THE GEORGIAN JEWS

The Jews in Georgia divide into two groups of totally different origins: the Georgian Jews and the European Jews. There has been no research into the Georgian Jews and very few written records of them exist. In general surveys they are usually seen as a local group of Jews, however their position in the Georgian community has been so peculiar (similarly to Mountain Jews in Dagestan and Azerbaijan) that they have been considered to be a separate people.

Habitat. The Georgian Jews live mostly in the eastern part of Georgia, in Tbilisi and other surrounding towns and small country villages. The European Jews keep to the towns.

Population. In 1926 there were about 20,000 Georgian Jews. It is difficult to establish an exact number, because in the censuses they have not been counted separately from other Jews. In "The Atlas of the Peoples of the World", published in 1964, the number of Georgian Jews is given as 35,700.

Language. The Georgian Jews long ago adopted the Georgian language.

Anthropologically, they do not differ from the eastern Georgians, who belong to the Armenian type of the Balkano-Caucasian race. In former times they trimmed their hair and beards in a slightly different way to that of the Georgians. They were also more often red-headed.

Origin. These Jews are considered to be ancient inhabitants of Georgia, and according to old Georgian manuscripts they settled there in the first centuries AD. This hypothesis is supported by archaeological finds. Culturally, the Jews have gradually grown close to the Georgians (i.e. the adoption of the language), though their ethnic identity has been maintained in their religion -- Judaism. The Jewish cultural sphere related to Judaism has always had its peculiarities (cf. Mountain Jews and Central Asian Jews). Jewish isolation has been preserved over many centuries by persecution and restrictive customs; for instance, Jews were not allowed to marry Georgians. Therefore religion and religious leaders (rabbis or hahamis) have played an important role in the social life of the Georgian Jews.

There has been no research on the present-day Georgian Jews.

REFERENCES

И. Пульнер, Итоги и задачи изучения кавказских (грузинских и горских) евреев. -- Советская этнография 4--5, 1936
С. А. Токарев, Этнография народов СССР, Москва 1958

evenks | georgian_jews | godoberis

CONTENTS

The Peoplesof the Red Book

THE GEORGIAN JEWS

REFERENCES

The Peoples
of the Red Book