Georgian Jews lived in the Caucasus for many centuries, in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Akhaltsikhe, Oni and dozens of smaller towns. They spoke Georgian, and their history records few traces of antisemitism in the country before Russian rule began in 1801. In the 1970s, when the Soviet Union allowed some emigration, Georgian Jews left as whole communities; most now live in Israel. They are counted among the Mizrahi communities, though they are a community of their own, neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi in origin. See also Bukharan Jews and Iranian Jews.
Origins
Georgian Jews trace their arrival to the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BCE. Georgian chronicles preserve this tradition: the 11th-century historian Leonti Mroveli writes that Jews fleeing Nebuchadnezzar settled near Mtskheta, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Kartli, and archaeology confirms Jewish life at Mtskheta in antiquity.
The Sephardi connection
Georgian Jews have no Iberian ancestry. Their law and liturgy are broadly Sephardi in form, while their identity came from the Georgian language and centuries of life in a Christian kingdom.
Modern era and departure
- Russian rule. Russia annexed Georgia in 1801, and Ashkenazi Jews from Russia began to settle there. The 1897 census counted about 12,000 Jews in the Tiflis and Kutais provinces; Kutaisi had 3,419, about a tenth of the city.
- Zionism. Rabbi David Baazov of Oni and Akhaltsikhe led the Zionist movement in Georgia and attended the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903. In the Great Purge of 1938 he and his sons were arrested; his son Herzl was executed and he was exiled to Siberia.
- Soviet period. Religious life was restricted, as it was for all Soviet Jews. About 55,000 Jews lived in Georgia in 1970.
- Emigration. After the Six-Day War, Georgian Jews joined the Soviet Jewish movement for the right to emigrate. They left as whole communities rather than as individuals in the 1970s, and a second wave followed after the Soviet Union collapsed. The census counted about 1,400 Jews in 2014.
Religious life
Georgian Jews kept their own customs and melodies within Sephardi practice. The Great Synagogue of Tbilisi, built between 1904 and 1911 and associated with the Jews of Akhaltsikhe, was restored in 2011–2012 and remains the community’s central synagogue.
Language, music and food
Georgian Jews spoke Georgian, and a Judeo-Georgian variety, Kivruli, with many Hebrew words, written in Georgian or Hebrew letters.
The community today
About 1,400 Jews remained in Georgia at the 2014 census, most in Tbilisi. Some 75,000 Georgian Jews and their descendants live in Israel, the largest community in Ashdod.
Notable people
- David Baazov 1883–1947 · Tskhinvali Rabbi of Oni and Akhaltsikhe and leader of Georgian Zionism; exiled to Siberia in 1938.
Sources and further reading
- “History of the Jews in Georgia”, “Great Synagogue (Tbilisi)” and “David Baazov”, Wikipedia.
Revised October 2026 to correct errors in an earlier version of this page.
