Questions and Answers FAQ – Nash Didan

“Nash Didan” means “our people,” and is the name used by Jews whose origins lie in the region between Urmia in western Iran and Van in eastern Turkey, including communities and villages in between. The community was part of the historical landscape of northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia and, over the generations, spread to additional communities.

One of the community’s most distinctive characteristics is the use of Lishan Didan, a variety of Modern Eastern Aramaic. During the twentieth century, many members immigrated to the Land of Israel, and the community continues to exist in Israel and in the diaspora.

The region associated with Nash Didan extends roughly from the Urmia area and Lake Urmia in western Iran to the Van region in eastern Turkey. Important historical centers include Urmia, Salmas, Başkale and Gawar.

Alongside the towns, many small villages and communities existed. Families also moved between places over time, so the origins of a particular family may be connected to more than one location.

Most historical centers associated with Nash Didan are located in Iranian Azerbaijan, in northwestern Iran. This should be distinguished from the Republic of Azerbaijan to the north.

Jewish communities also existed in areas of the Ottoman Empire, and later families moved to Turkey, the Caucasus and other cities. The geographic map of Nash Didan therefore changed over time.

There is currently no universally accepted and complete list of all villages and settlements in which Nash Didan lived. Historical centers such as Urmia, Salmas, Başkale and Gawar are known, alongside numerous smaller villages and communities.

Present-day Salmas is not identical to historical Salmas, and Dilman was the earlier center on whose ruins the later city developed. Place names also changed, so identifying a location sometimes requires checking the historical name and boundaries relevant to the period.

Yes. Lishan Didan served as the spoken language of Jews in Nash Didan communities, but it was not the only language they knew. Life in a multilingual environment meant that many people also used surrounding languages, depending on place, period and occupation.

Different communities were influenced by Azeri, Persian, Turkish, Russian and other languages. Fluency varied from family to family and from one generation to another.

Lishan Didan is not completely uniform. Communities and villages were sometimes far apart, and contact between them was limited. Over time, differences developed in pronunciation, vocabulary and language structure.

The surrounding languages also influenced the dialects. There is no need to regard one dialect as more “authentic” than another — each reflects the history of the community in which it developed.

Lishan Didan and the Aramaic varieties spoken by Assyrian communities belong to the broader sphere of Modern Eastern Aramaic, and are therefore linguistically related. At the same time, they represent different speech traditions and may differ substantially in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar.

Linguistic affinity by itself does not establish a shared historical or communal identity between the groups.

Language use varied according to the surrounding environment. Community members could use Azeri, Persian, Turkish or Russian, and in different communities other languages as well.

Thus the question “What language did the Nash Didan speak?” does not necessarily have a single-language answer: Lishan Didan was the central community language, alongside multilingualism shaped by place and period.

Nash Didan identity is not determined solely by the modern country in which a family was born. The historical community’s geographic area crosses the modern border between Iran and Turkey, and members moved between these regions over the generations.

A family can therefore have Nash Didan roots while also having longstanding connections to Iran, Turkey or another country where it later settled.

This can be related to where a family lived, the language it used, local identity and migration. Many families moved between regions and countries and sometimes adopted a local identity alongside the memory of their original community.

A description such as “Persian” or “Turkish” may describe a family’s geographic or historical context, but does not necessarily replace its Nash Didan communal identity.

The subject is complex. There is geographic proximity between Nash Didan and Jewish communities that lived in Kurdistan, as well as some shared linguistic and cultural characteristics. At the same time, Nash Didan developed as communities with their own local history and linguistic tradition.

A person can be described according to family origin, the place from which their ancestors came, and the community to which they belonged.

There is no single answer that must apply to everyone. Someone who identifies as part of the Nash Didan community can simply say “Nash Didan”, and, if desired, add a brief explanation about the region, language and heritage.

Family identity can have several layers — place of origin, language, country, community and tradition.

The situation differs from place to place, and in some cities historical Jewish communities have disappeared or become very small. Even when Jews live in a particular city today, this does not necessarily mean that they are descendants of the local Nash Didan community.

Information about individual families is not always sufficient to establish the situation of an entire community, so personal testimony should be distinguished from broader documentation.

Immigration to the Land of Israel occurred in several waves rather than at one single time. Families arrived in earlier periods as well, and during the twentieth century the scale of migration and immigration increased.

Families sometimes arrived directly from the Urmia and Salmas regions, and sometimes after periods of residence in Turkey, Iraq, the Caucasus or other places.

Begin with family information: the names of grandparents, place names, nicknames, synagogue names, relatives’ names and traditional pronunciations of the family name. Even stories that seem insignificant can be useful.

You can then compare this information with immigration records, family documents, testimonies, historical maps and information about the communities. The Nash Didan website is gradually collecting information about places, families and local history that may assist with this kind of research.

The heritage survives in language, customs, food, music, stories, family memories, and the names of places and families. Some knowledge has been preserved orally, while other material can be found in books, documents and archives.

One of the main challenges is documenting knowledge before it is lost. Every family testimony, photograph, document or story can therefore have value for research and heritage preservation.

Yes. Alongside historical articles, the website includes folk stories, testimonies, memories and information collected from families and other sources. The goal is to preserve not only historical facts, but also the human voice of the community.

You can contribute family information, stories, photographs, documents, recordings, place names and details about customs or Lishan Didan. Even partial information can be useful, especially when compared with testimonies from other families.

If you have such material, preserve the original rather than only copying the information. Details about who provided the testimony, and when and where it was collected, can be valuable to future generations.