Gruzim - Definition and Overview

The Gruzim are Jews from the Georgia in the Caucasus. The word Gruzim comes from the Russian term Gruzinskie Evrei ("Georgian Jews"). Like their neighbors, their mother tongue is Georgian; also, like their neighbors, in modern times they also speak Russian. ( Most of the Gruzim in Israel also speak Georgian, as well as Hebrew).

The community, which numbered about 100,000 as recently as the 1970s, has largely emigrated to Israel, Austria, the United States, Russia and Belgium. As of 2004, only about 10,000 Gruzim remain in Georgia. [1] (http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=1840)

The Gruzim are undoubtedly one of the most ancient communities of the Jewish diaspora, although the exact dates of their arrival are not certain. The various claims are that they arrived:

• Following the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 770 BC.
• Fleeing Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian armies around 586 BC.
• Following the destruction of the Second Temple by Roman armies in the first century.

Some other sources give other dates, but none later than the second century A.D.

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