Jewish educational complex opens in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi
That Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and its president, Michael Mirilashvili, provided the bulk of the project’s overall cost of £1.68m
Jews in the Republic of Georgia celebrated the inauguration of a massive educational complex in the Centre of the capital Tbilisi on land gifted by the government.
The complex, boasting a floor space of more than 40,000 square feet, was opened last week and will begin serving in September the Jewish community’s various educational needs with about 260 pupils, according to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
That organisation and its president, Michael Mirilashvili, provided the bulk of the project’s overall cost of £1.68m ($2.2 million).
Tbilisi’s only Jewish school opened in 2004 by Rabbi Meir Kozlovsky, the emissary to that country of the Chabad movement, in a rented space. It had 24 pupils then. A kindergarten, which now has 43 children, followed. Another 150 children attend Sunday school there. These institutions will move into the new complex.
Georgia is home to some 4,000 Jews. Kozlovsky said that the new complex will help his mission of limiting assimilation.
Separately, Mirilashvili and other Jewish community leaders last week visited several central Asian countries for top-level meetings where they lobbied, among other things, for heads of states to move their embassies in Israel from the Tel Aviv area to Jerusalem, EAJC said in a statement.
The meetings included the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the prime minister and president of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze and Salome Zourabichvili, respectively. They also met with the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokajev.
Co-leading the talks along with Mirilashvili were Robert Singer, the CEO of the World Jewish Congress, and Aaron Frenkel, chair of EAJC Governing Board.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
