The book is a family saga, presenting an insight into the history of Jews in Russia’s oil industry. It leads to forced migration in the turbulent 20th century endured and mastered by a cohesive family over four generations in Russia, Germany, Denmark, France, Palestine, and the United States of America.

The Kahans from Baku is the saga of a Russian Jewish family. Their story provides an insight into the history of Jews in the Imperial Russian economy, especially in the oil industry. The entrepreneur and family patriarch, Chaim Kahan, was a pious and enlightened man and a Zionist. His children followed in his footsteps in business as well as in politics, philanthropy, and love of books. The book takes us through their forced migration in times of war, revolution, and the twentieth century’s totalitarian regimes, telling the story of fortune and misfortune of one cohesive family over four generations through Russia, Germany, Denmark, and France, and finally on to Palestine and the United States of America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface — Jonah Gavrieli
In Memoriam Eli Rosenberg — Noa Rosenberg
Translator’s Foreword — Uri Themal

1. Jacob Kahan: Imprisoned. Berlin
2. Chaim Kahan. From Orlya to Brest-Litovsk
3. Life under War Conditions. Berlin
4. On the Move. Vilna, Warsaw, Kharkov, Saratov...
5. Citizenship and the World of Education—Berlin, Bonn, Frankfurt, Marburg, Antwerp
6. To Baku
7. Zina and the Oilfields. Baku
8. Aron and the Black Gold. Baku
9. Summer Resorts during the War. Bad Harzburg, Bad Neuenahr, Bad Polzin
10. Economic Management in Times of War and Revolution. Petrograd
11. Across the Front Line—Berlin, Warsaw, Baku, Moscow, Vilna, Kharkov, Kiev
12. Expulsion from Russia. Baku, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Moscow
13. Fresh Start in the West: Caucasian Oil Company. Copenhagen, Berlin, London, Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven
14. Family in Exile. Berlin
15. Nitag. Berlin
16. Devotion to Books. Petrograd, Vilna, Berlin
17. 36 Schlüterstrasse. Expulsion from Paradise. Berlin
18. The Mavericks between the Wars—European Corporate Networks: Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Riga, Paris, Amsterdam
19. The Third Expulsion. Paris, Lisbon
20. Eretz Israel. Tel Aviv
21. Sanctuaries. The Family Is Alive. New York, Tel Aviv, Ma’agan Michael

Illustrations
Notes