David Baazov

David Baazov (Georgian: დავით ბააზოვი; 1883–1947) was a Georgian-Jewish public and religious figure who spearheaded the Zionist movement in Georgia.

"[1] In 1918, Baazov founded the first Georgian-Jewish Zionist paper ebraelis khma ("The Voice of Jew") and helped organize the All-Jewish Congress in Tbilisi which included representatives from every Georgian and Russian Jewish community in the country, except for Kutaisi, which had become the center of the Jewish anti-Zionism.

At that time, he served as a rabbi in Akhaltsikhe and exploited his friendly ties with a local Muslim clergy to save many Christians during a brief Ottoman occupation of the area in 1918.

After the Sovietization of Georgia in 1921, Baazov, aided by his son, the leading Georgian-Jewish writer Gerzel Baazov, organized Jewish schools across the country and later founded the magazine makaveeli ("Maccabean") which was closed by the Soviet authorities during a crackdown on Georgian Jewish cultural institutions after the 1924 anti-Soviet August Uprising in Georgia.

Next year, he managed to secure the free passage for several Georgian Jewish families to the Land of Israel, launching the first large wave of Aliyah from Georgia.