Washington, DC-- According to information sent today to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) by Chief Rabbi of Georgia Ariel Levin, on July 3, the Tblisi City Court ruled against the Georgian Jewish community in its long running dispute with a theater group over ownership of a synagogue building in the Georgian capital. The ruling reversed several earlier court decisions returning the Abesadze Street synagogue to the Jewish community, the most recent one coming on February 25, 1999. Rabbi Levin, who is also the director of UCSJ's Tblisi Bureau (the Caucasus-American Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law), added that the Jewish community would appeal the Tblisi City Court's decision to the Supreme Court of Georgia.

"UCSJ expresses its strong disapproval of this historically unjust decision and expresses its hope that a higher court will return the Abesadze Street synagogue to the Jewish community," said Micah H. Naftalin, UCSJ's National Director. "The theater group, which blasphemously claims the synagogue building as its own property, has already ignored several court orders to vacate the premises and the theater owners have in the past incited antisemitic sentiment against the Jewish community. We hope that this decision isn't a sign that such behavior has been rewarded."

The February 1999 court decision in favor of the Jewish community sparked a wave of antisemitic rhetoric in the media in a country where such attacks against Jews have been relatively rare over the past few years. Representatives of the "Samepo Ubnis Teatri" theater group, which currently occupies the building, called the court's decision "a national tragedy." Media reports sympathizing with the theater group, some of which were antisemitic, immediately started to appear on TV and in the press. In all of these reports, the synagogue building was characterized as a theater building where, allegedly, a synagogue used to be located some time ago. Articles called Jews "profit-seekers" and "envious people" and accused them of wanting to "open a restaurant" in the building, instead of using it as a synagogue. In addition, the director of the theater said during a press conference on February 26, 1999 that, "The events surrounding the theater are a microcosm of what is going on in the country ... Georgia is losing not only territory, but also the city [Tbilisi]..."

The dispute over the synagogue has a long history. It was taken from the Jewish community in 1923 by the Soviet government. A decision by the mayor's office in 1994 returned the building to the Jewish community. However, in 1997 this decision was canceled by Tbilisi mayor B. Shoshitaishvili. Despite several court orders to vacate the building, and a promise by President Shevardnadze that the "Samepo Ubnis Teatri" theater group would be out of the synagogue building in time to celebrate 2,600 years of Jewish life in Georgia in 1998, the group was never forced to leave the premises.

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