See exhibits of Jewish heritage in Georgia on virtual display

Hundreds of items illustrating centuries of Jewish cultural heritage in Georgia are now on display on a website created to introduce the rich legacy to museum-goers.

Over 350 exhibits have been uploaded to the new Jewish Collections page, which presents vaults of the Georgian National Museum network.

From traditional beads to silk textiles, costumes and synagogue items, the collections show items from recent history as well as exhibits going back as far as 1st century CE.

A velvet, silk and linen pillow cloth with gold, braid and velvet threads. Photo: Jewish Collections website.

Visitors of the website can find photographs and information on accessories and dresses worn by the Jewish Georgian diaspora over different eras as well as artwork from painters such as Shalom Koboshvili.

The page is a result of two projects undertaken at the GNM over the last four years, the first of which catalogued and detailed exhibits of Jewish heritage in Georgia at the museum venues of the network.

The second project, headed by Jewish cultural heritage researcher Lela Tsituashvili, involved using the catalogued collections for the newly created page.

Jewish beads made of cornelian, glass and ceramic material dated back to the 1st century CE. Photo: .

This has been supported by a grant from the Rothschild Foundation Europe, and has coincided with Georgia’s participation in the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

Earlier this year, the Georgian government declared the history of 26 centuries of Georgian-Jewish relations as the country’s intangible cultural heritage.

Artist Shalom Koboshvili’s painting ‘The Market in Akhaltsikhe’. Photo: Jewish Collections website.

The announcement was made at Tbilisi’s David Baazov Museum of History of the Jews of Georgia, a venue dedicated to the subject of Jewish diaspora in the country.

It honoured the long history of Jewish settlers that includes traces of Jews in Georgia starting between 6th-1st centuries BCE, with historians discovering more comprehensive material starting with the Common Era.