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Triday, Oct. 13, 1967
THE SOUTHERN ISRAEUTI
By BEN AMI
Between
The Proud Tradition
Of the Georgian Jews
The Georgian Jews are equally
proud of their past. They claim
to be the descendants of the ten
tribes which were exiled from
the kingdom of Israel some twen
ty-seven hundred years ago by
the Assyrian king Shalmaneser
V, and which settled on the bor
ders of the empire at “Halah,
Khabur and the River Gozan,
and the cities of Media.”
Though there is no clear evi
dence in support of this tradi
tion (as no serious study of this
subject has yet been made), it
seems probable that the Jewish
descendants of the Assyrian
exiles wandered as far as sou
thern Caucasia, Babylonia, and
Persia, and settled there. We
learn of Jewish settlers in Arm
enia from the Jerusalem Talmud,
which mentions “Rabbi Yaakov
of Armenia.” Josephus relates
that a considerable number of
Jews lived in. Amenia during
the days of King Tigranes ( a
descendant of Herod, first cen
tury C.E.). They wandered north
ward from Armenia and settled
in Georgia. That Jews have lived
in Georgia since the early Middle
Ages is attested to by written
documents as well as ancient
gravestones.
The economy of Georgia is
based on fruit-growing. Its mod
erate climate and fertile soil are
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eminently suitable for the grow
ing otf grapes. Georgian wines
are famous throughout Russia
and the Near East. The Jews have
always played a respected and
almost monopolistic role in the
production and sale of wine. But
they traded in other goods as
well, both on a national and on
i n t e mational scale. Georgian
Jews were much in evidence in
the Turkish empire, Persia, and
the Russian empire in connection
with the wine trade and other
forms of commerce. From earliest
times, the Georgian nation ab
sorbed its Jews without any trou
ble and regarded them as a
small, useful, and thoroughly
loyal minority.
Georgian Jews still recount the
legends of the Jewish heroes
who fought alongside their coun
try’s kings and princes in Geor
gia’s incessant wars for inde
pendence.
Social and cultural contacts
with other Jewish communities
were maintained mainly by their
merchants who traveled to Jew
ish centers in neighboring lands.
In the Middle Ages, Georgian
Jews were in touch with Jewish
centers in Persia and Turkey, and
thjs influenced their liturgy and
religious ritual and provided
them with biblical and religious
literature. From the eighteenth
century onward, they began to
establish contact with Russian
Jewry. Since the conquest of
Georgia and its annexation to the
Russian empire this contact has
been steadily strengthened.
The economic condition of
Georgian Jews was good—better
in fact than that of other Jews
within the Russian Pale of Set
tlement—and this enabled them
to bring in rabbis, ritual slaugh
terers, and teachers from the
West. On the eve of the Bol
shevik revolution, many of the
Georgian Jewish communities
had flourishing Hebrew schools
and nascent Zionist groups. Jew
ish nationalism developed quite
naturally among the Jews of
Georgia, for it did not clash with
their ancient communal and re
ligious affinities. By the end of
the nineteenth century, Georgian
Jews began to settle in Pales
tine.
The Soviet regime has natural
ly brought about drastic changes
in the economic situation of the
Georgian Jews. The production
and sale of wine was completely
taken over by the government and
became a national monopoly of
the Georgian Republic.
Thousands of Georgian Jews
managed to escape to Turkey,
Palestine, and Europe during the
early years of the Soviet regime.
Most remained behind and had
to struggle for years to adapt
Pavilion at Auschwitz
PARIS (JTA) — Preparations
for opening a Jewish pavilion ut
Auschwitz as a memorial to the
millions of Jewish martyrs and
reistance heroes of the Nazi reg
ime have been completed, accord
ing to rports to a meeting of the
intematoinal committee of the
survivors of Auschwitz. The pa
vilion will open next April,
marking the 25th anniversary of
the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Members of the Polish delega
tion to the meeting said a con
ference will be held in Warsaw
in November to draw up the me
morial program.
WHEN IT {
COMES TO,
TERMITES
themselves to the new situation.
Their synagogues were closed,
their educational institutions par
alyzed, their main sources of
livelihood taken from them.
Despite everything, they man
aged somehow to develop effec
tive means of preserving their
identity. And they regained their
former important position in the
economic life of Georgia, this
time within the new national
frame-work as state officials in
wine production and trade.
Georgia, like the other repub
lics of the Soviet Union, has
undergone rapid modernization
and industrialization, but the
wine industry has remained to
this day one of the most impor
tant branches of its economy.
Armenia, Crimea, Daghestan, and
other areas in Central Asia also
manufacture wine and liqueurs,
but they cannot compete with the
quality of Georgian products.
The improved standard of
living in the Soviet Union has
resulted in a greater demand for
good wine. Consumption of these
famed wines are fashionable and
in good taste. Georgian wine
merchants are often to be met
with in trains and planes
throughout the Soviet Union.
They are sent by the Georgian
authorities to promote the wine
trade throughout the country.
Most of them are Georgian Jews.
There are, of course, Georgian
Jews who have made their mark
in other occupations, such as
technology, medicine, and the
liberal professions.
With regard to their religious
tradition, the proud Georgian
Jews have not only succeeded in
maintaining, as far as possible,
the respected position of their
synagogues, but are also trying
to maintain, unofficially, some
thing akin to an overall com
munal organization.
Most of them live today in
Tbilisi, Batumi, Sukhumi, Gor,
Suram, Kulashi (a little town
mainly populated by Jews), and
other cities and small towns.
Contacts between the heads of
the Tbilisi Jewish community
and other local Jewish commun
ities are much closer than those
between the Ashkenazi commun
ities in Russia. The well-estab
lished Tbilisi community often
gives financial assistance to other
communities in order to help
them maintain their religious in
stitutions.
The Georgian authorities, in
cluding the Department of Re
ligions, have a more lenient and
humane attitude toward the Jews
than do the other national re
publics. The reason is that most
of the Georgian ruling bodies are
directed by Georgians. This
small, proud nation has man
aged to withstand Russifioation
more successfully than other na
tionalities of the Soviet Union.
There are hardly any Russians
in key government positions in
Tbilisi. Georgia is perhaps the
only republic which seems—to an
outsider at least—to govern itself
with little interference from
Moscow.
The handling of Jewish affairs
is also in Georgian hands. Influ
enced by a tradition of many gen
erations, they treat Jews with a
great degree of toleration.
These facts, together with the
importance of the family unit,
account for the great solidarity
of the Georgian Jews. They are
the best organized and the proud
est Jews in the Soviet Union.
But it must be remembered
that in the final analysis even
these Jews do not have a single
class in which Hebrew or Jew
ish religion can be taught. They
have no means of training the
next generation of leaders and
are unable to give open expres
sion .to their almost messianic
exaltation regarding the State of
Israel.
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