Peter Lyukimson, exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
On September 7th the exhibition “Azerbaijan is a Land of Tolerance” began its work in the Israeli city of Yokne’am. Earlier it visited several other Israeli cities, but the presentation of the exhibition in Yokne’am is significant for several reasons.
Firstly, the city which is situated in the north of the country is thought to be one of centers of Israeli high-tech and it is one of the most rapidly developing residential areas of Israel.
Secondly, a big and powerful community of people who were born in Azerbaijan lives there. One of its representatives is Roman Peres, he is the vice-mayor of the city. Residents of Yokne’am are interested in Azerbaijan and developments in the country. So it is not surprising that the opening ceremony of the exhibition was visited by the mayor Simon Alfasi, his first deputy Roman Peres, members of the City Council and top officials of the City Administration.
Guests observed the exhibition with great interest; they studied information about working churches, mosques and synagogues in Azerbaijan. Afterwards Israeli citizens had an opportunity to travel across Azerbaijan together with the authors of a documentary, who visited the republic during one of the projects of the Association of Azerbaijan-Israel (AzIs).
“I heard about Azerbaijan for the first time 25 years ago, as the first repatriates who came to Yokne’am in the early 1990s were people from the republic… Today I know about Azerbaijan a lot and I admire the country. I think this is the only Muslim country which gave an opportunity to a Jewish community to live in peace and friendship with neighboring nations, and its representatives could reach any heights in various spheres. This is the only country which is able to support warm relations with Iran, Israel, and Russia simultaneously. Only a very flexible and tolerant people can do this. Generosity and tolerance are things which we should learn from Azerbaijan,” Simon Alfasi said at the opening ceremony.
The vice-mayor Roman Peres began his speech from his personal attitude to Azerbaijan: “Only 19 years after repatriation did I manage to visit Baku, together with a delegation headed by Avigdor Lieberman. I was impressed by the changes that have taken place. It is difficult to express how beautiful Baku is today. In a short period it has turned into a super-modern European city with bright oriental color. We felt during the visit that our states needed each other, and our friendship and cooperation would improve day by day.”
Guests of the event also listened to a report on the history of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan; Tami Rubinova and Shaulem Siman Tov read it in Hebrew and Russian. The ceremony ended traditionally with a concert by Israeli artistes who were born in Azerbaijan. The audience was happy to hear the singing of Tomer Aliyev who sang songs of Muslim Magomayev and Rashid Beibutov; the folk group “Dancing Purl” headed by Panina Yaskova and a singer Orli Abramova sang Azerbaijani and Hebrew songs.
