Rabbi gets stamp honor

Georgians pay tribute to a leader

Few people know the legacy of Rabbi Abraam Khvoles, a spiritual and civic leader who lived in Georgia more than a century ago, but the global GeorgianJewish community intends to change that – one stamp at a time.

Last week, a new Georgian postage stamp honoring Khvoles was unveiled in a ceremony at the Georgian Jewish Synagogue in Forest Hills. The event was organized by the World Congress of Georgian Jews in cooperation with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Among Georgian Jews, Khvoles’ name “has always been revered,” said Daniel Mariaschin, the rabbi’s grand-nephew.

“The Georgian non-Jewish community [also] knows his name, and I think now with the issuance of the stamp … we have the opportunity to really tell the story of this really important man.”

Mariaschin, the executive vice president of a Washington-based Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith International, proposed that the government of Georgia issue the stamp in honor of his illustrious ancestor.

“I approached the Georgian government several years ago,” Mariaschin explained. “They immediately embraced the idea, and then the stamp was finally issued by the Georgian postal service in June.”

This marked the first time a former republic of the Soviet Union issued a stamp honoring a rabbi.

“Historically, the relations between Georgians and Jews have been unique,” said Revaz Adamia, permanent representative of Georgia to the United Nations. “Never have there been any pogroms of Jews in Georgia, like it happened in other regions of the Russian Empire and Europe, and the Jewish nation and Israeli government value this fact.”

Last week’s ceremony was attended by more than 300 guests from the Georgian, Bukharian and Ashkenazi communities, including Georgi Kheviashvili, the Georgian Minister for Refugees Affairs and Settlement, and Amir Ofek, Consul for Public Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

“Rabbi Khvoles was born in Lithuania and he was an Ashkenazi Jew, but he created education for the Jews of Georgia, and that is why both Ashkenazi and Georgian communities joined together to celebrate his life,” said Michael Nemirovsky, director of the Russian-speaking community outreach at the council.

In addition to the dignitaries, more than 30 of Rabbi Khvoles’ descendants gathered at the synagogue to honor his legacy.

“This is something I take a great deal of pride in, not only because he was my great-uncle, but because he was a really modern and advanced thinker,” Mariaschin said. “He helped to spur the reawakening of Jewish learning in Georgia.”

Khvoles was born in 1857 in Lithuania and received his education in the Slabodker Yeshiva, one of the leading Jewish seminaries of Europe at the time.

In 1891, he moved to Georgia and settled in a town called Tskhinvali, where a large Jewish community flourished. He spent the next 40 years, until his death in 1931, transforming the cultural life and education of Georgian Jews.

Khvoles established the first primary school for about 400 Jewish students, many of whom became great rabbis, philosophers and civic leaders. He also revived the use of Hebrew and provided the youth in the community with vocational training.

Very little information can be found about Khvoles from books and Web sites today; his name and accomplishments have spread to Jewish communities worldwide mostly by word of mouth.

“The reason why he was so respected by everyone is because he could always find common ground with people,” said Khvoles’ great-grandson, Arnold Levin.

“His patience, his ability to make friends with people of different confessions and even different political views – this, I think, is very important in today’s world.”