Editing Georgia (section)

==== Under the Leadership of the Rebbe ====
The synagogue for the Georgian immigrant community in Nachalat Har Chabad in Kiryat Malachi, named after Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, the pioneer of Chabad activity in Georgia.

After World War II, when the center of Chabad Chassidus moved to the United States, contact with the Chassidim working in Georgia became challenging due to the need to overcome Russian censorship and the fact that most Chassidim who succeeded had left the Soviet Union in the famous escape.

Nevertheless, the activity itself continued through the students of the emissaries of the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe Rayatz who remained behind the Iron Curtain, led by the 'chachamim' and community leaders, including Rabbi Yehuda Butrashvili, Chacham Moshe Michalashvili, Chacham Yaakov Michalashvili, Chacham Ben Tzion Michalashvili, Rabbi Refael Alashvili, as well as their sons and students, Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Eligulashvili and additional Chassidim who continued to maintain the network of educational and purity institutions established over decades by the emissaries of our Rebbes. Georgian chachamim who were Chabad Chassidim and were active: Chacham Yosef (and his son?) Refael Alashvili, the brothers Yaakov, Moshe (and Ben Tzion), sons of Rabbi Shabtai Michalashvili.

In 5727 (1967), the Rebbe mentioned the activities of the emissaries of the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe Rayatz in the country and remarked to Rabbi Levitin that in the following year, Georgian immigrants would already merit to participate in Simchat Torah together with us. Among other things, the Rebbe said: "With greater intensity and strength, the spreading of Chassidus among Sephardim began in the days of the Rebbe Rashab - through sending emissaries to these communities... and afterwards with even greater momentum and strength in the days of my father-in-law, the Rebbe... in expansion and extension."

In 5731 (1971), following a change in Soviet policy that began to gradually allow Soviet Jews to leave beyond the Iron Curtain, the Rebbe initiated the establishment of special housing for immigrants, including the expansion of Shikun Chabad Lod and the establishment of Nachalat Har Chabad. He took care of the spiritual absorption of the immigrants, ensuring they would enter religious educational institutions, register for yeshivas and Chabad institutions, gather in synagogues, and maintain the spiritual character they had enjoyed before their aliyah and even strengthen it. He launched an extensive campaign for Georgian immigrants out of concern that what happened in other waves of immigration would not recur, where many immigrants experienced spiritual decline, especially in their future generations.

Among the central activists in this field was Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Lifshitz, who managed and organized the spiritual absorption of Georgian Jews, arranged settlement places for them among Chabad communities, opened synagogues for them, provided them with Chabad Chassidic rabbis, absorbed their sons in Tomchei Temimim yeshivas, and more. All this was done with the encouragement of the Rebbe and in cooperation with the management of Chabad institutions headed by Rabbi Efraim Wolf. In some of the central Chabad institutions, the official letterhead was even changed to include that they were intended for immigrants from Bukhara, Georgia, and Yemen. In memory of Rabbi Levitin, who was the pioneer of activity in Georgia and to whom the Jews in the entire country owe their spiritual identity, the central synagogue of the Georgian community in Kiryat Malachi was named "Beit Shmuel" after him.

When Georgian immigrants came to visit our holy courts, the Rebbe gave them special attention, both personally when the immigrants merited private and lengthy yechidus (private audiences) in which the Rebbe took a personal interest in the state of Judaism there and gave various directives about maintaining contact with those who remained in Georgia and activities among the immigrants, and publicly during farbrengens when he asked them to sing tunes they used to sing in their country of origin, gave them l'chaim personally, and other references.

In addition to his activities, the Rebbe publicly cried out the cries of Georgian immigrants and demanded in several farbrengens and letters that they not be prevented from educating their children in the way handed down to them from their forefathers, and he pleaded with the Chassidim to act in all available ways for the Georgian immigrants.

In response to the Rebbe's call, the management of the Ohallei Yosef Yitzchak network in the Holy Land also acted and established and expanded several institutions in response to the large wave of immigration, including the Chabad School in Nof HaGalil, which was founded during those years.

The Rebbe also strengthened the rabbis from the Georgian community who were among the Chabad Chassidim to act and care for the Judaism and spiritual state of all members of the community, including Rabbi Yehuda Butrashvili, Chacham Moshe Michalashvili, Chacham Yaakov Michalashvili, Chacham Ben Tzion Michalashvili, Rabbi Refael Alashvili, and others, who were all among the leaders of Georgian Jewry.

For many years, Chabad Chassidim served as presidents of the Association of Georgian Rabbis and in other leadership positions in the general organizations of the community members, expressing the deep involvement of our Rebbes in strengthening Georgian Judaism.

To this day, Chabad Chassidim from the community operate various organizations working with Georgian immigrants, such as the Torah and Chesed Center based in Ashdod, and additional organizations.