Moscow: Center "Sefer"; Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2014, 136 p. Georgian Jews - one of the territorial divisions of Galut-have a number of unique cultural and everyday features that distinguish them from other groups of the Jewish diaspora. Meanwhile, very little is known about them, at least in the Russian ethnographic literature, where the Georgian-Jewish theme is practically not covered. M. Chlenov explains this for linguistic reasons related to the need for the researcher to master the Georgian language in order to communicate with representatives of this supposedly totally Georgian-speaking group. The explanation is not entirely correct: As a rule, the majority of Georgian Jews were bilingual and field research could also be conducted in Russian, despite the incompleteness of the educational opportunities and prospects that opened up. Another reason given by M. Chlenov is more convincing - the general unfavorable political and ideological atmosphere in the USSR, which prevented the study of Judaism, which in the post-war years "was actually banned" (p. 7). Accordingly, the ban also applied in Georgia, where by that time the main research center for the study of Georgian Jewry, the Tbilisi Historical and Cultural Center, was destroyed.ethnographic museum of Georgian Jews. Nevertheless, as M. Chlenov notes, "it was Georgia that demonstrated a loyalty to the Jewish theme that was unthinkable in other Soviet republics" (p. 7). Thus, even in the most remote years of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, teaching and research work on Hebraism did not stop at Tbilisi State University (TSU), Georgian-Jewish issues were developed by such specialists. researchers such as B. Gaponov, N. Babalikashvili, J. Adjiashvili, Sh. Bostanashvili and others. In the post-Soviet period, research work intensified: since 1992, the activity of the Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Georgian Jews was revived. David Baazov, in 1998. The Association o ... Read more