Photograph: Caucasus Jew.

Georgian Jews

Caucasus

1870-1880s

Albumen print

14,5 x 11,4

РЭМ 8855-15

Along the bottom edge of the photograph is a dark stripe with author’s numbering and text in pre-Revolutionary spelling: “13703. Caucasus Jew. 1399.” “The Caucasus Jews are very interesting. It has been proved by historians that they lived there over tow thousand years ago. They insist that they are descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and many missionaries are inclined to believe this” (Dr. Mauris Fishberg. Jews. The Study of the Jewish Race. 1911).. The man is wearing clothes traditional for the peoples of the Caucasus: short caftan girded with a sash, and chokha, a slim-fit cloth garment. On his head is a yarmulke (kippah). Over the kippah, the Caucasian Jews wore an astrakhan hat, i.e. a fur cap of Persian lamb skin of various shapes (they were low, tall, or conical depending on the local tradition).