The Six-Dome Synagogue (Altı Günbəz). Built 1888, restored in 2000. Still in use for Shabbat services. We arrange private visits with the gabbai, or, for groups travelling over a Friday, a Kabbalat Shabbat service followed by a kosher dinner with the community.
Jewish heritage · Krasnaya Sloboda · Baku
Jewish heritage programs in Azerbaijan, run on the ground.
Birtour runs heritage itineraries in Krasnaya Sloboda, the last all-Jewish town outside Israel, and in Baku's three working synagogues. We handle the community access, the kosher catering, and the guides. You sell the program.
Photo: Asif Masimov · CC BY-SA 3.0
Why this niche
Access, kosher, and a community that does not stage itself.
Krasnaya Sloboda sits across the Qudyalçay river from Quba, two hours and forty minutes north of Baku by road. The community there, the Mountain Jews, has lived in the eastern Caucasus for more than a thousand years. The settlement itself dates to the 18th century, when the Khan of Quba chartered it as a refuge.
Most heritage operators have never put a program there. The reason is access, not interest. The community is small (about 3,500 year-round, dropping to around 500 in deep winter as families leave for Moscow and Israel), the synagogues are working houses of worship rather than tourist sites, and the museum opened only in 2020. Without a relationship on the ground, a buyer cannot promise more than a one-hour walk-through to their guests.
We built that relationship starting in 2018. The result is private synagogue visits with the gabbai, family hosting arrangements that are real (not staged), and an after-hours museum slot that does not put your guests in a tour queue.
Two more details worth knowing. First, Azerbaijan absorbed about 29,000 Ashkenazi refugees during the Second World War, which means there is a real WWII heritage walking story in central Baku that almost no Jewish heritage program currently tells. Second, Azerbaijan has full diplomatic relations with Israel and a continuously practicing Jewish community of around 16,000 people, so groups can travel openly, including in visible Jewish dress, without the discomfort that surfaces in some other Muslim-majority destinations.
What you can build around
Four anchor experiences in Quba, plus the Baku synagogue circuit.
The Hilaki Synagogue. Smaller, built 1896, named for the Gileki neighbourhood of original Gilan-born settlers. Better suited to family programs and B'nai Mitzvah travel than the Six-Dome, where the scale is wrong for a small ceremony.
The Museum of the History of Mountain Jews. Opened 2020 by three Mountain Jewish businessmen (Zakharyaev, Iliev, Nisanov). The only museum of its kind anywhere. Covers Juhuri language, the Persian-Gilan migration, dress, the Soviet period, and contemporary life. We arrange after-hours visits with the curator.
A family hosting lunch. The most-requested part of every program we have run. Three- or four-generation family meal, traditional Juhuri food, real conversation. Not a performance for tourists. We rotate the host families to avoid wearing them out.
The Baku side adds three working synagogues: the Choir Synagogue (opened 2003, one of the largest in Europe), the Mountain Synagogue, and the Ashkenazi-Georgian Synagogue (opened 1945, the post-war refugee synagogue). A walking program with a community historian connects them in half a day.
Optional additions that buyers ask for less often but should: a kosher wine tasting at a Mountain Jewish family vineyard; a CSR contribution to the mikvah restoration fund in Quba; an academic session at the museum with one of the resident researchers.
Sample five-day itinerary
Illustrative only. Every program is built around the brief you send.
Day 1. Arrive Baku. Private transfer to a 4- or 5-star hotel in the city centre. Welcome dinner under kosher supervision.
Day 2. Baku synagogues, morning. Lunch at the Choir Synagogue community hall, kosher. Afternoon: the WWII refugee walking program through the Sovetski quarter, with a community historian. Free evening.
Day 3. Drive to Quba (2h40). Private visit to the Six-Dome Synagogue with the gabbai. Lunch with a Mountain Jewish family in their home. Afternoon: Hilaki Synagogue and the historic cemetery. Overnight in Quba town (Rixos Quba, or a boutique guesthouse for smaller groups).
Day 4. After-hours visit to the Museum of the History of Mountain Jews, with the curator. Workshop on Juhuri language for guests who want one. If the day is a Friday: Kabbalat Shabbat at the Six-Dome and Shabbat dinner with the community. Overnight Quba.
Day 5. Quba Genocide Memorial Complex in the morning, for twentieth-century context. Transfer back to Baku. Farewell mezze under kosher supervision. Airport.
Per-person pricing on request. We do not publish rates because every program contracts directly with the venues and suppliers under your brand.
Logistics
The four things heritage operators always ask about first.
Kosher catering. Coordinated through Chabad of Baku and the Choir Synagogue kitchen. Documented hashgacha in your program book. Glatt kosher service in Baku is straightforward. In Quba, we run supervised transport with fourteen days' notice.
Shabbat-observant itineraries. Walking-only routes inside the Baku old city. Pre-arranged Shabbat meals. Low-floor rooms with manual key alternatives where required. Eruv guidance for the Sovetski-to-Icherisheher corridor.
Guides. Heritage-licensed by the Ministry of Culture, with structured coursework completed through the Krasnaya Sloboda museum. We staff in English, Hebrew, Russian, French, and German. For Yiddish, we co-staff with a partner in Tbilisi on advance notice.
Community access. A signed cooperation agreement with the Krasnaya Sloboda community council covers private synagogue access, family hosting, and the museum after-hours slot. Your guests are not put through the tourist door.
Who buys this
Federations, synagogue programs, family heritage, and study tours.
We work with North American Jewish federation travel; UK and European synagogue programs; Israeli outbound operators building Caucasus extensions; family and B'nai Mitzvah heritage planners; academic study tours; private heritage advisors.
References on signed NDA. Our buyer references run across the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada.
Baku, GMT+409:00 — 19:00
What happens when you send an inquiry
Replies within 1 hour. Proposal within 3 days.
The single complaint we hear about other Azerbaijan DMCs is response speed. We publish ours.
- 4h
Step 01
A named account manager replies
Every inquiry gets a human reply within 1 hour, GMT+4, with a 30-minute discovery call booked alongside.
- 3d
Step 02
Tailored proposal arrives
Within 3 business days you receive an itinerary, pricing, and named suppliers, all built around your brief. No recycled decks.
- 7d
Step 03
Operational handover
Within 7 business days of confirmation, contracts are signed, blocks are held, and your on-site manager is assigned.
Why Birtour
Signed access, documented kosher, named human replies.
A heritage manager on the team since 2018, with more than sixty inbound heritage programs completed in this niche. Weekly contact with the leadership in Quba. A signed access agreement, not a casual relationship. Documented kosher chain of custody, not improvisation.
We answer inquiries in under an hour during Baku business hours (GMT+4), with a named human reading the brief. A draft itinerary and named suppliers reach you within three business days.
Operator FAQs
What heritage planners ask first.
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Tell us about your program
Send a brief. Get a named human reply within 1 hour.
A short intake form: six fields, three required. Not a mailing list signup. A real account manager reads every one.