Armenian–Jewish relations
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Armenian–Jewish relations are complex, often due to political and historical reasons.


Comparisons

The Armenians and the Jews have been often compared in both academic and non-academic literature since at least the early 20th century, often in the context of the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, which along with the
Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...
and the Rwandan genocide are considered among the most notorious genocides of the 20th century. Historians, journalists, political experts have pointed out a number of similarities between the two ethnic groups: the wide dispersion around the world, the relatively small size, the former lack of statehood, the fact that both countries are largely surrounded by Muslim and mainly hostile countries, their influential lobby in the United States, their success in business and as
model minorities A model minority is a minority demographic (whether based on ethnicity, race or religion) whose members are perceived as achieving a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average, thus serving as a reference group to outgroup ...
, and even their success in chess. Charles William Wilson wrote in the 11th edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911): During her visit to Armenia in 2012, the Israeli Minister of Agriculture Orit Noked stated, "We are like each other with our history, character, with our small number of population and having communities abroad−."


History

The first contacts between the Armenians and the Jews date back to the antiquity. Tigranes the Great, under whom Armenia reached its greatest extent, settled thousands of Jews into Armenia in 1st century BC. Today, there is only a small, mostly Russified Jewish community of 800 in Armenia still remaining. Armenians have had a presence in Israel for centuries. The
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem also known as the Armenian Patriarchate of Saint James ( hy, Առաքելական Աթոռ Սրբոց Յակովբեանց Յերուսաղեմ, , ) is located in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. The ...
was founded in 638. It is located in the Armenian Quarter, the smallest of the four quarters of the
Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...
. According to a 2006 study, 790 Armenians live in the Old City alone. One of the earliest mentions of the Armenians and the Jews is in the 1723 book ''Travels Through Europe, Asia, and Into Parts of Africa'' by French traveler Aubry de La Motraye, where the author writes that the Armenians and Jews are "reckon'd more honest" compared to the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire. Israel supported Azerbaijan in the
first Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...
against Armenia in the early 1990s. According to the ''
Journal of Turkish Weekly ''Journal of Turkish Weekly'' was an English language Turkish news website run by the International Strategic Research Organization, targeted towards policymakers. The journal provided a Turkish approach on global and regional issues. Establishe ...
'', "Turkey's and Israel's good relations with Georgia and Azerbaijan cause conspiracy theories in Yerevan, and the radical Armenians argue that the Jews play the main role in this 'anti-Armenian great strategy'." Israel has also provided considerable support in weapons and ammunitions to Azerbaijan during the second Nagrono-Karabakh War, reportedly this is done in exchange for Azerbaijani energy and access to Iran. Israel's arms sales to Azerbaijan has been criticised both in Armenia and Israel and has strained the relations between the 2 countires. In 2004, a private TV company named ALM owned by Tigran Karapetyan has "used the platform to air views that portrayed Jews as an unsavory race bent on dominating Armenia and the wider world." In 2005, Armen Avetisyan, the leader of a small radical nationalist party, Armenian Aryan Union, was arrested on charges of inciting ethnic hatred. The Holocaust memorial in a Yerevan park was vandalized in 2004. Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, stated that Armenians are treated as "third-class citizens". An increasing number of hateful incidents towards the Armenian patriarchate, its priests and Armenian businesses occurred in 2023, while a general rise in the number of attacks on Christians in Jerusalem by Jews was observed. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Greek Orthodox Church condemned an attack at a holy site in the Armenian-Greek church of St. Mary, deploring inadequate action from law-enforcement and lack of condemnation that has led to further increase of attacks.


Antisemitism in Armenia

According to the
ADL Adl ( ar, عدل, ) is an Arabic word meaning 'justice', and is also one of the names of God in Islam. It is equal to the concept of ''Insaf'' انصاف (lit. sense of justice) in the Baháʼí Faith. Adil ( ar, عادل, ), and Adeel ( ar, ...
's 2014 survey, around 58 percent of Armenians expressed antisemitic tendencies and prejudices, while 90 percent of Armenians, when asked about The Holocaust, stated that "The Holocaust did actually happen". The president of the Jewish Community in Armenia,
Rima Varzhapetyan-Feller Rima Varzhapetyan-Feller ( hy, Ռիմա Վարժապետյան-Ֆելլեր, russian: Римма Варжапетян-Феллер) is an Armenian woman of Jewish origin. She has been the president of the Jewish Community of Armenia since 1996, ...
, has stated on January 23, 2015, that "The Jewish community feels itself protected in Armenia, and the authorities respect their rights, culture, and traditions. There is no anti-Semitism in Armenia, and we enjoy good relations with the Armenians. Of course, the community has certain problems that originate from the general situation of the country." According to the 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices published by US Department of State "Observers estimated the country’s Jewish population at between 500 and 1,000 persons. Members of the Jewish community reported a notable improvement during the year and decrease of antisemitism compared with the previous year, when, following the intensive fighting with Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020, antisemitic sentiments in society increased, reportedly due to Azerbaijani use of Israeli-produced weapons. A representative of the Jewish community reported that the hundreds of Jews who had arrived from Russia since February reported only positive experiences in the country."


Jewish/Israeli position on the Armenian genocide

'' Ambassador Morgenthau's Story'' (1918), one of the major primary sources discussing the Armenian genocide, was written by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., an American Jew. Similarly, ''
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh ''The Forty Days of Musa Dagh'' (german: Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh) is a 1933 novel by Austrian- Bohemian writer Franz Werfel based on events that took place in 1915, during the second year of World War I and at the beginning of the Armenian ...
'' (1933), one of the best-known novels about the genocide, was written by
Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and Poetry, poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''Th ...
, an Austrian Jew.
Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin ( pl, Rafał Lemkin; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer who is best known for coining the term ''genocide'' and initiating the Genocide Convention, an interest spurred on after learning about the Armenian genocid ...
, a Polish Jewish lawyer, coined the concept of genocide as a crime against humanity, basing it on the Armenian experience. There has been a controversy around the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Israel. It is suggested by
Yair Auron Yair Auron ( he, יאיר אורון, ''Ya'ir Oron''; born April 30, 1945) is an Israeli historian, scholar and expert specializing in Holocaust and genocide studies, racism and contemporary Jewry. Since 2005, he has served as the head of the Depar ...
that Israel doesn't want to hurt its relations with Turkey and wants to retain the "uniqueness" of the Holocaust. In 2001, Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
described the Armenian genocide as "meaningless". In response, historian and genocide expert
Israel Charny Israel W. Charny (born 1931) is an Israeli psychologist and genocide scholar. He is the editor of two-volume ''Encyclopedia of Genocide'', and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem. Background Israel ...
accused Peres of going "beyond a moral boundary that no Jew should allow himself to trespass." In his letter to Peres, Charny stated: In 2008,
Yosef Shagal Yosef Shagal ( he, יוסף שגל, born 25 March 1949) is an Israeli politician and former journalist, of Azerbaijani Jewish origin. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Russian-immigrant dominated Yisrael Beiteinu between 2006 and 2009. ...
, former Israeli parliamentarian from right wing Yisrael Beiteinu in an interview to Azerbaijan media stated: "I find it is deeply offensive, and even blasphemous to compare the Holocaust of European Jewry during the Second World War with the mass extermination of the Armenian people during the First World War. Jews were killed because they were Jews, but Armenians provoked Turkey and should blame themselves." The Knesset failed to vote for the Armenian genocide bill in 2011. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, among its supporters, stated "It is my duty as a Jew and Israeli to recognize the tragedies of other peoples." After some previous opposition,
Jewish lobby The term Jewish lobby is used to describe organized lobbying attributed to Jews on domestic and foreign policy decisions, as political participants of representative government, conducted predominantly in the Jewish diaspora in a number of West ...
groups in the United States have joined in the call for recognition of the Armenian genocide by the U.S. government. Grassroots activism by Jewish Americans was influential regarding this issue. In 2014, the prominent
American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
paid tribute to the memories of the victims of the genocide of Armenians. The AJC called on the government of Turkey to not only provide full access to the historical record of that dark period but also to address the realities the records reveal. In 2015, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs adopted a resolution on Armenian genocide that calls on the U.S. Congress and U.S. president to recognize the Armenian genocide.


Notable people of mixed Armenian-Jewish descent

*
Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenians, Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A ches ...
(Jewish father, Armenian mother), Armenian chess grandmaster * Yelena Bonner (Armenian father, Jewish mother), Soviet and Russian human rights activist *
Sergei Dovlatov Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov (russian: link=no, Сергей Донатович Довлатов; 1941 1990) was a Soviet journalist and writer. Internationally, he is one of the most popular Russian writers of the late 20th century. Biography ...
(half-Jewish father, Armenian mother), Soviet journalist and writer * Garry Kasparov (Jewish father, Armenian mother), Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, considered by many the greatest chess player *
Yevgeny Petrosyan Yevgeny Vaganovich Petrosyan (russian: Евге́ний Вага́нович Петрося́н, hy, Եվգենի Վահանի Պետրոսյան (Պետրոսյանց); born 16 September 1945) is a Soviet/Russian comedian of Armenian and Jewish ...
(Armenian father, Jewish mother), Russian comedian * Aram Saroyan (Armenian father, Jewish mother), American poet (son of William Saroyan and Carol Grace) * Richard Shepard (Jewish father, Armenian mother), American film and television director *
Jackie Speier Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier ( ; born May 14, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving in Congress since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 12th Distr ...
(Jewish father, Armenian mother), US Congresswoman from California * Michael Vartan (Armenian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian father, Jewish mother), French-American film and television actor * Zurab Zhvania (Georgian father, mixed Jewish-Armenian mother), Georgian politician * Michael Artin (half-Armenian father and half-Jewish mother), American mathematician * Joe Strummer (Armenian great-grandfather and German-Jewish great-grandmother), British musician *
Armen Weitzman Armen Weitzman (born December 19, 1983) is an American actor and comedian best known for playing Garfield in the Comedy Central series ''Another Period''. Early life Weitzman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, the son of lawyer Howa ...
(Armenian and European Jewish descent), American actor *
Maxine Cassin Maxine Cassin (1927–2010) was a poet, editor, and publisher who influenced and published many New Orleans poets, most notably Everette Maddox, founder of the Maple Leaf Bar poetry reading series. Biography Maxine Cassin was born in New Orleans ...
, American poet *
Peter Gabel Peter Gabel (January 28, 1947 – October 25, 2022) was an American law academic and associate editor of '' Tikkun'', a bi-monthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society, He wrote a number of articles for the magazine on subjects rangi ...
(half-Armenian mother, Jewish father; son of Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel), law academic, editor of '' Tikkun'' magazine * Artem Oganov, Russian theoretical crystallographer


Notable Armenian-Jewish marriages

* Dolores Zohrab (Armenian) and Henry L. Liebmann (Jewish) * William Saroyan (Armenian) and Carol Grace (Jewish) * Tigran Petrosian (Armenian) and Rona Yakovlevna Avinezer (Jewish) *
Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...
(Jewish) and Gayane Davidovna Ananova (Armenian) * Levon Ter-Petrosyan (Armenian) and
Lyudmila Ter-Petrosyan Lyudmila Ter-Petrosyan, née Pleskovskaya (; hy, Լյուդմիլա Տեր-Պետրոսյան, born December 20, 1948, in Saint Petersburg) was the first First Lady of Armenia from 1991 to 1998, wife of the President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petros ...
(Jewish) * Ruben Vardanyan (Armenian) and Veronika Zonabend (Jewish) *
Emil Artin Emil Artin (; March 3, 1898 – December 20, 1962) was an Austrian mathematician of Armenian descent. Artin was one of the leading mathematicians of the twentieth century. He is best known for his work on algebraic number theory, contributing lar ...
(Armenian father) and Natalie "Natascha" Naumovna Jasny (Jewish father) *
Garik Martirosyan Garik Yurievich Martirosyan (russian: Гарик Юрьевич Мартиросян, hy, Գարիկ Մարտիրոսյան; born February 13, 1974) is a Russian Federation, Russian entertainer, comedian, TV host, actor and singer of Armenians, ...
(Armenian) and Zhanna Levina (Jewish) * Leonid Khachiyan (Armenian) and Olga Pischikova Reynberg (Jewish)Khachiyan's daughter, Anna, a blogger: ; * Abram Alikhanov and Slava Solomonovna Roshal (Jewish)


See also

*
Armenia–Israel relations A bilateral relationship exists between Armenia and Israel. From 1993 to 2007, Armenia was served by the Embassy of Israel in Georgia. In 1996, Tsolak Momjian was appointed the honorary consul of Armenia in Jerusalem. Eleven years later, the reside ...
*
Armenian–Kurdish relations Armenian–Kurdish relations covers the historical relations between the Kurds and the Armenians. Kurds under Ancient Armenia Ancient Corduene, which partially corresponds geographically to present-day Kurdistan, was twice incorporated into the ...


Works


Books

* Turabian, Aram
''La France: les Arméniens et les juifs''
nglish: The Armenians and the Jews 1938 * * * * * * * * *


Articles

* Sofer, Leo
Armenier und Juden
''Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden'', Jg 3 (1907) Nr 5, S. 65–69. * Weissenberg, Samuel. "Armenier und Juden". ''Sonderabdruck aus dem Archiv für Anthropologie Braunschweig'' 13, no. 4 (1914), 383–387. *Nadel-Golobič, Eleonora.
Armenians and Jews in Medieval Lvov. Their Role in Oriental Trade 1400–1600
, '' Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique'', Vol. 20, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Dec., 1979), pp. 345–388,
École des hautes études en sciences sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
, Paris * Charny, Israel W. "The Turks, Armenians and Jews". ''The Book of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide: Book One. The Conference Program and Crisis''. 1983. * Dekmejian, R. Hrair. "Determinants of genocide: Armenians and Jews as case studies". ''The Armenian Genocide in Perspective'' (1986): 92–94. * Dadrian, Vahakn N. "The Convergent Aspects of the Armenian and Jewish Cases of Genocide. A Reinterpretation of the Concept of Holocaust". '' Holocaust and Genocide Studies'' 3.2 (1988): 151-169 * Heinsohn, G. "Armenier und Juden als Testfall für die Streichung von drei Jahrhunderten durch
Heribert Illig The phantom time hypothesis is a historical theory asserted by Heribert Illig. First published in 1991, it hypothesizes a conspiracy by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II, and possibly the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, to fabr ...
" ''Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften: Streitforum für Erwägungskultur (EuS)'' 8.4 (1997): 490. * Cohen, Raya. "Le génocide arménien dans la mémoire collective juive". ''Les cahiers du judaïsme 3'' (1998): 113–122. *Dadrian, Vahakn N. "The Historical and Legal Interconnections between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice". '' The Yale Journal of International Law'' 23 (1998): 503 * * *


Other

* *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armenian-Jewish relations Armenian diaspora Armenian diaspora in Israel Jewish Armenian history International relations Bilateral relations of Armenia