Chabad emissaries in the mountain Jewish communities: negotiating religious and cultural practices in the North Caucasus
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In this paper, I focus on online and offline practices of community-building within two specific religious communities that remain active despite mass emigration. These communities are based in Derbent, Dagestan, and Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, with members located in Moscow and the North Caucasus. Both communities have formally accepted rabbis from Chabad-Lubavitch, who are likely to promote Chabad-Lubavitch values among community members. I investigate the strategies and methods used by Chabad emissaries in the region to facilitate the process of chabadization. In addition to outreach activities, the visual manifestations of chabadization are significant in this study, as they are presented across multiple online platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other social forums, chats, and websites. My research combines online analysis with fieldwork conducted in Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Moscow between 2018 and 2020.
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Link to article (paywalled), Chabad emissaries in the mountain Jewish communities: negotiating religious and cultural practices in the North Caucasus
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Chabad emissaries in the mountain Jewish communities: negotiating religious and cultural practices in the North Caucasus. 2025: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1080/14725886.2025.2462322
