Euroasian Jewish News

Curator of the exhibition Lela Tsitsuashvili gives an interview to Georgian television

Jewish Chanukah Exhibition in Tbilisi

On December 12, 2012, the National Library of the Georgian Parliament hosted the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the celebration of Chanukah. The exhibition was organized by the curator of the exhibitions of the National Museum of Georgia, leader of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) project “Describing Georgian Judaica” Lela Tsitsuashvili.

Earlier, the EAJC had signed a cooperation treaty with the National Museum of Georgia and the National Library of the Georgian Parliament. This exhibition, dedicated to the holiday of Chanukah, had been the first fruit of their joint work.

The exhibition demonstrated items from the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Georgia, which are being kep in the the funds of the National Museum of Georgia, as well as Jewish books from the funds of the National Library, which have never been exhibited before, and including books from the XIX and early XX century – Torah editions, the TaNaCh, an Esther scroll, and others.

All of the exhibits were selected thematically. The Jewish Museum provided religious and ritual items for the exposition, including arc curtains, 5 Torah scrolls (four of which, from the funds of the Museum of Arts, were exhibited for the first time), Torah mantles and crowns, rimmonim (ornaments of the Torah scrolls), Torah shields, a menorah (Chanukah candelabrum), ritual pillows and knives for brit milah, amulets, and paintings depicting religious holidays, rituals, and the synagogue.

Paintings by the first Jewish artist of Georgia Shalom Koboshvili and the Georgian artist David Gveseliani, who had worked at the request of the directors of the Jewish Museum, are disinctive and stark representations of the religious and ritual life, traditions, and customs of Georgian Jews who lived at the end of the XIX century to the early XX century.

Representatives of both the Jewish and Georgian communities were present at the opening.

Among those who greeted the guests and congratulated them on the holiday of Chanukah were the Director General of the National Library of the Georgian Parliament Giorgiy Kekelidze, the curator of the exhibitions of the National Museum of Georgia Lela Tsitsuashvili, and the Consul of the State of Israel in Georgia, Rabbi Avimelech Rosenblad. The Consul of Israel lit the Chanukah candles.