Krasnaya Sloboda

Krasnaya Sloboda is a small town located across the Qudiyalçay River (or Kudyal River) from the larger town of Quba, Azerbaijan. The town is the primary settlement of Azerbaijan's population of Mountain Jews, who make up the population of approximately 4,000. It is one of the only Jewish towns outside of Israel. While the Mountain Jews had been in the area around Quba since at least the 13th century, the formal creation Krasnaya Sloboda traces to the 18th century, when in 1742 the khan of Quba gave the Jews permission to set up a community free of persecution across the river from the city of Quba. Originally referred to as Yevreiskaya Sloboda (Jewish Settlement), under Soviet rule the name was changed to the current name, translated as...