August 10, 2008 / 9 Av 5768

The Jewish Agency for Israel has assisted some 200 Jews living near the town Gori, on the South Ossetian border, to evacuate to the Georgian capital since the outbreak of hostilities.

Most of the Jews have heeded warnings and are en route to Tbilisi, where the rest of the country's 12,000 Jews reside, mainly in the area of the capital.

Since 1989, 23,287 individuals have immigrated to Israel from Georgia under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
In 2007 there were 324 new immigrants compared with 260 immigrants in 2006.

The director of the Jewish Agency`s unit that deals with the Former Soviet Union, Alex Katz, has been dispatched to Georgia to assess the situation and will be arriving in Tbilisi on Sunday night.

The Jewish Agency has set up a special hotline in Israel to handle requests for information from Georgian Jews living in Israel concerning relatives living in Georgia.
Telephone +972.2.6202202