News coverage from Georgia

JTA has engaged Grant Slate, a freelancer on the ground in Georgia, to cover the affect of this crisis on Georgian Jewry, and he has been cranking out some very compelling articles. Here's an excerpt from the most recent article:

Flee for safety or guard home? Georgia's Jews face wartime dilemmas

Of the more than 200 Jews who have fled the conflict zone since war broke out about a week ago, more than half find themselves without any means to escape or rebuild their lives.

The refugees here in Tbilisi didn't know war was upon them until bombs started falling last Friday. Then the mad scramble for safety began.

Jews, luckier than most, found representatives from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency had driven to Gori, a Georgian city near South Ossetia that has come under Russian attack, to find them and arrange their transport out of the war zone.

Tina and Bella Pshavtoshvili spent Saturday night in the basement of their apartment block with no electricity and no contact with the outside world. When they emerged, they found a JDC representative to take them from Gori, and they fled.

Tina said she knew that the fighting in Tskhinvali would spread soon to Gori. She had seen it before.

(click for full article)

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