Israelis Open Arms to Georgian Jews

JERUSALEM, Aug. 15, 2008 -- Tucked in the corner of her father's Georgian art booth at the Jerusalem Arts and Cultural festival, Eka Manasherova, 30, sits atop the lone suitcase her family brought along Friday when they left their hometown of Tiblisi, Georgia.

The weeks-long annual festival brings people from all over the world to show their artwork and share their culture. This year, for Manasherova and her family, it means more than just showcasing their crafts. The long-planned trip turned out to be a way to escape the Russian invasion.

"We were invited here to this festival because my father is an artist," Manasherova told ABC news. "I think that it was God's work that we're supposed to come to this festival when we did."

The Jewish family's single piece of luggage holds the only possessions Manasherova and her family may ever see again, as returning home to Georgia may be too dangerous, Manasherova fears.

"I cannot believe that I am here, and I check the Internet and see what is going on at home," said Manasherova. "My one friend from my childhood is already dead. We don't know where it happened exactly, but we know he went to go fight and now he's dead."

As festival-goers crowded into the small booth and offered their condolences to the artist family, Manasherova struggled with whether she should return to her broken home country.

Like many Georgian Jews, she was considering making "aliyah" to Israel.

The Hebrew word "aliyah" comes from the verb meaning "to ascent" and refers to the Jewish immigration to Israel since its founding in 1948. Preserved in the Zionist law of return, any Jew has the legal right to automatic Israeli citizenship, assisted immigration and settlement in Israel.

Since 1989, 23,287 people have immigrated to Israel from Georgia under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel, according to the organization.

Thirty-four people were added to that number Tuesday when they made aliyah to flee the hostilities in Georgia.

"These 34 Jews didn't have to wait five years to be naturalized," Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz said. "They have the right to citizenship."

Of the 200 Jews evacuated from the town of Gori, located on the South Ossetian border and adjacent to the battle zone, 160 people have asked to make aliyah, according to the Jewish Agency.

The agency has embarked on an extensive operation to assist the Georgian Jewish community, including the issuance of 200 Israeli visas.

"People are being brought over on special El Al flights," Jankelowitz said. "They are being given $10,000 to $15,000 in absorption baskets, given housing and everything that they need. They get six months Ulpan [intensive Hebrew language study], and can opt to live in an absorption center."

Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski said, "They haven't got means or too much money. You can see how the Jewish community depends on the state of Israel."

Israel is the only country that has evacuated people from Georgia, he said.

"Three special airplanes landed there [on Aug. 12] and all those that want to be evacuated are," Bielski said. "We are ready to act when necessary."

Still, for Manasherova, uprooting her home in Georgia is a complicated decision.

"I don't know yet what I should do," she said. "To stay here and make aliyah is difficult to do without a job and without a flat."

Many who come have lifelong dreams of returning to the Jewish homeland.

But some Georgian Jews making aliyah have decided within the past week that they would seek haven in Israel.

For those immigrants without relatives or connections in Israel, the Jewish Agency recommends that the immigrants work through absorption centers. Elana Kovarky, director of First Home in the Homeland, told ABC News that her immigration program provides a primary absorption framework for families and singles on a kibbutz, or collective community, for up to year.

"Our job is to help them make it through their first year," she said.

"I want to stress the fact that the kibbutzim don't want new members and the immigrants to want to be new members," she said. "This program is just a soft landing, to study Hebrew, to be a good place to start and then get off the kibbutz and move somewhere else and make their own life."

Kovarky has been busy making last-minute arrangements for the new arrivals. She has condensed preparations that normally take up to three months into 1½ days.

"I was given the details of a family that arrived just two days ago," she said. "We organized everything for them for when they got here. There was furniture in their apartment, and we found an educational framework for the children. I spoke with the father about everything before they got here. I asked him about 1,000 questions and he asked me about 1,000 questions.

"When I went to go check on where they would be living, I saw the beds prepared and a nice pie sitting on the kitchen table that said 'Welcome' in Russian. The most important thing is that they feel very welcome."

Jewish Agency chairman Bielski said, "The Jews know they have a homeland. Israel is here to support those in distress. It's the only Jewish state we've got."

Helping Manasherova decide whether to return to Georgia once the festival ends Aug. 24 are her thoughts of friends and family who have yet to escape the fighting. As she reflected this week on the danger she left behind, she began to lean toward staying.

"I'm going to make aliyah," she said. "I think."