A pro-Western country that enjoys good relations with the Jewish state, Georgia—which regained its independence after the collapse of the USSR in 1991—was one of the very first countries to become Christian. It was also home to a historic Jewish community, and a few thousand Jews still live there. Moreover, the Georgian Church has its own ties to the Land of Israel. Lazar Berman writes:
Jerusalem is famous for its Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian shrines, and today there is not a single Georgian church to be found in all of Israel. But for hundreds of years, Georgians were a ubiquitous, even dominant force among Christians in the Holy Land. Georgian monks and princes built dozens of churches, and held some of Christianity’s most sacred sites.
As Georgia’s political power waned, its grip on Holy Land shrines slipped, and by the Ottoman era, all its monasteries and churches were in the hands of more powerful communities. Ancient Georgian inscriptions and frescoes were neglected and even vandalized, a process that continued into modern times.
The heart of the Georgian presence in Jerusalem was the Monastery of the Cross, which sits today in the valley beneath the Israel Museum and the Knesset. As Georgian tradition has it, King Mirian III, [who first made Christianity the country’s official religion], purchased the land in the 4th century, and a 5th-century ruler founded the first monastery on the site. . . . According to written sources, [however], the current fortress-like monastery was built by a Georgian monk named Prochore in the 11th century after the earlier structure was torn down in the Arab conquest of Palestine
Georgian Jews began moving to Palestine in the middle of the 19th century, primarily near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. According to a 1915 census, more than 6 percent of the Jews in Jerusalem and almost a quarter of the Jews in the Old City were Georgian. They were forced to flee their homes for good during the 1929 Arab riots.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/georgias-envoy-warns-his-countrys-heritage-in-israel-is-at-risk/