ABSTRACT
The Jewish population in Georgia, the synagogue has always been more than a house of prayer. It has been a temple of hope, which has helped to preserve Jewish national consciousness and Judaism in its virtually primordial state. Today, many Georgian Jewish communities have ceased to exist. There are no longer any religious communities in western and eastern Georgia, in Lailashi, Sukhumi or Tskhinvali. This situation is due primarily to rapid social change in the territory of the former USSR. Immediately after the Second World War, the Soviet leadership began putting things in order in religious communities all over the soviet union. The Georgian Council of Ministers forwarded this complaint against Shalutashvili to the very same Shalutashvili for his consideration. In the same year, 1952, all synagogues were closed down in the city of Kutaisi. This triggered a most painful reaction within the Jewish community.
