Israel’s leader congratulates 2,600 year-old friendship of Georgians and Jewish

The Prime Minister of Israel is celebrating the anniversary that marked Georgia’s enduring friendship with the Jewish people.

Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that the special bond between the two nations, which spanned 26 centuries, was based on common cultural values.

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili received the Israel leader’s congratulations at an official dinner hosted by an Israeli delegation yesterday.

To celebrate the Georgian-Jewish long-term friendship is an appreciation of the Jewish community’s contribution to the Georgian nation. I am pretty sure that in future years we will continue our cooperation and thereby we will maintain the great traditions of the 26^th century of friendship and brotherhood, Netanyahu said.

In response, Georgia’s PM highlighted that the Georgian Government was doing its best to strengthen its friendship with Israel.

Georgian-Jewish relations have deep roots and a long tradition. Our relationship is still closely linked today and is very valuable for us. I am proud that [after 26 centuries] our co-existence and friendship on Georgian land is getting stronger. There are no such examples of the brotherhood of two nations in the world, as between Georgians and Jews. And we are ready to share this example of our friendship and the relationship to the whole world, Garibashvili said.

An official Israeli delegation as well as famous writers, poets and public figures visited Georgia to celebrate the 2,600 anniversary of Georgia-Jewish friendship on October 20-22.

Georgian and Jewish people were connected with historic ties since the Jewish community established roots in Georgia.

The Lailashi Bible (X-XI cent.) is kept in the Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts. 

The Lailashi Bible, a unique Bible regarded as one of the world's most important Jewish manuscripts, was found in a Synagogue in Georgia’s Lailashi village in the Lechkhumi region in early 1940s.

The Lailashi Bible now kept at Georgia’s National Centre of Manuscripts is one of the most important documents which proved the ancient coexistence of Georgian and Jewish people.

The manuscript dated back to the 10^th and 11^th centuries and was written on both sides of parchment and tied together as a book. The Lailashi Bible represented five books of Moses, which was followed with commentaries.