In a world beset with so many other conflicts, it’s hard to get our minds around recent developments in faraway Georgia. How many of us have even heard of the breakaway province of South Ossetia? How many care about events in Tbilisi?

But the Jewish community should care. There are Jews scattered across what was once the Soviet Union – including up to 15,000 in Georgia, according to NCSJ, a Jewish human rights group. And their new freedoms could be imperiled by recent developments in the region.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may have given up the presidency, but he remains the dominant power in Moscow and is continuing his relentless drive to limit freedoms at home and reassert Russia’s role as a dominant and domineering player in world affairs.

That combination represents a potential threat to Jews across a region where autocracy, nationalism and traditional anti-Semitism have for so long combined to produce tragic results. World Jewry needs to appreciate that given Russia’s apparent eagerness to reassert its military might, Jews throughout the former Soviet Union could be in peril.

Complicating matters is Georgia’s strategic and geographic position. It is an ally of the United States and friend to Israel, and the site of vital oil pipelines, which may be a factor in the current crisis. It is a burgeoning democracy bordered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Georgia may be remote, but it is hardly irrelevant to U.S. and Israeli strategic interests.

The Jewish state has been a supporter of the Georgian government, as well as a key arms supplier. At the same time, it continues to use diplomacy to press for a more responsible Russian approach to Mideast issues, starting with the effort to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel has a clear interest in working with the Georgians, but it also must be extraordinarily careful not to get drawn into a regional conflict in a way that could compromise its other vital interests.

The Georgian situation also poses difficult dilemmas for U.S. policymakers. President George W. Bush struck the right tone in warning Putin against continuing the military assault. But the U.S. hardly seems willing to extend its own military reach, already overstretched, to engage in this conflict, and Russia knows it.

Reasonable voices call for diplomacy, not warfare. This crisis, though, that touches on U.S. and Israeli interests, forces us to reflect on how best to respond when Russia flexes its military muscles.