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XIX century
Tiflis Post Card
From the chronicles of Georgia, the
arrival of the first Jews in Georgia is linked to the destruction of the
First Temple (586 BCE), when Georgia was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. Under the feudal system, that
existed in Georgia during Middle ages up until the middle of the 19th century, Georgian Jews belonged to the serf
class – kamani – persons having
a master. This class included peasants, craftsmen, and petty traders
and were not allowed to have their own property. The Jews of Georgia spoke Georgian to which they
added Hebrew words.
In 1801 Russian Empire annexed Georgia. The 1804 decree
included the Caucasus in the Pale of Jewish Settlement (Yiddish: דער
תּחום-המושבֿ, der tkhum-ha-moyshəv).
In the
first decade of the 19th century Russian government forcefully
settled Russian Ashkenazi
Jews in Georgia, but in the
following years The Ministry of the Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg
issued multiple expulsion decrees for Jews: in 1827, and later in 1835 and
1847. As the result, by mid-century there were only several
dozen Ashkenazi Jewish families in Tbilisi. In 1852 the
government once again allowed Russian Jews to settle in Georgia, although with
many restrictions. Nonetheless, the number of Ashkenazy Jews in the country grew steadily. Attracted
by many economic opportunities and mild climate, Ashkenazi
Jews usually arrived with the temporary residence
permit, that have been issued to the specialists in demand, like professional
artisan artists, and later to former soldiers of the Tsar Nicholas’s army,
as they weren’t prohibited from the living outside the Pale.
In 1864-71, the Russian authorities abolished
serfdom. The economic growth in Georgia during the second half
of the 19th century contributed to a class of medium and
large merchants among the Jews. At that time population of the
Jews in Tbilisi grew significantly.
The Georgian Jews traditionally lived separately, not
only from the surrounding Georgian
people, but also from the Ashkenazi
Jews in Tbilisi, who had different practices and
language. The Ashkenazi Jews viewed Georgian Jews as primitive
and ignorant. The Georgians, in turn, kept aloof from the Ashkenazim, whom
they viewed as godless and secular, the transgressors of
Jewish law.
In 1897 the first
Zionist organization in Georgia was founded in Tbilisi. It
became the first united cause for the Georgian Jews and Ashkenazi
Jews. It was mostly supported ty the Ashkenazi Jews, while the
Georgian Jews continued with the more traditional way of
life. The first Congress of Caucasus Zionists was held in
Tbilisi on Aug. 20, 1901 and became an important landmark. In
1917 a school with a Hebrew and Zionist orientation was founded in Tbilisi.
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