The Georgian Jews in Georgia and the Land of Israel

Very few serious works have been written about the Jews of the Caucasus, and even fewer meet rigorous scholarly standards of accuracy and integrity. This book stands out for its clarity, credibility, and moral seriousness.
Its distinctive strength lies in combining the collective history of Georgian Jewry with the personal story of the author—a Zionist activist, educator, and eyewitness to many of the events he describes. This dual perspective provides both analytical depth and human insight into social, political, and cultural developments.
The revised edition is based on the original 1975 publication and has been carefully edited, corrected, and annotated. It features clearer transliteration, partial vocalization of complex names and terms, a detailed index, and extensive contextual notes. Much of the additional historical and biographical information was provided with the assistance of Professor Mamuka Butskhrikidze.

Nathan Eliashvili (1893–1929) was born in Tskhinvali, Georgia. He studied at the Radin Yeshiva and the Teachers’ Seminary in Vilna. Returning to Georgia, he became a founding figure of the local Zionist movement, co-founded a Hebrew Zionist school in Tbilisi, and helped establish Hama Ebralisa, the first Zionist journal published in the Georgian language. After immigrating to Palestine in 1925, he worked as an agricultural laborer while writing this book. Eliashvili died in Tel Aviv at the age of 36. The manuscript was discovered among his papers after his death.