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In the 1920s, faced with the dire consequences of the Bolshevik takeover of their country, many Georgian Jews made the life-altering decision to leave their homeland, looking for a safe place to live and raise a family. This is a story of Jewish emigration from Georgia to Palestine. How did this flight take place? What conditions did they face in Palestine? Why were so many visa petitioners left behind in Georgia until the 1970s? The book Elusive Dreams: Letters to Zion, will answer these questions by investigating powerful, personal letters that were only recently found. These missives allow us a glimpse into their lives, to better understand the Georgian Jewish immigration to Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. This is also the tale of a Georgian Zionist leader, Nathan Eliashvilli, who was inspired by the Zionist dream of becoming a free and sovereign people in an ancient homeland. He was, simultaneously, misled by the Zionist propaganda machine and led unprepared members of his community to settle in the appallingly harsh conditions of Palestine in the 1920s. The challenges and disappointments this group faced while pursuing the vision of a better life are starkly revealed throughout this book through an in-depth analysis of documents that are only now being shared with the public. The anguish of the persecuted Jews left behind, and the terrible dilemma to encourage further immigration or not, is concurrently studied through the examination of potent communications between Eliashvilli and Jewish friends and family languishing in Georgia and seeking escape from their unrelenting hardships.
