Jewish Georgia
If I forget you Jerusalem... If I forget you Georgia ...is written on the wall of The Museum of Jewish History Tbilisi.
The Georgian-Jewish relationship is unique – Georgia is one of the few countries with no historical record of antisemitism, exemplifying the nation's legendary hospitality. do you know, that:
1. Oldest community in the world
Georgian-speaking Jewry is one of the oldest surviving Jewish communities in the world. The Georgian Jews have an approximately 2,600-year history in Colchis. The Georgian Jews (also known as Gurjim, or kartveli ebraelebi) made their way to southern Georgia after Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BCE and exile in Babylon.
2. Mtskheta - second homeland for Jewish
Mtskheta – Ancient capital of west Georga (Iberia) became the second homeland for Georgian Jews. the medieval Georgian historic Leonti Mroveli, wrote: "then King Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem. The Jews who fled thence come to Kartli and requested from the mamasakhlisi [local ruler] of Mtskheta territory in return for tribute. He gave [a place] and settled them on the Aragvi, at spring, which was called Zanavi.”
3. No Antisemitism, never!
The tradition of the relationship between Jews and other Georgians has no signs of anti-Semitism, excluding the Tsarist (Russia Empire) government. For many centuries, the Georgian orthodox Church did not incite against the Jews, and the Georgian Jews were visibly assimilated in the country's life and culture. On 2018 Georgian-Jewish relations have been granted the status of an intangible cultural heritage.
https://www.respect-travel.ge/en/10facts.html#sigProId15b4a3fdce
4. Same surnames, same dresses
Jews were so integrated into Georgian society that they wore Georgian surnames (mostly end with "shvili"), and have dressed in Georgian traditional clothes
5. Local dialect - Kivruli on the Georgian language base
The Jews spoke Georgian, and later Jewish traders developed a dialect called Kivruli, or Judaeo-Georgian.
The Judeo-Georgian language, along with religion, traditions, and customs, has been considered a key identity marker of Georgian Jews. Georgian Jewish speech tended to be distinct from that of their non-Jewish neighbors. The differences from standard Georgian can be seen in phonetics, prosody/intonation, grammar, and lexicon.
6. Lailashi codex
In the mountain village of Lailashi, there one of the large Jewish communes in Western Georgia Lived, 1950s was found "Lailashi Codex". The Lailashi Codex is an ancient Hebrew manuscript (X c), considered the earliest nearly complete surviving medieval version of the Pentateuch
7. Zionist movement and all Jewish Congress
David Baazov ( 1883–1947) was a Georgian-Jewish public and religious figure who spearheaded the Zionist movement in Georgia. In 1918, he founded the first Georgian-Jewish Zionist paper ebraelis khma ("The Voice of Jew") and helped organize the All-Jewish Congress in Tbilisi which included representatives from every Georgian and Russian Jewish community in the country
8. Act of independence of the democratic republic of Georgia and Jews
On May 26, 1918 Constituent Assembly of Georgia sign Georgia declaration of independence of Georgia . Among these signatories were two Georgian Jews, Joseph Eligulashvili and Mose Davarashvili.
9. Alijah from Russian Empire
One of biggest Alijah via Constantinople to Palestine (1908-1921) was Supported by Great Britan embassy, operated in Batumi – black seaport city in western Georgia
10. Aliyah from Soviet Union
On August 9, 1967, 18 Jewish families sent an appeal to the United Nations to obtain the right to go to Israel. To avoid an international scandal, the Soviet government was forced to let them go to Israel.
