Georgia

CONNECT WITH GEORGIAN JEWRY!

It is thought that the first Jews arrived in Western Georgia in the 6th century, though some claim to be members of the ten lost tribes of Israel. The Georgian Jews lived under various rulers, beginning with the Byzantines, the Persians, the Muslim Caliphate, the Mongols, and eventually Russia. Under Russian rule, Russian Jews were forcibly moved to Georgia, bringing Ashkenazi and Georgian Jews into contact with one another. Georgian Jews developed their own dialect called Judeo-Georgian or Qivruli that combined elements of Hebrew and Georgian. Like non-Jewish Georgians, most Jews from Georgia have last names that end in -shvili, meaning “son of.” Georgian Jews worked in a variety of professions as farmers, merchants, and in the wine industry. The Georgian Jews faced rampant anti-Semitism under Russian and later Soviet rule. The situation of the Georgian Jews drastically improved after the fall of the Soviet Union but much of the community immigrated to Israel.

Today, most Georgian Jews live in Tbilisi, the nation’s capital, which has a Jewish population of about 10,000 out of a general population of 1.5 million.

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