As war intensified in Georgia Monday, thousands of Jews in the former Soviet republic adjusted to living in a war zone. With his constituents hunkered down in their homes, the country's chief rabbi, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Avraham Michaelashvili, announced a three-day blood drive to help the injured.
With Their Country at War, Georgia’s Jewish Community Helping Injured
As war intensified in Georgia Monday, thousands of Jews in the former Soviet republic adjusted to living in a war zone. With his constituents hunkered down in their homes, the country’s chief rabbi, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Avraham Michaelashvili, announced a three-day blood drive to help the injured.
News reports indicated that at least 1,600 people have died in the clash, which began Aug. 7 when Georgian forces entered the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
An estimated 12,000 Jews live in Georgia, mostly in the capital city of Tbilisi.
“There are a lot of injured, a lot of dead,” said Eti Betskashvili, secretary of the Tbilisi-based Michaelashvili. “No place is safe. Everyone is in their homes. Some of our community are in the army. My children are home all day; there is no where to go.”
