MOSCOW, April 13 (JTA) — The president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia is taking the lead in celebrating 26 centuries of Jewish life in the region. Eduard Shevardnadze, who has been supportive of the Jewish community, also said he would provide government sponsorship for a large-scale event scheduled for September. Local tradition says the first Jews arrived in Georgia after the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in the 6th century B.C.E. Throughout most of its history, Georgia’s Jewish community has enjoyed relatively good relations with the Christian majority, and there have never been any pogroms or large-scale anti-Semitism in this country, which is located in the Caucasus Mountains. During the Soviet period, Georgian Jews enjoyed more religious and cultural freedom than in any other Soviet republic. About one-third of the synagogues that remained open in the Soviet Union were in Georgia. But Georgia’s once-thriving Jewish community, which at its peak totaled 100,000, has now dwindled to 15,000. Many Jews fled the country during the civil war and economic crisis that shrouded Georgia from 1989 to 1995.
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