevdayev, and the chair of the Baku Religious Community of Georgian Jews, Rabbi Zamir Isayev.[21] APA reports that the community representatives thanked Harris for "supporting Azerbaijan's just cause to restore its territorial integrity" and that Rafailov said Jews are fortunate to live in "a country where anti-Semitism does not exist".[21]
- Government funding. The State Department reports that in 2023 the government allocated 350,000 manat ($206,000) each to the religious community of Mountain Jews and to "the European Jewish community (Ashkenazi)", the same amounts as in 2022.[14]
- Women's, youth and sports bodies. The WJC lists the Humanitarian Association of Jewish Women (est. 1992), Hava (est. 1996), a Maccabi sports organisation "with over 300 members" and a Hillel youth organisation that publishes The Tower.[8]
Youth, education and aliyah
The WJC says there are five Jewish schools in Baku and Quba with 1,450 pupils in total, among them the Ohr Avner Chabad day school, and that four monthly Jewish magazines were published in Baku, among them Nash Izrail ("Our Israel"), published by the Jewish Cultural Center of the Israeli embassy.[8] No source consulted shows a Zionist youth movement such as Bnei Akiva or Hashomer Hatzair in Azerbaijan.
Israel.com's compilation of aliyah data gives 1,739 immigrants from Azerbaijan between 2015 and 2025: 122 (2015), 132 (2016), 147 (2017), 165 (2018), 211 (2019), 128 (2020), 157 (2021), 176 (2022), 188 (2023), 159 (2024) and 154 (2025).[12] It says 140 registered in "Tel Aviv-Yafo", 140 in "Bat Yam" and 136 in "Netanya", and that 25 per cent arrived as children.[22] The figures conflict with DellaPergola's, which give 143 for 2021 and 164 for 2022.[13] Those who settle there do so as settler colonists in occupied Palestine.
Antisemitism organisations
No Azerbaijani Jewish antisemitism monitor was found. The WJC says Mountain Jews "never experienced antisemitism" in Azerbaijan, and APA quotes Rafailov saying that antisemitism "does not exist" there.[8][21] The State Department reports that local experts said the public tolerates minority groups seen as "traditional", including Jews, and that President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the Jewish community on Rosh Hashanah on 14 September 2023, calling it "an integral part of our society and an equal member".[14]
Israeli state presence
The WJC says "Israel" and Azerbaijan have had relations since April 1992, that Benjamin Netanyahu visited Baku in August 1997, and that the Israeli state "has helped modernize the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan".[8] The Embassy of Israel in Baku says it works on "political dialogue, trade and investment, innovation and technology, energy, defense and security, culture, tourism, education, and people-to-people exchanges"; its ambassador page lists Ronen Krausz, ambassador since 2025, who earlier served as deputy chief of mission in Baku (2010–2015) and represented the Jewish Agency in Sydney, and its staff list a deputy ambassador, Aviv Zell.[23][24] The State Department says President Isaac Herzog met Aliyev in Baku on 30 May 2023.[14] Arms, oil and other official ties are covered at Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Azerbaijan.
Religious Zionism and Chabad
No source consulted shows a Religious Zionist or Mizrachi body in Azerbaijan.
Chabad Lubavitch of Azerbaijan
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Azerbaijan
The Chabad-Lubavitch directory lists three Azerbaijani centres, each with one institution: Baku, Quba and Sumqayit.[25] Chabad of Baku says it was founded in 2002 by Rabbi Shneor Segal and Chavi Segal and "is not funded by the global Chabad movement"; its contact address is "Jewish Community of Baku, 171, Dilara Alieva Street, Baku 1014", the same street address as the BRCEJ letterhead on the WZO's documents.[26][3] Among eight registered Jewish religious communities, the WJC says, "Five are the Azerbaijani Jewish communities, led by Chabad representative R. David Mirov".[8]
Synagogue movements and schools
The WJC says there were three synagogues in Baku in 2007, Mountain Jewish, Ashkenazi and Georgian, with two more at Qırmızı Qəsəbə near Quba and in Oğuz.[8] The State Department says the State Committee on Religious Associations had registered eight Jewish communities and seven synagogues at the end of 2023.[14] The WJC says the Ohr Avner Chabad day school was established in 1999 and moved into new premises in May 2010.[8]
Leaders
| Name | Position | Source date |
|---|---|---|
| Evgeniy Brenneysen | Contact person of the Zionist Federation of Azerbaijan; 39th Congress delegate (Yisrael Beiteinu World); deputy chairman of the BRCEJ[20][2][21] | 2025 (deputy chairman: 2022) |
| Alexander Sharovsky | President of the BRCEJ according to the WJC (undated); chaired the 2023 general meeting and the April 2025 board meeting; deputy to the main candidate[8][3][16][18] | 2025 |
| Boris Mushailov | Board member; deputy to the main candidate[16][18] | 2025 |
| A. V. Mordvinkin | Board member; chairman of the Area Election Committee[16] | 2025 |
| A. G. Pitelman | Secretary of the 9 November 2023 meeting; board member who proposed the candidate list[3][16] | 2025 |
| Milikh Yevdayev | Chairman of the Religious Community of Mountain Jews in Baku[21] | 2022 |
| Zamir Isayev | Chair of the Baku Religious Community of Georgian Jews[21] | 2022 |
| Shneor Segal | Chabad rabbi in Baku[26] | undated |
| Ronen Krausz | Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan[24] | 2025 |
| Aviv Zell | Israeli deputy ambassador[23] | 2025 |
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Azerbaijan
- Chabad Lubavitch of Azerbaijan
- Zionist movement Belarus
- Zionist movement Russia
- Zionist movement by country
Notes
- ↑ World Zionist Organization, "Zionist Federations", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 World Zionist Organization, "Azerbaijan", 39th Zionist Congress, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 World Zionist Organization, "Azerbaijan- General Assembly" (extract from the minutes of the general meeting of the Baku Religious Community of European Jews, 9 November 2023, English), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 World Zionist Organization, "Ruls of Election- English" (Rules for the registration of voters and selection of delegates to the 39th World Zionist Congress, approved 27 April 2025), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 World Zionist Organization, "The Azerbaijan Federation's Constitution" (English translation of the charter of the Baku Religious Community of European Jews, 2009, five scanned pages), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 World Zionist Organization, "Summary of election results and agreements for the 39th Congress" (Hebrew), as submitted to the Zionist Court on 9 October 2025, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 World Zionist Organization, "Summary of election results and agreements for the 38th Congress, 2020" (Hebrew), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 World Jewish Congress, "Community in Azerbaijan", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, "Our affiliates", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 KKL-JNF, "KKL-JNF offices worldwide", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Jewish Agency for Israel, "Наши офисы" (Russian), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Israel.com, "aliyah-by-country.csv", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Sergio DellaPergola, "World Jewish Population, 2023", American Jewish Year Book 2023, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 United States Department of State, "Azerbaijan", 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ Zionist Supreme Court, "Ruling in File 018/2020" on the federations' elections to the 38th Congress, 1 October 2020, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 World Zionist Organization, "Area Election Committee Establishment- Rules of Election" (protocol of the board meeting of 27 April 2025, English), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ World Zionist Organization, "Public Announcement" (announcement of 11 June 2025, Russian and Azerbaijani), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 World Zionist Organization, "Election Results" (notice of the Area Election Committee, 23 July 2025, Russian and English), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ World Zionist Organization, "Public Announcement" (photograph of a community information screen dated 24 July 2025), accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 World Zionist Organization, "Delegates", 39th Zionist Congress, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 APA, "Representatives of Azerbaijani Jewish Community meet with heads of American Jewish Committee", 14 January 2022, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ Israel.com, "Aliyah from Azerbaijan: Numbers and Process", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, "About the embassy", Embassy of Israel in Azerbaijan, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, "The ambassador", Embassy of Israel in Azerbaijan, accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, "Azerbaijan – Centers", accessed 13 November 2026.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Chabad of Baku, "About and Contact", accessed 13 November 2026.
