Sure, Azerbaijan Is Tolerant of Its Jews. But It's Run By a Human Rights-Violating Despotic Regime
Three writers go to Azerbaijan, meet with government officials, and all come back with a glowing impression of the place. Three makes a trend—an unfortunate one at that—despite the fact that, by all accounts, the Jewish community of Azerbaijan is safe and secure, and exists relatively free of anti-Semitism.
Writing in the Forward, Justin Amler called Azerbaijan and its Jew-loving Muslims “a beacon of light and hope that the rest of the Islamic world can only hope to emulate.” In Time, Rabbi David Wolpe, having returned from a five-day tour during which he could walk “straight into a synagogue, claimed the country to be an “oasis of tolerance” and a “promising example” for the region. And writing for The Jerusalem Post, Yael Lerman Mazar of StandWithUs, who was on the same trip as Rabbi Wolpe, waxed poetic about “democratic” Azerbaijan, a “proud country” with a “generous government.” The number of Jews in Azerbaijan falls somewhere around 9,000.