A paper newly published by D. Spivak in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Cultural Research (2025, No.2(59), presents fresh results of implementation of a new stage of a long-term program of study of world religions and the perspectives of their interaction in the present-day world, initiated by UNESCO Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2015, and conducted since that time under the auspices of our Network.
The research focussed on the Republic of Daghestan, which forms part of the Russian Federation. It is a mountainous region lying between the slopes of the Caucasian ridge and the Caspian Sea, which is inhabited by people who speak not less than a couple of dozens of languages and belong to several world religions. As a result, interfaith dialogue, as well as the intercultural one, is high on the agenda of both the local society and the regional authorities.
Research included standardized interviews with approximately 100 Sunni Muslims, 100 Shiite Muslims, and 100 adherents of the Russian Orthodox church (i.e. Christians).
Mountain Jews served as the focal point of the present stage of the research. All of them belonged to an ethnoreligious community, which practices Sephardic version of Orthodox Judaism. The language spoken by Mountain Jews is called Juhuri. It belongs to the Iranian language group. Assessments of total number of Mountain Jews in the world range from 60,000 to 150,000 people.
Basic results of the inquiry demonstrated that the religious attitudes of Mountain Jews have much in common with other ethnoreligious groups of Daghestan. Thus, self-assessment of level of religiosity did not differ much from adherents of other religions. The same was true for the integrative index of religiosity measured by the Allport-Ross inventory. This trend may be due either to a high level of mutual adaptation of the main local traditional cultures or, to the remnants of Soviet and early post-Soviet spirituality, which are still quite distinct in this country.
Some trends turned out to be quite peculiar to the Daghestani Judaists. The main one consisted in a rather sharp divide existing between young men and aged ones. Young men tended to be much less enthusiastic about practicing personal prayer, reading sacred books, performing religious rites, and paying regular visits to synagogue, than the aged ones. The aged people were also much more intrinsically oriented than the young ones, and less susceptible to present-day non-traditional / New Age spirituality. Women, both young and aged, tended to occupy intermediate positions between these two male groups.
These findings have provoked quite lively interest by members of the scientific audience, state authorities, and by local societal activists. The researchers hope that they will contribute to the upgrading of interreligious dialogue in both the Republic of Daghestan, and in the Russian Federation in general.”
The UNESCO Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures, and Interreligious Dialogue is a member of the IDIU Network.