,
in Israel - Hebrew,
in Georgia - Georgian.
In the Georgian historical tradition, the main opinion is that the first Jews arrived in Georgia after the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. e. They lived throughout Georgia. At the beginning of the 20th century, in some cities and towns, for example in the city of Tskhinvali, they made up the bulk of the population - the Jewish quarter of Tskhinvali was more populous than the number of Georgians, Ossetians, Armenians or Russians. They also live to this day in an urban-type settlement (although there is a very small community left there, according to unconfirmed data - about 50 people).
According to Leonid Eichis, the Jewish community in Georgia was not subjected to persecution or infringement of religious and ethnic rights by Georgians. In September 1998, the 2600th anniversary of the cohabitation of Georgians and Jews was widely celebrated in Georgia.
Mostly Georgian Jews speak Georgian and also use the Georgian alphabet as their written language. Among the traders, the jargon of Kivruli, which was a mixture of Georgian and Hebrew, was formed.
see also
Write a review about the article "Georgian Jews"
Notes
Literature
- Babalikashvili Nisan. Tbilisi. Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Excerpt characterizing Georgian Jews
This is the Battle of Pultu, which is considered a great victory, but which is not at all like that, in my opinion. We civilians, as you know, have a very bad habit of deciding whether a battle is won or lost. The one who retreated after the battle lost it, that's what we say, and judging by this, we lost the Battle of Pultu. In a word, we are retreating after the battle, but we send a courier to St. Petersburg with the news of the victory, and General Bennigsen does not yield command of the army to General Buxhoeveden, hoping to receive from St. Petersburg the title of commander-in-chief in gratitude for his victory. During this interregnum, we begin a very original and interesting series of maneuvers. Our plan no longer consists, as it should have consisted, in avoiding or attacking the enemy, but only in avoiding General Buxhoeveden, who by right of seniority should have been our superior. We pursue this goal with such energy that even when crossing a river that has no fords, we burn the bridge in order to alienate our enemy, who at the present time is not Bonaparte, but Buxhoeveden. General Buxhoeveden was almost attacked and captured by superior enemy forces, as a result of one of these maneuvers that saved us from him. Buxhoeveden is pursuing us - we are running. As soon as he crosses to our side of the river, we cross to the other. Finally our enemy Buxhoeveden catches us and attacks. Both generals are angry and it comes to a challenge to a duel from Buxhoeveden and an attack of epilepsy from Bennigsen. But at the most critical moment, the courier who carried the news of the Pultus victory to St. Petersburg returns and brings us the appointment of the commander-in-chief, and the first enemy, Buxhoeveden, is defeated. We can now think about the second enemy - Bonaparte. But it turns out that at this very moment a third enemy appears before us - the Orthodox, who with loud cries demands bread, beef, crackers, hay, oats - and you never know what else! The shops are empty, the roads are impassable. The Orthodox begins to plunder, and the plunder reaches a degree of which the last campaign could not give you the slightest idea. Half of the regiments form free teams that go around the country and put everything to the sword and flame. Residents are completely ruined, hospitals are filled with sick people, and there is hunger everywhere. Twice the marauders even attacked the main apartment, and the commander-in-chief was forced to take a battalion of soldiers to drive them away. During one of these attacks, my empty suitcase and robe were taken from me. The Emperor wants to give all division commanders the right to shoot marauders, but I am very afraid that this will force one half of the army to shoot the other.]The pages of the history of the Jewish people, scattered throughout the world until the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, are written in different languages. One of them is Georgian. Who are they - Georgian Jews?
First traces
The first mention of Jews on Georgian soil is contained in “Kartlis Tskhovreba” (“Life of Georgia”), a Georgian collection of chronicles of the 12th century. The appearance of their “Kartlis tskhovreba” is associated with the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (586 BC) and the destruction of the First Temple. Exiles from Jerusalem and fugitives from Babylonian captivity found shelter in Georgia.
Nearby, archaeologists happened to find gravestones of the 3rd–4th centuries. BC. with inscriptions in Aramaic and Hebrew.
Jews were the spreaders of Christianity in this land: the Georgian church canonized Kohen Evyatar and his sister Sidonia. The name of Saint Nino, the baptist of Georgia, is associated with these two characters: from them she learned about the Levite Elioz from Mtskheta, who brought the Robe of the Lord to Georgia from Jerusalem. Elioz was the high priest of the Jews in Georgia and received news from the Jerusalem high priest Anna: about the arrival of the Magi, then about the trial of the Savior. And an invitation to participate, of course. But Elioz’s mother Sarah, a very difficult Jew who came from the family of the great Jewish prophet Eliyahu, by the spirit of God ordered her son not to participate in the shedding of the blood of the Messiah (presumably from this order of Sarah comes the opinion that the Georgians never accused the Jews of executing Christ). Elioz's sister Sidonia begged her brother to bring something that had been touched by the hands of the Messiah. He brought it - the bloody tunic of the Son of Man.
From Evyatar and Sidonia she learned about the burial place of the tunic and went to worship him.
Salome of Ujarma, the wife of Prince Revi, who studied with Saint Nino, was also Jewish. Christian prayers. Salome created a biography of the saint.
“Kartlis Tskhovreba” says that six languages were spoken in Mtskheta, one of them was Hebrew. Georgian Jews called (and still call) themselves “Kartveli Ebraeli”. There is a unique language - even more of an argot - called "Kivruli", born in a trading environment. Its basis is Georgian, but researchers note Hebrew and even Aramaic roots in it.
They lived on Georgian soil during the times of its independence and prosperity, which began with the reign of David the Builder, but almost nothing is known about them. Marco Polo, who came to Georgia in 1272, noted that Jews lived in Tiflis. But, judging by the turn of phrase, there are few of them (“and also Muslims and Jews”).
In the XIV century. On the shores of the Black Sea in the city of Gagra there was a Jewish community led by Rabbi Joseph from Tiflis.
Times of blood libels
After the annexation of Georgia to Russia in 1801, the situation of Jews in this land began to slowly, gradually deteriorate. To the Georgians themselves, tsarist power also did not seem like paradise. What was worse was that it was poisoning the Georgian people with an ancient, dearly beloved infection - cruel Judeophobia. In the second half of the 19th century, this led to Georgia becoming notorious not only in Russia, but throughout the world: nowhere were Jews accused of fictitious crimes so often in such a short period of time!
1852 1878 - the famous Kutaisi trial, utterly absurd: before the Passover holiday, 9 Jews were brought to trial on charges of murdering a 9-year-old Christian baby. The favorite horror story of anti-Semites of all times is “blood for matzo”! People were acquitted, but “a sediment remained” - how many illiterate people need to test the dough on blood! Next - 1881-1884. According to the “blood libel” every year! Total 6. An unconditional world record for anti-Semitism, which led to a brutal pogrom against Jews in Kutaisi in 1895.
During the existence of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic both Jews and Georgians were equally considered Soviet people, worked equally and lived very similarly. Before the October Revolution of 1917, no more than 5% of Georgian Jews were engaged in anything other than agriculture and, traditionally, trade. The Georgians themselves are skilled farmers who love work, and they perfectly understood the Jews, who were very similar to them in this regard... And the Georgians themselves know how to trade and love to trade. There were no conflicts. There were entire settlements where there was not a single Georgian - entirely Jews. In large Georgian cities, of course, Jews grouped around the synagogue or what it served as its role for them. And the local Soviet authorities diligently turned a blind eye to people praying in Hebrew - they work, and do well.
It was not always so calm and peaceful - power is power, it is inhuman by definition: if it needs to, it will squeeze its own people, not to mention someone else’s. Jewish Georgian playwright Guram Batiashvili recalls a very characteristic episode: in the early 60s. last century in the town where he grew up (now Senaki, then Mikha Tskhakaya), the local authorities took away the synagogue building from the Jews for some of their own needs. The Jews were going to pray in their homes, at the same time demanding that the secretary of the district committee allocate at least some land for a prayer house and collecting money for this. Selected. Built. The synagogue burned down. Collected for a new one. The new one burned out too! Is it a coincidence? It’s hardly an accident, but there was no open conflict... The story is wonderful both in the behavior of the authorities and in the behavior of its victims: somewhere else in the USSR the Jews would have tried to demand land for a “stronghold of religious obscurantism” from the secretary of the district committee!
And now there are almost no Jews in Senaki. But there is a synagogue.
In the “Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire”, published in 1991 in Estonian, and in 2001 - in English language, it says this: “The Jews in Georgia divide into two groups of totally different origins: the Georgian Jews and the European Jews.” (“Jews in Georgia are divided into two groups with completely different origins: Georgian and European”). It is curious that they themselves do not make such a division.
How a Georgian turned to the Jews and what came of it
In May 2016, Nugzar Gogitidze, a Georgian living in Canada, published a post on his personal Facebook page entitled “An appeal from a Georgian to the Jews!” The post received 9,000 likes and was deleted by the Facebook administration.
On February 22, 2018, it was reposted on his blog by NoName portal user leonbc99. The repost received 5 pages of comments - and what kind!
NoName commentators vied with each other to accuse the author of the original post of Russophobia, Zionism and Jewish Freemasonry, Russians argued with Jews, everyone tried to convey their valuable thoughts about the correct celebration of Victory Day, at the same time discussing the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the national composition Soviet people, who defeated Nazism, the Jewish holiday of Purim... The author, you see, declares that Jews do not celebrate their victories - but what about Purim? Commentators joyfully called Purim a celebration in honor of the genocide of the Persian people (somehow forgetting that it was the Persians who originally planned to destroy the Jews).
And the main idea of Nugzar Gogitidze’s original post is that it is always better instead of pretentious and drunken celebration of one’s victories with idiotic cries: “We can repeat it!” just take it and remember with sorrow the dead. And if you do this, the number of wars on earth will gradually decrease. But some commentators did not perceive this undoubtedly wonderful message at all; for another part, it only caused aggression, as if the author had encroached on their personal right to cheerfully celebrate Victory Day on a grand scale.
But the fact that the message did not quite get through, and if it did get through, it was wrong, is also the fault of the author. “Appeal from a Georgian to the Jews!” it is written frankly and rudely, vocabulary such as “scum”, “riffraff”, “creature”, “sperm troops” does not at all contribute to the desire to understand the original message. Nugzar Gogitidze responded to the deletion of the post with a second post - clearly out of emotion and therefore somewhat ridiculous. He carefully reminded the Jews... of the need to remember the victims of the Holocaust. It's like they don't remember. As if every year on the day of Yom Hashoah at 10 o’clock in the morning a siren does not sound throughout the Country, and the whole Country does not freeze to the sound of this siren as a sign of mourning for the dead.
The fate of Georgian Jews is certainly unique. Even in the most unfavorable times for the Jewish people in Russia and the USSR, it actually never happened that a Jew suffered insult from a Georgian for his Jewishness, if this was not pressure from above.
In September 1998, Georgia celebrated the 2600th anniversary of the coexistence of the Georgian and Jewish peoples. Today, the Jewish population of Georgia numbers, according to various sources, from 8 to 12 thousand people. Religious life is led by Rabbi Ariel Levin; there are officially two synagogues in Tbilisi - for Ashkenazim and Sephardim; those who wish can give their children religious education in a cheder and a yeshiva.
And we know the names of Georgian Jews who have achieved success in various spheres of life. Who doesn’t know the writer Boris Akunin (Chkhartishvili) or the singer Tamara Gverdtsiteli? But besides them there are many wonderful cultural figures, successful businessmen and politicians. And on Victory Day, Georgian Jews also have someone to remember - many heroes of the Great Patriotic War came from among them.
Jews of Georgian origin live all over the world. There is a portal Georgianjews.org, where you can find out about the World Congress of Georgian Jews (WCGJ) - the World Congress of Jews of Georgia. “Georgia marked Georgian-Jewish friendship of 26 century with solemn jubilee...” (“Georgia marked the 26th anniversary of Georgian-Jewish friendship”) - news from October 22, 2014 on this portal. At the same time, the Museum of the History of Georgian Jews named after David Baazov was opened in the building of the former “Dome” synagogue in Tbilisi.
Term "Georgian Jews" took root in the 19th century, after the inclusion of Georgia into the Russian Empire, although in historical literature this name was used from the 11th century. The first Jews appeared on the territory of Georgia, most likely after the destruction of the First Temple. Georgian Jews speak Georgian and call themselves "Ebraeli", "Kartveli Ebraeli" or "Israeli". Orthodox Church Georgia did not persecute Jews, and for centuries Jews in Georgia maintained their traditions. Starting from the second half of the 19th century-th century Jews began to leave the Caucasus, and most of them now live in Israel. The total number of Georgian Jews today is approx. 200 thousand, almost 60% of them live in Israel, approx. 120 thousand.
When did Jews appear in Georgia?
The other part settled in Transcaucasia, and this is how communities of Armenian and Georgian Jews arose. About various Jewish settlements of the 6th century AD. Arab historians report.
Georgian Jews in the 7th - 19th centuries AD.
After the conquest of a significant part of Georgia by the Arabs in the second half of the 7th century, it turned into a province Arab Caliphate, although it remained a Christian country.
The trial took place in Kutaisi and went down in history as "Kutaisi process". The accused were found innocent, but nevertheless, the confidence of the local population that Jews use Christian blood in making matzah was not shaken. Other cases of blood libels in Georgia in the second half of the 19th century. noted in 1852, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884. In 1895, the Jews of Kutaisi were subjected to a brutal pogrom.
At the end of the 1890s. was elected chief rabbi of the city of Tskhinvali Avraham Ha-Levi Khvoles(1857-1931), student of the famous Lithuanian rabbi Yitzhak Elchonon Spector. The only language of communication between him and his flock was Hebrew, and over time the number of people using this language among the Georgian Jews of Tskhinvali increased significantly.
Born in 1906 Khvoles opened the first school in Georgia Talmud Torah, which had about 400 students. For the first time in the history of Georgian Jews, he introduced education for girls, inviting a Hebrew teacher. Khvoles sent several of his best students to yeshivas in Lithuania to continue their studies and receive the rabbinical title, which became generally accepted among Georgian Jews over time.
The influence of Rabbi Khvoles went far beyond Tskhinvali. In 1902, a school for children of Georgian Jews was founded in Tbilisi, in which teaching was conducted according to the “Hebrew in Hebrew” system. The teachers of this school were invited from Vilna.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in Tskhinvali (and in some other cities and towns) Jews made up the bulk of the population - the Jewish quarter of Tskhinvali was more populous than the number of Georgians, Ossetians, Armenians or Russians.
In the Land of Israel
First World War interrupted the process of aliyah of Georgian Jews to Eretz Israel, which began in the 19th century. According to the 1916 Palestine census, the community "gurdjei"(that is, Georgian Jews) numbered 439 people, the vast majority of whom lived in Jerusalem, where they created their own quarter near the Damascus (Shechem) Gate. After the pogroms of 1929, this quarter was abandoned by Jews.
Despite the fact that the main motivating factor for aliyah was religious desire, the number Khakhamov among the Georgian Jews who arrived in Eretz Israel was insignificant. Among them is the famous Akhaltsikhe khakham Joseph Davidashvili, who arrived in Eretz Israel in the 90s. 19th century, Siman ben Moshe Rizhinashvili, who published in 1892 in Jerusalem the Hebrew-Georgian phrasebook (in Hebrew script) “Sefer Hinuch Ha-Nearim” (“Book of Education of Youths”), and Ephraim ben Yaakov ha-Levi Kukiya, who published in 1877 in Jerusalem the religious and philosophical works “Yalkut Ephraim al-Ha-Torah im Hamesh Mehilot” (“Collection [of commentaries] of Ephraim on the Torah and five scrolls”) and “Chaim himself: likutim u-musarim tovim” (“ Elixir of life: extracts and good morals").
After the October Revolution of 1917
After the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, the desire for independence intensified in Georgia, and soon, in May 1918, a democratic republic was formed. When the elections to the Georgian Constituent Assembly were announced, two seats were allocated for Georgian Jewish candidates and one for an Ashkenazi candidate.
During this period, the Jewish desire for assimilation increased. Jews appeared who declared that Georgian Jews, from an ethnic point of view, were not Jews, but Georgians, differing from the rest of the country's population only in religion.
With the invasion of Georgia by the Red Army in February 1921, a mass exodus of the population began, fleeing the new Russian conquest. Together with the wave of emigrants, from one and a half to two thousand Georgian Jews left Georgia, of which about a thousand people arrived in the Land of Israel. The rest settled mainly in Istanbul, where since the 1880s. there was a community of Georgian Jews.
The Soviet government in Georgia initially acted in accordance with the principles of the so-called Eastern Policy of the Communist Party, that is, with emphasized respect for local, including religious, traditions. This also extended to the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards Georgian Jews. Government authorities did not actually interfere in matters related to the Jewish religion, and the synagogues continued to operate as before.
The “Eastern Policy” did not last long, and already in the mid-20s, persecution of Jews who refused to leave their religion began, and synagogues were closed.
The creation of special Jewish-Georgian collective farms without transferring their residents to new places allowed Georgian Jews not only to try to find a way out of their difficult financial situation, but also to preserve traditional community life, observe kashrut, the Sabbath, Jewish holidays, etc.
However, already from the beginning of the 30s. the authorities began to take measures to undermine the Jewish tradition by introducing members of other nationalities into Jewish collective farms, and the collective farms ceased to be Jewish.
The only exception was the first of the Georgian-Jewish collective farms, Tsiteli-Gora. It continued to exist as the only Jewish collective farm in Georgia until the early 70s.
In September 1937, nine were arrested Khakhamov(two of them are Ashkenazi) of the city of Tskhinvali (then called Staliniri) and were killed without trial in prison. After some time, the rabbi was arrested and sentenced to death D. Baazov(the sentence was later replaced by 10 years of exile in Siberia).
Despite repression and persecution, even in the 1960-70s. the majority of Georgian Jews continued to regularly attend synagogues on Saturdays and holidays and observe kashrut. Circumcision, chuppah, and burial in accordance with Jewish religious customs were observed by virtually all Georgian Jews. Many children of Georgian Jews prepared for their bar mitzvahs in underground cheder, the existence of which the authorities knew about, but chose not to notice. They even managed to build simple small Sukkot huts and acquire one etrog and lulav for the entire community.
In addition to Tbilisi, the main centers of residence of Georgian Jews in the late 1960s - early 70s. were Kutaisi, Kulashi, Tskhinvali, Gori, Oni, and Sachkheri. In cities where Jews lived and under Soviet rule, blood libels arose: 1963 - Tskaltubo, 1964 - Zestafoni, 1965 - Kutaisi.
After the Six-Day War, Georgia became the region in the Soviet Union with the largest participation of Jews in demonstrations and in signing petitions demanding the right to travel to Israel. Famous "Letter to Eighteen"- letter from 18 heads of Jewish families to the UN dated August 6, 1969 with a request to influence the government Soviet Union, so that it would provide them with the opportunity to travel to Israel, was the first document of the aliyah movement in the USSR, which became known to the wider world community. 13 of these 18 families were Georgian Jews.
The mass aliyah of Georgian Jews began in 1971. Over ten years, about 30 thousand Georgian Jews repatriated to Israel. After Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR, emigration became massive.
Communities of Georgian Jews in Georgia
In Tbilisi today there are only two operating synagogues, one of them is a Georgian synagogue, the other is Ashkenazi.
The Georgian synagogue in Moorish-eclectic style, with a vaulted ceiling and lighting, was founded by Jews from Akhaltsikhe, who settled in Tbilisi at the end of the 19th century and worshiped first in another building, and in 1903 received permission to build a new house of worship.
In the former domed synagogue, closed in the 20s under Soviet rule,
In 1934, the Museum of Jewish History was founded. In the wake of the fight against Zionism in 1953, the museum was also closed, and it was only renovated and opened to the public in 2014.
In Kutaisi there is a Jewish quarter with three synagogues. The Jewish quarter in Akhaltsikhe is no longer inhabited by Jews, and has become an object of visit for Israeli tourists, visiting two synagogues and a Jewish cemetery. The Akhaltsikhe Old Synagogue was built back in the Turkish era, in the 1740s, so now it is the oldest monument of Akhaltsikhe architecture.
In the city of Oni (in the central part of the Racha region), Georgian Jews lived for centuries. In the past, the Jewish community of this city was considered one of the largest in the country, third after the communities of Tbilisi and Kutaisi: it included more than three thousand people. This once accounted for one third of the city's total population.
In the early 50s of the 20th century, during the fight against Zionism, it was decided to close the synagogue in Oni. When workers from the Ministry of State Security arrived at the building, they discovered that it was locked from the inside and children could be heard crying from there. It turned out that not only Jewish mothers and children, but also Georgian ones, locked themselves in the synagogue to save it from destruction. The security officers had no choice but to leave the synagogue alone. Thanks to such dedication, today Oni stands this beautiful building, built in 1895 according to the same design as the Warsaw synagogue.
Now there are almost no Jews left in Oni, Surami, Akhaltsikhe, Tskhinvali and other cities. There are still Georgian Jews left in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Gori, Batumi. According to the population census conducted in 2002, there are no more than 4,000 of them, and these are mainly older people whose children and grandchildren live in Israel and other countries.
Communities of Georgian Jews in Russia and Israel
Georgian Jews who came to Moscow and St. Petersburg after the collapse of the Union were unable to integrate into any of the existing communities. And in 2008, the synagogue of Georgian Jews “Tent of Isaac” was opened at the Moscow Choral Synagogue, and in 2010, the synagogue “Oel Moshe” was opened on the territory of the Great Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg.
In Israel, Georgian Jews live mostly in Ashdod, Ashkelon and Bat Yam. In Ashdod alone the community numbers about 40 thousand people. They even ensured that Georgia Day in Ashdod became a city holiday, which is celebrated with great solemnity every year on October 8.
Of the approximately 200 thousand Georgian Jews, 5 thousand live in the United States, 13 thousand live in Georgia, and today about 120 thousand live in Israel.
As predicted by the prophets, the Jews are gathering in the Land of Israel from all four corners of the Earth: “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” said the Lord, “when they will no longer say: “(as) the Lord lives, who brought out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,” And (they will say): “(as) the Lord lives, who brought forth and brought the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where I drove them, and they will live in their land” ( Yirmiyau, 23).
JEWS IN GEORGIA: 26 CENTURIES TOGETHER
Leonid Eichis
The history of the Jews of Georgia begins shortly after the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem. All 26 centuries of their life on this fertile land are a unique part of the world history of the Jewish people. It cannot be argued that the community was never subjected to persecution, infringement of religious and ethnic rights, and did not know social and political anti-Semitism, but objectively speaking, these misfortunes, besides being local, were never initiated by the Georgians. And this fundamentally distinguishes the history of the Jews who lived among the Georgian people. This overriding factor and the opportunity to defend their religious and national rights led to a historic turn in the policy of the GSSR regarding the repatriation of Jews to Israel.
The active national identity of Jews, which developed thanks to the benevolent moral climate of Georgia, was reflected in the mass emigration of the early 1970s. It must be said that Georgia has long had good relations with the state of Israel. And during the difficult period for Georgia in 1992-1993, Israel was one of the first foreign states to open its embassy in Tbilisi and began sending humanitarian aid there: medicines, clothing, food, various equipment.
In September 1998, Georgia celebrated the 2600th anniversary of the cohabitation of the Georgian and Jewish peoples. Such a significant date was celebrated at the state level with major ceremonial events.
“This is one of the most important historical events that I have had the opportunity to attend during the entire period of my activity,” said the head of the Israeli delegation, now President of Israel Moshe Katsav, at a meeting with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze on September 9, 1998. “We cannot yet fully appreciate the enormous significance of this event, because we are talking about the history of 26 centuries of peaceful coexistence...”
Today in Georgia, according to various sources, there are from 8 to 12 thousand Jews, most of them live in the capital. There are two synagogues in Tbilisi, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, there is a yeshiva-kollel “Or Emet”, a cheder school “Tiferet Tzvi”. The religious Jewish community, headed by the Chief Rabbi of Georgia Ariel Levin, is doing a lot of work.
As in the CIS countries, representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Joint, as well as the charitable organizations Rahamim and Hesed, work with the community. Valid here and secondary schools, and kindergartens, and, of course, ulpans. The Hebrew University and the Institute of Social Workers were opened.
Heder in Georgia. 1970s.
But let’s return to the unique date that was celebrated by the Georgian and Jewish people three years ago. The first mention of Jews in Georgia is contained in the chronicle “Kartlis Tskhovreba”, which connects their appearance in the country with the destruction of the First Temple (586 BC). The oldest archaeological evidence of the presence of Jews on the territory of Georgia is gravestones with inscriptions in Aramaic and Hebrew near the former capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, dating back to the 3rd–4th centuries. Unfortunately, very little information has been preserved about the fate of Georgian Jews in the Middle Ages; no detailed descriptions their lives in the era of independence and prosperity of Georgia (1089–1213), which began under King David the Builder. However, Marco Polo, who visited this land in 1272, noted that “Christians live in Tiflis - Georgians and Armenians, as well as Muslims and Jews.”
Jews in Georgia were traditionally engaged in trade: among them there were many shopkeepers and peddlers. Some worked as shrubs, many kept cows and sheep, and cultivated small gardens and vineyards. Those who did not own property often received from the feudal lord a house and a plot of land, the right to trade and serve as a clerk in the master's shop.
Nathan Eliashvili, in his book on the history of Georgian Jews (1926), argued that Georgians are hospitable by nature and warmly welcome every stranger into their country. They considered it their moral duty to receive Jews with honor, since they believed that the Bagratid royal dynasty, beloved and revered by the Georgian people, was of Jewish origin.
In the first half of the 19th century, Georgia experienced economic prosperity, which was naturally felt by Jews. The construction of roads and railways, the expansion of ports, and the development of industry and agriculture contributed to the revival of trade, which led to significant demographic changes. Entire communities moved from villages to cities. New communities arose in Sukhumi, Poti, Batumi, along the entire Black Sea coast. The then very small community of Tbilisi grew significantly.
President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze in the Tbilisi synagogue at an event dedicated to the 2600th anniversary of the cohabitation of the Georgian and Jewish peoples. September 1998.
The inclusion of Georgia into the Russian Empire in 1801 changed the economic, political and social situation of the Jews. At first they welcomed Russian rule, but soon became aware of its anti-Semitism. Judeophobic sentiments were brought to Georgia by tsarist officials and the Russian Orthodox Church. An atmosphere of fanatical obscurantism developed: accusations of ritual murders began, causing a wave of anti-Jewish protests and acts of violence.
There were also positive aspects to Georgia's annexation to Russia: ties between Georgian and Russian Jewish communities were gradually established. The decree of 1804, which included the Caucasus in the Pale of Settlement, allowed Russian Jews to settle in Georgia. They were attracted by the wide economic opportunities and mild climate. Ashkenazi Jews had professions that in one way or another contributed to the penetration of Russian-Jewish culture into Georgia: among them were pharmacists, doctors, tailors, jewelers, watchmakers, as well as suppliers to the Russian army.
Communication between local and visiting Jews was at first very limited. They did not know each other's languages; they were separated by a wall of rejection. For the first time, the Zionists tried to establish genuine cooperation between the two Jewish communities. In general, the ideas of Zionism began to spread among Georgian Jews already in the second half of the 19th century, thanks to which hundreds of families left for Eretz Yisroel. In 1897, the first Zionist organization arose in Georgia, created by adherents of the Haskalah movement.
No matter how the life of Georgian Jews developed, no matter what trends were felt, the role of Eretz Yisroel was always decisive in it. Nathan Eliashvili wrote: “The love and desire for Eretz Israel was deep. All his life the Jew dreamed of going to Eretz Yisroel, or seeing it with his own eyes at least once, or dying there in his declining years.”
The Holy Land was of paramount importance for Christian Georgia. For centuries, Christian Georgians made pilgrimages to Palestine and built churches and monasteries there. Georgian monasteries appeared on Mount Sinai, in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, the most popular among them is the Jerusalem Monastery of the Holy Cross, where, according to legend, Shota Rustaveli, the greatest Georgian poet of the 12th century, is buried.
With independence in 1918, free Georgia existed for three years until the fall of the Menshevik government in March 21, and when the Bolsheviks came, the Jews believed in the benefits they promised. And the beginning was truly impressive: the authorities did not interfere in religious life, Jewish schools and cultural centers were opened. Then different times came. The repressions of 1937, of course, did not spare Georgian Jews. They were not spared the national-religious persecution carried out throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union, which weakened somewhat during the war years, but then resumed almost with a vengeance. The wave of anti-Semitism that arose in the USSR in the early 50s led to numerous arrests among the Jewish intelligentsia of Georgia. Many religious activists were arrested.
The chief rabbis of Russia and Israel at an event dedicated to the 2600th anniversary of the cohabitation of the Georgian and Jewish peoples. September 1998.
In the 1950s economic development Georgia accelerated, and the financial situation of the Jews began to improve. In the 60s, hundreds of Jews studied at universities, went into science, industry, and art, and soon occupied a prominent position in society. At the same time, the majority preserved the religion and traditions of their ancestors. Despite more than half a century of communist rule, Georgian Jews to this day continue to observe the covenant of circumcision, their own wedding ritual, kosher laws, they celebrate the Sabbath and all Jewish holidays. Georgian communities have always cared about kosher food, matzo baking and financial support for synagogues, which was not observed in Russian communities during the Soviet era.
The struggle of Georgian Jews for the right to emigrate to Israel became one of the important factors that led to a historical change in the policy of the Soviet government towards Jewish emigration. In 1969, 18 families were the first from the Jews of the USSR to appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission. The active awakening of Jewish national self-awareness was reflected in the mass emigration of the early 70s, when about 30 thousand people left Georgia for Israel.
After the collapse of the USSR, many Georgian Jews visited their relatives in Israel, and they began to visit the regions where they were born. This had a great impact on various aspects of the life of the Jews of Georgia: national self-awareness increased, culture began to actively develop, and more young people were involved in Jewish life. At the same time, those who left Georgia feel their deep connection with the Georgian people and identify with their struggle for self-determination. In Israel they form a strong brotherhood and preserve the Georgian language.
Monthly literary and journalistic magazine and publishing house.
