Baku - Meet the real Mountain Jews. No, they're not from Leadville or Fairplay. In fact, they're not even from Colorado. The real Mountain He's hail from a remote corner of he Causes Mountains, descendent from  Persian Jewry.

   I had the opportunity to meet with members of this ancient Jewish community during my recent trip to Azerbaijan, one of the three Caucasus countries. That simple dichotomy fo Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewry? It doesn't exist, and one of the benefits of growing global connectivity is that we're discovering all kinds of Jews most of us never knew about.

   Mountain Jews have been a known ethic Jewish subset since the 5th century BCE, inhabiting areas of ancient Persia, parts of which today are in Azerbaijan and elsewhere in the region. Most of today's Mountain Jewish community in Azerbaijan began arriving in the 13th century and continued migrating in the centuries that followed.

  Like so many other Jewish groups, Mountain Jews speak a uniques dialect, an adaptation of the Lingua Franca, in their case Persian, or Farsi, mixed with a smattering of Hebrew. Juhuri it's called, and in there language, Mountain Jews are known as Juhuro.

   This community has continued to exist, uninterrupted in Azerbaijan, through the Holocaust, through a Soviet regime that suppressed religion. Now, under a government that actively encourages religious life, Mount Jews are thriving. Older synagogues are being refurbished;a new museum dedicated to the history of the Mountain Jews is underway; a yeshiva has been established; and ,in the capital city if Baku, a new synagogue has been constructed.

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