Volume 8 Issue 34 - 3rd Edition - A Special Issue on Sephardic Jews

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Cover Photo: "Hanukiyyah" [Hanukkah Lamp] in the shape of aminaret (The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews,‹stanbul)

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INDEX

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52

10 THE 517-YEAR-OLD JOURNEY OF TURKISH JEWS The present size of the Jewish community is estimated to be

around 22,000. The vast majority live in Istanbul, with a com

munity of about 500 in Izmir and other smaller groups located

in Adana, Ankara, Antakya, Bursa, Canakkale, Kirklareli etc.

14 AN OVER 100-YEAR-OLD HISTORY OF TURKISH SEPHARDIC JEWS IN SEATTLEThe first two Sephardic Jews Jack Policar (d. 1961) and

Solomo Calvo (d. 1964), arrived in Seattle from the island of

Marmara, Turkey in 1902. In 1904, they met Nissim Alhadeff,

who had arrived that year from the Isle of Rhodes, between

Greece and Turkey, in a Seattle Greek Café.

18 SEPHARDIC JEWS FROM OTTOMAN LANDS IN THE U.S Today, the Sephardic community in the United States is

generally known for its members’ attachment and loyalty to

their native lands in and around Turkey. New York City has

the largest population of Sephardim in the country, and is

known, together with Seattle.

22 SEPHARDIC JEWS OF LOS ANGELES The first spiritual leader was Rabbi Abraham Caraco. There

were 52 families in the congregation: 37 from Rhodes. In

time, as happens in most families, the Rhodeslies and

Turkinos, as they called one another split up due to shall we

say, euphemistically for parochial differences.

24 DAVID DANGOOR, PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION David Dangoor: “Turkey saved a big chunk of the Jewish

religion when the Jews came from Spain. God knows what

would have happened to them if they had no place to go.”

32 BARRY HABIB: A SON OF AN ‹STANBUL FAMILY Barry is the youngest of five children of an immigrant family

from Ortakoy, ‹stanbul. When the family decided to move

away in 1958, like any immigrant who desired to come to the

U.S., they thought that money lay scattered on the streets

and all they had to do was just bend down and picked it up.

35 FIRST CHIEF RABBI IN ISTANBUL: RABBI MOSHE CAPSALI After arriving in Istanbul, Sephardic Jews would move out to

their permanent homes, which the various communal

organizations found for them, settling in the different districts

of Constantinople such as Ortakoy and Kuzguncuk, as well as

Haskoy and Balat.

48 EDIRNE AND ITS JEWISH COMMUNITY AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURYAccording to Jewish sources, there were 12,000 Jews living in

Edirne in 1873 and 17,000 in 1902. Their numbers reached a

peak of 20,000 in 1912 on the eve of the first Balkan War.

52 JEWS IN BURSAJews did not leave the city of Bursa when Sultan Orhan took

over that city. Sultan gave permission for the building of the

Efs Ehaim synagogue –the first synagogue in the Ottoman

state- in what today is called Arapsukru Street in the Jewish

town.

The Anatolian territory, which has been located on themigration lines for centuries, has hosted millions of im-

migrants. Jews who fled from Spain to ‹stanbul in 1492, re-fugees from the Caucasus who came to various Anatoliancities as a result of the Crimean War of the 1850s and the Ot-toman-Russian War in 1870s, victims of Balkan Wars whomoved from Bulgaria and Greece… The paths of all refugescrossed in Anatolia. These people moved to such cities of the Ottoman Empireas ‹stanbul, Edirne, Salonica, ‹zmir, Bursa, Tekirda¤, andRhodes. For years, they continued their lives. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, with the FrenchRevolution, nationalism spread to the whole world. Consecu-tive wars broke out, such as the Balkan Wars (1912), WorldWar I (1914), which included the Gallipoli Campaign (1915),and The Arab Revolt (1916). These wars cluttered the territoryruled by the Ottoman Empire. Faced with wars, raids, andeconomic problems, the Anatolian soil lost its children by thehundreds of thousands. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in the years betwe-en 1895-1924, a total number of 318,945 Ottoman citizens mo-ved to the United States. The migration waves from Ottomanlands were not only toward United States; people were rus-hing to Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia and Cuba as well.

In the year of 1913, 1670 people moved to Havana, Cuba, in1893 410 people moved to Melbourne, Australia. In 1906,66,558 Ottomans emigrated to Argentina. In the years bet-ween 1880-1901, about 1 million Ottomans emigrated to theUnited States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and other countries.The most valuable research about immigration from the Ot-toman Empire to the United States and Latin America coun-tries was conducted by Kemal Karpat, Emeritus Professor ofHistory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Karpat’smagnificent work, Ottoman Population, 1830-1914: Demog-raphic and Social Characteristics, gives many details aboutthe immigration of the Ottomans. Karpat writes in his book that in the years between 1908-1912a total of 26,065 Ottoman citizens immigrated to Brazil. InBrazil Ottomans were the fifth-largest group of immigrants inthe period. The probable number of Syrians in Argentina in1909 was 51,936. By 1914 the total was 64,369. In Argentina,the Ottomans were the sixth-largest group of immigrants.Between 1901-1924, a total of 65,756 Armenians and 18,848Turkish immigrants arrived in the New World. Karpat indicates that the general classification terms for Ot-toman immigrants were non-descriptive; in Argentina theywere called “Syrians,” while in Brazil they were referred toas “Turks” and “Arabs.” Before the first waves of immigration to United States, thefamous historian gives important population figures for ‹s-tanbul. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the popu-lation of ‹stanbul consisted of about 722,000 people, divi-ded into 380,000 Muslims, 205,000 Armenians, 100,000

Greeks, and 37,000 Jews.

Karpat emphasizes that in about 1850, ‹stanbul had morethan 350 mosques of all sizes, 91 Greek and Armenian churc-hes, 8 Catholic churches, and 37 synagogues. ‹stanbul wasthe capital of the worlds’ faith and cultures. Today there are hundreds of thousands of Americans whosegrandfathers and fathers were born in Turkey; hunger, warsand economic crises forced them to emigrate to the UnitedStates. They call themselves Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, Egypti-an, Greek, Armenian or Jewish. No matter what religion or na-tionality they claim, they are the people of the same soil. Theyare different colors of a rainbow and the pieces of a mosaic.Some pieces of the mosaic are still in Anatolia, and some pie-ces are in the various corners of the world. If someone has adream of establishing a greater Turkey, these mosaics haveto be combined and never allowed to be divided again.�

IMMIGRATION FROM TURKEY Year to the U.S.to Argentina to Brazil to Cuba to Canada**

1897 4,884 - 648 - -

1898 4,451 - 978 - -

1899 4,516 - 1,823 - -

1900 4,247 - 874 - 662

1901 6,169 - 781 - 1,268

1902 6,410 - 772 23 1,050

1903 8,647 - 481 88 540

1904 9,579 - 1,097 86 788

1905 10,699 - 1,446 228 812

1906 15,864 66,558 1,193 264 758

1907 28,820 - 1,480 248 1,842

1908 21,043 - 3,170 190 510

1909 16,521 - 4,027 277 803

1910 33,617 - 5,257 210 619

1911 24,667 - 6,319 313* 838

1912 27,269 - 7,302 651* 1,119

1913 38,083 - 10,886 1670* 625

1914 29,915 - 3,456 239* 148

1915 4,551 - 514 71 3

1916 1,983 59,272 603 68 17

1917 545 - 259 33 4

1918 58 - 93 13 -

1919 29 - 504 79 29

1920 6,966 - 4,854 1138* 410

1921 18,126 162 1,865 216* 80

1922 3,658 199 2,278 249* 64

1923 5,926 1,611 4,829 868* 516

1924 4,301 1,309 4,078 1,178* 336

Total

(1856-1924) 364,014 144,903 72,025 8,400 13,841

Source: Imre Ferenczi and Walter F. Willcox, International Migrations,

Vol. 1 (New York 1919)

* From Turkey and Turks from other countries.

** All Turkish

The Un›ted Colors of Turkey and The Mosa›cs

that Have Spread from Anatol›a to the World

FROM EDITOR

Cemil Ö[email protected]

Some pieces of the

mosaic are still in

Anatolia, and some

pieces are in

the various corners

of the world.

TurkofAmerica

Anatolia, from the pre-historic period until thepresent time, evolved into an area enriched with

a cultural legacy inherited from many different civi-lizations. This cultural heritage has been preserveduntil the present time, making good use of sharedexperiences and utilizing what had been learned oraccumulated. In this way, Anatolia has served notonly as a geographic bridge, connecting Asia toEurope or the East to the West, but also as a percep-tion linking the past with the present and introduc-ing Eastern thought to the Western way of thinking.

The Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey also servedas a cradle for many religions, such as Islam,Christianity and Judaism, which were allowed to co-exist together. During the Ottoman era, the regula-tions put into practice by Sultan Mehmet theConqueror and many others clearly aimed at protect-ing the cultural diversity and the existence of the dif-ferent belief systems and communities, as well asestablishing appropriate circumstances to guarantee

a decent life for all citizens. As a result, different reli-gious groups that suffered oppression at home didnot hesitate to migrate to take shelter in this peacefulland. Modern and secular Turkey has followed thisOttoman path of tolerance and co-existence.

THE JEWISH DIASPORA IS OUR PARTNERThe culture of "living together" has gained furthersignificance in today's globalized world, in particularthe European Union integration process. Jews in theOttoman Empire and Turkey enjoyed and still enjoyall rights and appreciate their status in our country.This also contributes to the positive image of Turkeyas a country respecting differences and religiousminorities, which is one of the fundamental values ofthe EU.

In fact, around 300.000 American Jews of Ottomanorigin contributed to building a bridge of friendshipbetween the Ottoman Empire and the USA in the19th century. Turkey's positive approach to Jews andthe Jewish community, as well as Israel, is reflectedin the attitudes of the Jewish Diaspora not only in theUSA but also in European countries towards Turkey.We consider the Jewish Diaspora as our natural part-ners to better communicate Turkey's tradition andculture of tolerance and "diversity in unity" to therest of Europe and the world.

In this respect, progress in Turkey's EU accessionwill mean more stability and better relations in theregion and beyond. Turkey's full membership in theEU will contribute to a better understanding of theMiddle East issue and the concerns of all sides,including Israel. Turkey in the EU will also increasethe credibility of the Union vis a vis the region, mak-ing the EU a real global actor to bring balanced andviable solutions to the problems of the region.�

* Egemen Ba¤›fl, Minister for EU Affairs and ChiefNegotiator of Turkey

EGEMEN BA⁄IfiEgemen Ba¤›fl was first elected to Parliament in2002 as a deputy for ‹stanbul. He was appointedMinister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator onJanuary 2009 and has been working at Turkey’s fullmembership negotiations since then.

Ba¤›fl was the party's Vice Chairman in charge ofForeign Affairs and as a Vice Chairman, he was amember of AK Party's Central Executive Committee,the party's highest body, until 2009.

Ba¤›fl was the party's contact person for internation-al relations and diplomacy. He directed and coordi-nated the party's national and international networkand local branches on foreign policy matters. He alsocoordinated the flow of key global developments tothe party leadership.

FROM THE MINISTER

“We consider the

Jewish Diaspora as

our natural partners

to better communi-

cate Turkey's tradi-

tion and culture of

tolerance and ‘diver-

sity in unity’ to the

rest of Europe and

the world.”

By Egemen Ba¤›fl

European Turkey:

D›vers›ty ›n Un›ty08 •

10 • TurkofAmerica

At midnight on August 2, 1492, when Columbusembarked on what would become his most famo-

us expedition to the New World, his fleet departedfrom the relatively unknown seaport of Palos becau-se the shipping lanes of Cadiz and Seville were clog-ged with Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain by theEdict of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain.

The Jews forced either to convert to Christianity or to"leave" the country under menace "dare not re-turn... not so much as to take a step on them nottrespass upon them in any manner whatsoever" lefttheir land, their property, their belongings, all thatwas theirs and familiar to them rather than abandontheir beliefs, their traditions, their heritage. In the faraway Ottoman Empire, one ruler extendedan immediate welcome to the persecuted Jews ofSpain, the Sephardim. He was the Sultan Bayazid II.

In 1992, the Discovery Year for all those connected tothe American continents - North, Central and South -world Jewry was concerned with commemorating not

only the expulsion, but also seven centuries of theJewish life in Spain, flourishing under Muslim rule,and the 500th anniversary of the official welcome ex-tended by the Ottoman Empire in 1492.

This humanitarianism demonstrated at that time wasconsistent with the beneficence and good will tradi-tionally displayed by the Turkish government andpeople towards those of different creeds, culturesand backgrounds. Indeed, Turkey could serve as amodel to be emulated by any nation which finds re-fugees from any of the four corners of the world stan-ding at its doors.

In 1992, Turkish Jewry celebrated not only the anni-versary of this gracious welcome, but also the remar-kable spirit of tolerance and acceptance which hascharacterized the whole Jewish experience in Turkey.The events that were planned - symposiums, confe-rences, concerts, exhibitions, films and books, resto-ration of ancient synagogues, etc - commemoratedthe longevity and prosperity of the Jewish commu-nity. As a whole, the celebration aimed to demons-trate the richness and security of life Jews have fo-und in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republicover seven centuries, and showed that indeed it isnot impossible for people of different creeds to livetogether peacefully under one flag.

A HISTORY PREDATING 1492The history of the Jews in Anatolia started many cen-turies before the migration of Sephardic Jews. Rem-nants of Jewish settlements from the 4th century B.C.have been uncovered in the Aegean region. The his-torian Josephus Flavius relates that Aristotle "metJewish people with whom he had an exchange of vi-ews during his trip across Asia Minor."The ruins of ancient synagogues have been found inSardis, Miletus, Priene, Phocee, etc., dating from220 B.C. and traces of other Jewish settlements havebeen discovered near Bursa, in the southeast andalong the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea co-asts. A bronze column found in Ankara confirms therights the Emperor Augustus accorded the Jews ofAsia Minor.

The present size of

the Jewish

community is

estimated to be

around 22,000.

The vast majority

live in Istanbul, with a

community of about

500 in Izmir and

other smaller groups

located in Adana,

Ankara, Antakya,

Bursa, Canakkale,

Kirklareli etc.

The 517-Year-Old Journey of

Turk›sh Jews – from the

Iber›an Pen›nsula to the

Present

JOURNEY OF TURKISH JEWS

By Naim Guleryuz*

The Ashkenazi Synagogue in Istanbul.(Courtesy of fialom Newspaper)


A HAVEN FOR SEPHARDIC JEWS Sultan Bayazid II's offer of refuge gave new hope to the persecutedSephardim. In 1492, the Sultan ordered the governors of the provin-ces of the Ottoman Empire "not to refuse the Jews entry or causethem difficulties, but to receive them cordially". (3) According to Ber-nard Lewis, "the Jews were not just permitted to settle in the Otto-man lands, but were encouraged, assisted and sometimes even com-pelled.”

Immanual Aboab attributes to Bayazid II the famous remark that"the Catholic monarch Ferdinand was wrongly considered as wise,since he impoverished Spain by the expulsion of the Jews, and enric-hed Turkey". (4)

The arrival of the Sephardim altered the structure of the communityand the original group of Romaniote Jews was totally absorbed.

Over the centuries an increasing number of European Jews, escapingpersecution in their native countries, settled in the Ottoman Empire.In 1537 the Jews expelled from Apulia (Italy) after the city fell underPapal control, and in 1542 those expelled from Bohemia by King Fer-dinand found a safe haven in the Ottoman Empire. In March of 1556,Sultan Suleyman "the Magnificent" wrote a letter to Pope Paul IV as-king for the immediate release of the Ancona Marranos, whom hedeclared to be Ottoman citizens. The Pope had no other alternativethan to release them, the Ottoman Empire being the "Super Power"of those days.

By 1477, Jewish households in Istanbul numbered 1647, or 11% of thetotal. Half a century later, 8070 Jewish houses were listed in the city.

OTTOMAN ENCOURAGED JEWISH IMMIGRATIONJewish communities in Anatolia flourished and continued to prosperthrough the Turkish conquest. When the Ottomans captured Bursa in1326 and made it their capital, they found a Jewish community oppres-sed under Byzantine rule. The Jews welcomed the Ottomans as saviors.Sultan Orhan gave them permission to build the Etz ha-Hayyim (Tree ofLife) synagogue, which remained in service until the nineteen forties.

Early in the 14th century, when the Ottomans had established theircapital at Edirne, Jews from Europe, including Karaites, migrated the-re. Similarly, Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from France byCharles VI in September 1394, and from Sicily early in the 15th cen-tury, found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. In the 1420s, Jews from Sa-lonika, then under Venetian control, fled to Edirne.

Ottoman rule was much kinder than Byzantine rule had been. In fact,from the early 15th century on, the Ottomans actively encouraged Je-wish immigration. A letter sent by Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati (from Edirne)to Jewish communities in Europe in the first part of the century "invi-ted his co-religionists to leave the torments they were enduring inChristendom and to seek safety and prosperity in Turkey". (1)

When Mehmet II "the Conqueror" took Constantinople in 1453, heencountered an oppressed Romaniot (Byzantine) Jewish communitywhich welcomed him with enthusiasm. Sultan Mehmet II issued aproclamation to all Jews "... to ascend the site of the Imperial Thro-ne, to dwell in the best of the land, each beneath his Dine and his figtree, with silver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle...". (2) In1470, Jews expelled from Bavaria by Ludvig X found refuge in the Ot-toman Empire.

The Synagogue of Haskoy Maalem.(Photo Izzet Keribar, Synagogues of Turkey, Gözlem Publishing)

JOURNEY OF TURKISH JEWS

THE LIFE OF OTTOMAN JEWSFor 300 years following the expulsion, the prosperity and creativityof the Ottoman Jews rivaled that of the Golden Age of Spain. FourTurkish cities: Istanbul, Izmir, Safed and Salonika became the cen-ters of Sephardic Jewry.

Most of the court physicians were Jews: Hakim Yakoub, Joseph andMoshe Hamon, Daniel Fonseca, and Gabriel Buenaventura to nameonly a few.

One of the most significant innovations that Jews brought to the Ot-toman Empire was the printing press. In 1493, only one year aftertheir expulsion from Spain, David and Samuel ibn Nahmias establis-hed the first Hebrew printing press in Istanbul.

Ottoman diplomacy was often carried out by Jews. Joseph Nasi, ap-pointed the Duke of Naxos, was the former Portuguese Marrano Joa-o Miques. Another Portuguese Marrano, Alvaro Mendes, was namedDuke of Mytylene in return for his diplomatic services to the Sultan.Salamon ben Nathan Eskenazi arranged the first diplomatic ties withthe British Empire. Jewish women such as Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi"La Seniora" and Esther Kyra exercised considerable influence in theCourt.

In the free air of the Ottoman Empire, Jewish literature flourished. Jo-seph Caro compiled the Shulhan Arouh. Shlomo haLevi Alkabes com-posed the Lekhah Dodi, a hymn which welcomes the Sabbath accor-ding to both Sephardic and Ashkenazi ritual. Jacob Culi began to wri-te the famous MeAm Loez. Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac Assa becameknown as the father of Judeo-Spanish literature.

On October 27,1840 Sultan Abdulmecid issued his famous firmanconcerning the "Blood Libel Accusation" saying: "... and for the lovewe bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whoseinnocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worri-ed and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have notthe least foundation in truth...". This famous firman can be seen atThe Museum of Turkish Jews in Istanbul.

Under Ottoman tradition, each non-Muslim religious community wasresponsible for its own institutions, including schools. In the early19th century, Abraham de Camondo established a modern school,"La Escola", causing a serious conflict between conservative andprogressive rabbis which was only settled by the intervention of Sul-tan Abdulaziz in 1864. The same year the Takkanot haKehilla (By-laws of the Jewish Community) was published, defining the structu-re of the Jewish community.An important event in the life of Ottoman Jews in the 17th centurywas the schism led by Sabetay Sevi, the pseudo Messiah who livedin Izmir and later adopted Islam with his followers.

EQUALITY AND A NEW REPUBLICEfforts at reform of the Ottoman Empire led to the proclamation ofthe Hatt-› Humayun in 1856, which made all Ottoman citizens, Mus-lim and non-Muslim alike, equal under the law. As a result, leaders-hip of the community began to shift away from the religious figure tosecular forces.

World War I brought to an end the glory of the Ottoman Empire. In its

place rose the young Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk waselected president, the Caliphate was abolished and a secular consti-tution was adopted.

Recognized in 1923 by the Treaty of Lausanne as a fully independentstate within its present day borders, Turkey accorded minority rightsto the three principal non-Muslim religious minorities and permittedthem to carry on with their own schools, social institutions andfunds. In 1926, on the eve of Turkey's adoption of the Swiss Civil Co-de, the Jewish Community renounced its minority status on personalrights.

During the tragic days of World War II, Turkey managed to maintainits neutrality. As early as 1933 Ataturk invited numbers of prominentGerman Jewish professors to flee Nazi Germany and settle in Turkey.Before and during the war years, these scholars contributed a greatdeal to the development of the Turkish university system.

During World War II, Turkey served as a safe haven for many Jewsfleeing the horrors of the Nazism. While the Jewish communities ofGreece were wiped out almost completely by Hitler, the Turkish Jewsremained secure. Several Turkish diplomats, Ambassadors Behic Er-kin and Numan Menemencioglu; Consul-Generals Fikret Sefik Ozdo-ganci, Bedii Arbel, Selahattin Ulkumen; Consuls Namik Kemal Yolgaand Necdet Kent, just to name a few, made every effort to save Tur-kish Jews in Nazi occupied countries from the Holocaust. They suc-ceeded. Mr. Salahattin Ulkumen, Consul General at Rhodes in 1943-1944, was recognized by the Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile"Hassid Umot ha'Olam" in June 1990. Turkey continues to be a shel-ter, a haven for all those who have to flee dogmatism, intoleranceand persecution.


A celebration ceromany of Shavuot in Italian Synagogue in Istanbul.(Courtesy of fialom Newspaper)

A c(Co

TURKISH JEWS TODAY The present size of the Jewish community is estimated to be around22,000. The vast majority live in Istanbul, with a community of abo-ut 500 in Izmir and other smaller groups located in Adana, Ankara,Antakya, Bursa, Canakkale, Kirklareli etc. Sephardim make up 96% of the community, with Ashkenazim acco-unting for the rest. There are about 100 Karaites, an independentgroup that does not accept the authority of the Chief Rabbi.

Turkish Jews are legally represented, as they have been for manycenturies, by the Hahambasi, the Chief Rabbi. He is assisted by a re-ligious council made up of five Hahamim. Fifty Lay Counselors lookafter the secular affairs of the community and an Executive Commit-tee of fourteen runs daily matters. Representatives of Jewish founda-tions and institutions meet four times a year as a so-called “thinktank” to exchange opinions on different subjects of concern to Tur-kish Jewry.

Synagogues are classified as religious foundations (Vakifs). Thereare 18 synagogues in use in Istanbul today. Three are in service in ho-liday resorts, during summer only. Some of them are very old, espe-cially Ahrida Synagogue in the Balat area, which dates from themiddle of the 15th century. The 15th and 16th century Haskoy andKuzguncuk cemeteries in Istanbul are still in use today.

The Museum of Turkish Jews (Türk Musevileri Müzesi), the first suchMuseum in Turkey, was inaugurated on November 25, 2001.(www.muze500.com)

EDUCATION, LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL LIFE Most Jewish children attend state schools or private Turkish or fore-ign language schools, and many are enrolled in the universities. Ad-ditionally, the community maintains in Istanbul a school complexincluding elementary and secondary schools for around 700 stu-dents. Turkish is the language of instruction, and Hebrew is taught 3to 5 hours a week.

While younger Jews speak Turkish as their native language, the ge-neration over 70 is more at home speaking French or Judeo-Spanish(Ladino). A conscious effort is being made to preserve the heritage ofJudeo-Spanish.

For many years Turkish Jews have had their own press. La Buena Es-peransa and La Puerta del Oriente started in Izmir in 1843 and Or Is-rael was first published in Istanbul ten years later. Now one newspa-per survives: SALOM (Shalom), a fourteen to sixteen pages weekly inTurkish with one page in Judeo-Spanish, plus a monthly 24-pagesupplement in Judeo-Spanish: EL AMANESER.

A Community Calendar (Halila) is published by the Chief Rabbinateevery year and distributed free of charge to all those who have paidtheir dues (Kisba) to the welfare bodies. The Community cannot levytaxes, but accept donations.

Two Jewish hospitals, the 98-bed Or-Ahayim in Istanbul and the 22-bed Karatas Hospital in Izmir, serve the community. There are alsohomes for the aged (Moshav Zekinim) and several welfare associati-ons to assist the poor, the sick, and needy children and orphans. Social clubs containing libraries, cultural and sports facilities, anddiscotheques give young people the chance to meet.

The Jewish Community is of course a very small group in Turkey to-day, considering that the total population - 99% Muslim - exceeds 70million. But in spite of their small numbers, the Jews have distinguis-hed themselves. There are several Jewish professors teaching at theUniversities of Istanbul and Ankara, and many Turkish Jews are pro-minent in business, industry, the liberal arts, and journalism.

* Naim Güleryüz, a researcher and writer, is president of the 500. Y›l Vakf› (Quincenten-

nial Foundation)

(1) Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Islam"(2) Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 16 page 1532(3) Abraham Danon, Review Yossef Daath No.4(4) Immanual Aboab, "A Consolacam as Tribulacoes de Israel, II-I Israel" �


A celebration ceromany of Sukkot in Kuzguncuk Synagogue in Istanbul.(Courtesy of fialom Newspaper)


According to the M.A. thesis of Albert Adatto, a studentof University of Washington in 1939, (“Sephardim and

the Seattle Sephardic Community”), the first two Sephar-dic Jews Jack Policar (d. 1961) and Solomo Calvo (d. 1964),arrived in Seattle from the island of Marmara, Turkey in1902. The first Turkish Jew to arrive in Seattle is thoughtto have been David Levy in 1900. In 1904, they met NissimAlhadeff, who had arrived that year from the Isle of Rho-des, between Greece and Turkey, in a Seattle Greek Café.

In addition to Marmara and Rhodes, Sephardim from Te-kirdag (Rodosto) and Istanbul (Constantinople) joinedthe first Turkish Jews immigrant group. Almost all wereyoung men, and after a few years some went back to the-ir homes in Turkey to marry and bring their new wives toSeattle. Shortly thereafter the first of the American-bornSephardim appeared.

By 1906, 17 Sephardic Jews resided in Seattle. That num-ber tripled by 1907. As economic and political conditionsin the Ottoman Empire deteriorated, and as Jews becamenewly subject to the draft, immigration increased. Sep-hardim from Constantinople and Rodosto joined thosefrom Rhodes and Marmara. By 1910 there were about 40Sephardic families, more than 100 souls, and growing.

By 1916 the Sephardic community had grown to about1500 people, which comprised three separate groups,

The first two

Sephardic Jews Jack

Policar (d. 1961) and

Solomo Calvo (d.

1964), arrived in

Seattle from the

island of Marmara,

Turkey in 1902. In

1904, they met

Nissim Alhadeff, who

had arrived that year

from the Isle of

Rhodes, between

Greece and Turkey, in

a Seattle Greek Café.

TURKISH JEWS IN SEATTLE

An Over 100-Year-Old H›story

of Turk›sh Sephard›c Jews ›n

SeattleSolomon Calvo (left) and Jack Policar (right) were the first twoSephardic Jews, arriving from the Turkish island of Marmara in1902, to settle in Seattle. (Photo: University of WashingtonLibraries. Special Collections Division)

Marco Calvo, Jack Policar and Sam (Sol) Baruch at Apex Sheet MetalWorks, Seattle, December 30, 1930. (Photo: University of

Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

Esther and Jack Policar, studio portrait, Seattle, ca. 1954. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

Jack Policar's 80th birthday with children and grandchildren, Seattle,1959. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

Bottom: Pearl Cohen. 2nd row, L-R: Esther and Jack Policar. 3rd row,L-R: Betty Alhadeff, Sam Alhadeff, Ralph Policar, Marco Calvo, Sema Calvo, 1932. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries.Special Collections Division)

Marco Calvo's 80th birthday with children and grandchildren, Seattle,1977. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

TurkofAmerica • 15

University of Washington and six years later he was elected President ofSephardic Bikur Holim.That same year some Sephardic Bikur Holim members left when the Mar-mara group announced plans to build their own synagogue, the AhavathAhim, which was completed in 1922.

CHIEF RABBI OF TURKEY VISITED TO SEATTLE IN 1921In 1921 Rabbi Haim Nahum, former Haham Bashi (Chief Rabbi of Turkey) vi-sited Seattle on behalf of the Alliance Israelite Universalle to raise money.The entire Sephardic community turned out to see and hear Rabbi Nahumwho remained in Seattle for three weeks. He raised more money in Seattlethan he did in Portland or Los Angeles.

In 1924 a very significant event occurred within the Sephardic Bikur Holimcommunity. Since Rabbi Abraham Maimon had been the rabbi in Tekirdagwhen many of the members had lived there prior to immigrating to the US,they knew him and greatly respected and admired him. When some of the-se leaders learned that he might be interested in moving to Seattle, theybegan contacting him by mail in late 1923, and by mid-1924 the papers andpreparations for his appointment as rabbi and his move to the US werecompleted. This took some time because beginning in 1921 the AmericanCongress passed several laws restricting immigration to the US. Rabbi Mai-mon and his family (his wife Vida and 6 of his 8 children) arrived in Septem-ber, 1924, in the evening, a day before the start of Yom Kippur. Due to ill-ness the family had to spend Rosh Hashanah on Ellis Island before procee-ding by train to Seattle, where they were warmly greeted by more than 100members of the community.

LEON BEHAR: FIRST PRODUCER OF SEPHARDIC THEATER During the 1920s one of the unique social past times for the members ofSBH was attending the amateur Sephardic Theater, performances of playscompletely in Ladino. Leon Behar, who grew up in Istanbul before comingto Seattle, was the most accomplished producer of Ladino theatrical pro-ductions, but not the only one. In Istanbul as a teenager he had participa-ted as an actor, director and playwright of several plays, and he put that ta-lent to good use in Seattle. He produced and directed a number of plays,beginning with Dreyfus in 1922, using talented Sephardim from all threesynagogues as his actors. Once the Depression started at the end of 1929,the era of Ladino dramatic productions in Seattle came to an end.

By 1930, Seattle would be second to New York in Sephardic population inthe United States. Rabbi Maimon died in 1931 and Rabbi Isaac Azose was called to lead thecongregation again. In 1944, Solomon Maimon, son of Rabbi Abraham Maimon, became thefirst American Sephardic Jew to receive rabbinic ordination in this country.He was the first Sephardi to receive semiha at Yeshiva University and in thecountry. He remained the rabbi of Sephardi Bikur Holim for 40 years. Afterhim more than 30 SBH members followed in his footsteps, going to NewYork to further their Jewish education by attending YU, either its YeshivaCollege (for men) or Stern College (for women). Along with Bikur Holim’sRabbi Wohlgelernter, he was instrumental in organizing the first all day re-ligious school in Seattle, Seattle Hebrew Academy.

A SYNAGOGUE CANTOR FROM EDIRNERev. Morris Scharhon, the Hazzan, passed away in 1950, and the synago-gue began looking for a new Hazzan Rev. Samuel Benaroya, originally fromEdirne, Turkey was at the time the Hazzan of the Sephardic kehilla in Gene-va, Switzerland.

Sephardic Bikur Holim, the Rhodes group which established their ownsynagogue, Ezra Bessaroth and the Marmara group.

Sephardic Bikur Cholim, founded by Jews from Turkey, particularly Tekir-dag, incorporated in 1910. The congregation purchased the former Ashke-nazic Bikur Cholim synagogue on 13th Avenue and Washington Street. Tothis day Sephardic Bikur Holim follows the traditions and customs broughtfrom Turkey by its founders.

Ezra Bessaroth Congregation evolved out of Koupa Ozer Dalim AnsheRhodes, a fund to help the needy in Rhodes; its synagogue incorporatedin 1914.

Ahavath Achim Congregation, founded in 1914, had a membership that inc-luded the earliest founders of the Seattle Sephardic community -- Jacob Po-licar, Solomo Calvo, and David Levy.

SEPHARDIC BIKUR HOLIM: FOUNDED BY JEWS FROM TEKIRDAG According to the Seattle Sephardic Bikur Holim website, up to 1908, Jewishreligious services such as for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur had beenheld by all of the Sephardim together, in a rented hall, with the Ashkenazicrabbi coming over to blow the shofar. In the following years, because of dif-ferences in minhagim, the Turkish (Tekirdag and Marmara) and Rhodesgroups were determined to conduct their own separate religious services.

In 1911, Samuel Morhaime, head of the mutual aid society of the Tekirdaggroup, decided to purchase a Sefer Torah, a handwritten copy of the Torah,from Palestine, as the first step towards a synagogue. Two years later, theTekirdag group took action towards the establishment of a synagogue. TheAshkenazi synagogue, Bikur Cholim, was completing the construction of anew building at 17th and Yesler, so their old synagogue, at 13th and Was-hington, was becoming available. The Tekirdag group called a meeting,and their leaders convinced them to take joint and dramatic action. Theyraised $800 and agreed to buy the building, along with a section of ceme-tery, from Bikur Cholim.

The synagogue was established as Bikur Holim, named after the synago-gue in Tekirdag, and Joseph Caston was elected as its first President. Offi-cially, it was known as the Spanish Hebrew Society and Congregation Bi-kur Holim. At this time, the Marmara group decided to maintain their ownidentity.

FIRST RABBI OF SYNAGOUGE SERVED IN TEKIRDAG AND ISLAND OFMARMARAReligious services at Sephardic Bikur Holim were conducted by Rabbi She-lomo Azose, who had arrived in Seattle 1910 and had served as a haham inboth Tekirdag and Marmara previously. According to Adatto’s master thesis, Rabbi Solomon Azose served as scho-het (ritual slaughterer), cantor, and mohel (one who performs circumcisi-ons) until his death in 1919. When he passed away in 1919 he was succee-ded by his brother, Rabbi Isaac Azose, who served until 1924.

After World War I was over, a number of the relatives of the Sephardim li-ving in Seattle, who had suffered through the war in Turkey, made theirway to the US to be with their family members. This influx lead to a suddenincrease in the Sephardic population in Seattle, but it was followed by anumber of families leaving Seattle for Portland and Los Angeles.

In 1921, Henry Benezra became the first Sephardic Jew to graduate from the

TURKISH JEWS IN SEATTLE

At the request of the Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregati-on, another Turkish citizen, Rev. Samuel Benaroya (d.2003) and his family immigrated to Seattle in 1952. Reve-rend Samuel Benaroya is a descendant of one of the mostrenowned families of musicians from Edirne, Turkey,where he was born in 1908, the youngest of five brothersand two sisters. His father, Haham Yitzhak Benaroya, wasa Hazzan in Edirne for 60 years.

In early 1935 the three social organizations merged intothe Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood, which became thelargest Sephardic organization in Seattle, and still playsan important role today.

Reverend Samuel Benaroya had served the synagoguefor 26 years as Hazzan, since his arrival in 1952 from Ge-neva, Switzerland. He was highly regarded in the commu-nity for his abilities as Hazzan, his knowledge and inter-pretation of the Turkish traditional melodies and for hisfriendliness and helpfulness in the community.

In 1965, a new synagogue was purchased by SBH at 6500,52nd Avenue South in Seward Park and by 1975, the SBHconstitution was amended to allow for women to serve asmembers of Board of Directors; two women, Becky Varonand Judy Balint, were elected the following year.

By the end of 1977 the Reverend informed the synagogueboard of his intention of retiring as Hazzan by the middleof 1978. Rev. Samuel Benaroya passed away in Seattle,Washington on Thanksgiving Day 2003 at the age of 95.

In 1977, Dr. David Raphael, who came to Seattle and beca-me affiliated with SBH in the late 1960s along with his wi-fe of Turkish descent, Esther, directed and produced thefamous film, ‘Song of the Sephardi’, telling the cultural ta-le of the Sephardic Jews. By the 1980s, the Seattle chapterof the umbrella organization ‘American Sephardi Federati-on’, established in 1973, was created, holding regular con-ventions which have included such noteworthy speakersand attendees as CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer.

In the 1990s, Sephardic Bikur Holim was led by Rabbi Si-mon Benzaquen, who was born and raised in Spain, andeducated and rabbinically ordained in England. Accor-ding to Stacey Schultz, freelance writer living in Seattle,today, there are over 40,000 Jews in Seattle—the Sefar-dic community is now the third largest in the country—and most live in small clusters throughout the city andsuburbs.

WHAT DID THE FIRST IMMIGRANTS IN SEATTLE DO?One of first Turkish Jewish immigrants, Solomon Calvo,founded the Waterfront Fish and Oyster Co. in Seattle,while Nessim Alhadeff started the Palace Fish and OysterCo., which later became the Pacific Fish Co. In the 1920’s,Turkish immigrant David Levy purchased City Fish Mar-ket, which he ran until his death in 1943. His sons sold thebusiness in 1995, but the store remains in the market. In1951, Jack Amon bought the Pure Food Fish Market. Hisson, Sol, took over in 1956 and continues to run the PikePlace operation.

In 1914, the Young Men's Sephardic Hebrew Associationwas founded to improve Turkish-Jewish conditions in Se-attle. Parliamentary rules were followed for meetings.The group purchased a home on 14th Avenue betweenWashington and Yesler and converted it into a clubhousewith pool tables, a card room, library, and coffee shop. In1917 the name changed to Young Men's Sephardic Asso-ciation. In 1920 the hall moved to 109 12th Avenue. TheYoung Men's Sephardic Association was instrumental inachieving social harmony among the Sephardim.

TURKISH SONGS BY SEPHARDIC WOMEN In 1935, the unique Sephardic culture possessed by someof the older members of the SBH community received re-cognition by a UW professor in the Anthropology Depart-ment, Dr. Mel Jacobs. Emma Adatto, a member of SBH along with her parentsAnna and Nessim Adatto, was a student in the UW Ant-hropology Dept. writing a MS thesis on Sephardic folklo-re. She sought to add an extra dimension to her thesis byincluding with it recordings of some of the old Sephardicsongs, Ladino romanzas and Turkish songs. Thus a groupof about 10 Sephardic women, most from SBH, was dri-ven to the UW to record a series of Sephardic songs,and the best technology available at that time for recor-ding music was the old-style large metal cylinders.In 1981, through the intervention of a latter-day Jewishmusic expert, these recordings were transferred to audi-ocassettes.

Sources: Albert Adatto, "Sephardim and the Seattle Sephardic Commu-

nity", MS Thesis, U. of Washington, 1939 / Isaac Maimon, "The History

of Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, 1914-1989", 1989 / Joy Maimon,

"Unity and Divisions Among the Early Seattle Sephardic Community"

Senior Paper, U. of Washington / Marc Angel, "The Sephardic Theater of

Seattle Jewry," Western States Jewish History, October, 1996, Vol. XXIX,

No. 1, p. 553 / Isaac Maimon, English Translation of the Minutes of the

Bikur Holim Building Committee, 1928-1930. �


Sue Rousso and Sema Calvo stand next to a photo-graph of Solomon Calvo (left) and Jack Policar(right). Jack Policar was the father of Sema Calvoand Sue Rousso. Solomon Calvo was the father-in-law of Sema Calvo. (Photo: University ofWashington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

In 1952, Rev. Samuel Benaroya arrived in Seattlewith his wife and daughter to become the Hazzan(cantor) for Sephardic Bikur Holim congregation.He was originally from Edirne, Turkey, but hadbeen employed as a Hazzan in Geneva,Switzerland, prior to his arrival in Seattle. (Photo:University of Washington Libraries. SpecialCollections Division)

Benaroya family in Edirne, Turkey, ca. 1913. Edirne,Turkey, ca. 1913; L to R: sister Esther, ?, Rev.Samuel Benaroya's mother, Polomba, father -Yitzchak Benaroys. (Photo: University ofWashington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

Ralph Policar in Navy uniform with parents, Estherand Jack Policar, Seattle, ca. 1940-1945. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)

The SBH Talmud Torah directed byProf. Albert Levy December 1937.(Photo: Washington State Jewish

Archives Photographs)

Temple de Hirsch exte-rior, 15th Avenue andE. Union St., Seattle,

ca. 1908-1914. (Photo:University of

Washington Libraries.Special Collections

Division)


The grandparents ofDan Morhaim,

Deputy Majority Leaderof the Maryland

General Assembly,moved from

Lüleburgaz, a town anddistrict of K›rklareli

Province in theMarmara region of

Turkey, to the UnitedStates in 1916.

DAN MORHAIM - A SEPHARDIC POLITICIAN

is a Deputy Majority Leader and also a physician on thefaculty at Johns Hopkins. Dan Morhaim answered TURKO-FAMERICA’s questions.

Could you tell us your family story? When did they leaveTurkey? My grandfather was born in Luleburgaz in the late 1890's.He left around 1916 or so for the United States, settling inLos Angeles. He spoke Turkish and Ladino.

Did you have a chance to visitt your ancestors’ birthplacein Turkey?My wife and two children and I went to Turkey in 2000.We had a wonderful time, in Istanbul, Kufladas›, ‹zmir, Ep-hesus, and elsewhere. The country is so beautiful, andeveryone was very nice to us.We did go to Luleburgaz. It's a small beautiful city on theEuropean side of Turkey. We went to the Hall of Records,and they printed out a list of "Morhaim" names, peoplethat had been born there since the founding of the Re-public by Ataturk. We ate lunch in the town center at a lo-vely restaurant.

In your childhood, did your grandparents talk about Tur-keey? Do you remember anything about Turkish culture, li-ke music, food, etc.? Do you have any relatives in Turkey? My grandparents were always proud of their Turkish heri-tage and often served Turkish food at home. I don't thinkwe have any relatives there.

Could you tell us about the Sephardic community in yourdistrict? How big is it? While there is a large Jewish community in Maryland, theSephardic community is part of the whole. There is a growingTurkish community here, and I am in touch with them.�

Until a century ago in K›rklareli, the capital of K›rklareliProvince in Eastern Thrace, in the European part of

Turkey, there was a Jewish congregation of one thousandthree hundred people. Now among the native-born resi-dents of the city there are only five Jews, including therabbi. Rabbi Hayim Abravanel (86) has served over 50 ye-ars in the Musa Synagogue Foundation. According to Margalit Bejarano, author of Jewish Women:A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, Cuba becamethe destination of the Sephardim from two distinct areasin Turkey: Istanbul and Thrace (European Turkey). Mostof them came from two small towns: Silivri, on the outs-kirts of Istanbul, and K›rklareli (Kirklisse), near Edirne.

The first wave of immigration was mainly male; it was mo-tivated by economic reasons and by the fear of compul-sory enlistment in the Ottoman army during the YoungTurks’ revolution (1909) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913).

Cuba was a second option for Sephardic Jews. Usually theyoung immigrants hoped to return home after “makingAmerica” or to bring over their wives or brides. However,the outbreak of World War I severed communicationswith their families. After the war, communications withthe old home were resumed, and wives, children, mot-hers and other relatives from Turkey emigrated to theUnited States, Cuba, Brazil, Canada and Argentina. The grandparents of Dan Morhaim, Deputy Majority Lea-der of the Maryland General Assembly, moved from Lüle-burgaz, a town and district of K›rklareli Province in theMarmara region of Turkey, to the United States in 1916.

Morhaim was first elected to the Maryland General As-sembly in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006 torepresent the 11th District in the House of Delegates. He

My Grandparents Were Always Proud

of the›r Turk›sh Her›tage

Dan Morhaim, Deputy MajorityLeader of the Maryland GeneralAssembly. (Courtesy of joncardin.com)


On March 4, 1992, Turkish Jews celebrated at theNeve Salom Synagogue in Istanbul the 500th

anniversary of their ancestral acceptance in OttomanTurkey under Sultan Beyazit II, after the expulsion ofhundreds of thousands of Sephardic Jews (who refusedto convert to Christianity) by Spain in 1492. Hearingabout the eviction, the Sultan issued a welcomingdecree for the Jews, purportedly commenting that theSpanish King must have ‘lost his mind’ for expelling his‘best’ and ‘wealthiest’ subjects. ‘Sephardim’, referring to Jews with ancestral originsfrom the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain andPortugal), is said to come from the word for ‘Spain’ inHebrew, also found in the Bible. A major portion ofSephardic Jews, speaking a Judeo-Spanish languagecalled ‘Ladino’, settled in various parts of the OttomanEmpire, especially in the cities of Istanbul and Salonika;myth has it that the root word Sepharad, the land whereHebrew wanderers settled after the Babylonian captureof Jerusalem, likely refers to a region in Asia Minor, or,modern-day Turkey.

Today, the Sephardic community in the United States isgenerally known for its members’ attachment and loyal-ty to their native lands in and around Turkey. New YorkCity has the largest population of Sephardim in thecountry, and is known, together with Seattle, for havingone of the earliest and most influential Sephardic com-munities in the US; the two cities are also interconnect-ed in that many young people from Sephardic BikurHolim Congregation in Seattle, for example, tend to trav-el to NYC to further their Jewish education. TheSephardic Diaspora in the United States, however, alsoincludes decades-old communities in cities such as LosAngeles, San Francisco, Portland, Atlanta, Montgomery,Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Philadelphia,Rochester, New Brunswick, etc. UNITY WAS ACHIEVED BY A TURKISH-BORN RABBISuch Sephardic colonies, spread throughout the UnitedStates, often faced the problem of unity as there wasnever any one, recognizable organization uniting all ofthem; this was certainly the case with the Sephardim ofNew York. An effort in the 1920s, for example, by NewYork’s Sephardim to maintain a central communal-insti-

tution entitled the ‘Sephardi Jewish Community of NewYork, Inc.’, with a community house located on 115thStreet in Harlem, eventually fell apart, lacking visionaryleadership. The lack of unity showed itself mostpoignantly in the realm of religious guidance: the lack ofunity in liturgy was especially found to be problematicand unfruitful for the production of Sephardic leaders.As a solution, the ‘Union of Sephardic Congregations’was founded in 1928, formed through a meeting of threeancient congregations: the Shearith Israel in New York(founded in 1684), Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia (found-ed in 1740) and Shearith Israel of Montreal. Althoughthis Union obtained a very significant achievement withthe publication of Sephardi prayer books, it too gradual-

Today, the Sephardic

community in the

United States is gen-

erally known for its

members’ attachment

and loyalty to their

native lands in and

around Turkey. New

York City has the

largest population of

Sephardim in the

country, and is

known, together with

Seattle.

SEPHARDIC JEWS IN THE USA

Sephard›c

Jews from Turkey

and Former Ottoman

Lands ›n the Un›ted

States

Welcome", oil painting by Mevlut Akyildiz. (Courtesy of 500. Yil Vakfi)

By Selin Senol


merchandise sold on the streets, into a profitable business entitled‘Shinasi Brothers’ making millions of dollars each year-eventually sellingthe factory to the Tobacco Produce Company in 1916 for $3.5 million. Other notable businessmen and professionals included Eliah and JackCrespi from Ankara (of The Sunshine Battery Company), Samuel Yahyafrom Istanbul (of the Adams Paper Company), lawyer John Hezekiah Levy,and Mair Jose Benardete- the first Turkish Jew licensed to teach publicschool in the US. Between 1890 and 1924, nearly thirty thousand Sephardic Jews came tothe United States, most of them Ladino-speaking people originating fromTurkey and the Balkan region, settling mostly in the Lower East Side ofNew York City - often facing wretched conditions. Many came after vari-ous nationalist revolts led to a gradual collapse of the Ottoman Empirearound this time, lured by dreams of entrepreneurial success similar tothat achieved by the Sephardic Jews who had immigrated many yearsearlier; they were called ‘Orientals’ by the existing Sephardic Jewish com-munity to distinguish them from the earlier ‘Grandees’. Around 10,000 Sephardic Jews entered the US between 1908 and 1914,with 1,911 Jews being recorded in the year 1912 as originating fromTurkey. Sephardic communities in the Ottoman Empire were also affect-ed around this time by grave natural disasters as well as the violence ofTurkey’s war with Italy in 1911-1912 and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913;with the official breakout of WWI in 1914, stories of America as a place ofprosperity and equal opportunities for economic advancement becameespecially appealing. The 1908 revolt of the Young Turks attempting tocreate a constitutional government in Turkey, beginning compulsory mil-itary service in the country for all male citizens, affected the poorest citi-zens (usually non-Muslim minorities) the most. This is because they werethe ones unable to afford paying a certain amount of money to the gov-ernment to exempt themselves from being drafted and becoming sol-diers; Gadol believes this was a major reason behind many of the Jewsleaving for America. Albert Amateau, for example, was such a Jew who came to New York in1909 and went on to organize a self-help society for Sephardic Jews calledthe ‘Brotherhood of Rhodes’. Sephardic immigrants initially felt unwelcomed by Ashkenazi Jews in theUnited States, whom they felt often saw them as ‘Greeks, Italians, orTurks’ because of their appearance and exotic culture and somehow not‘actually’ Jewish. In time, however, Gadol celebrated that feelings of affin-ity between the two groups were achieved for the most part, though cer-tain identity-issues of feeling ‘unique’ still exist amongst Sephardimtoday- he attributed this to his La America. With time, some Sephardimon the Lower East Side were able to find economic success and relocateto more spacious living spaces in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx, whileothers were relocated to places like Seattle and Indianapolis by theIndustrial Relief Office (IRO).

SEPHARDIM SOCIETIES The deepest-rooted and most prestigious Sephardic society in NYC wasthe ‘Union and Peace Society’, founded in 1899 with English as its officiallanguage; most of its members originated from Turkey, including theShinasi brothers, and many worshipped at the Shearith Israel synagogue.It is worthy to note that another organization, the ‘Oriental ProgressiveSociety’, was founded in 1904 with most of its members being AshkenaziJews from Turkey. There were also organizations created by Sephardimfrom Canakkale, Churlu, Silivri, and Ankara, Turkey. Most of theseSephardim were concerned with raising enough money to both earn a liv-ing as well as send money to their relatives back in Turkey and thatregion, facing many financial difficulties along the way; Gadol even sug-

ly became inactive. A final attempt at unity was made by Turkish-born Rabbi Nissim J. Ovadia,who shortly after his 1941 arrival in the United States created the ‘CentralSephardic Jewish Community of America, Inc.’: although facing mostlyNYC concerns, its membership consisted of Sephardim living in other UScities as well. After Mr. Ovadia died in August of 1942, his wife, MazalOvadia, helped to organize a women’s division for the Community. InSeptember 1943, the seemingly successful organization then launched abulletin entitled The Sephardi, with the stated purpose of ‘[awakening]the Sephardi masses to the necessity of a united Sephardi communitythroughout the Western Hemisphere’; it lasted until 1957.

10,000 SEPHARDIC JEWS IN EARLY 20th CENTURY AT NEW YORK CITYWhen Moise Gadol, a successful businessman who became the editor ofthe first Ladino-American newspaper ‘La America’, which ran from 1910until 1925, arrived in NYC from Bulgaria in 1910 to visit relatives,he was surprised to see the plight of the immigrantsliving on the Lower East Side, especiallythe Sephardic Jews number-ing over 10,000.

In the early 1900’s, Shearith Israel of New York had been conducting freeHoly Day services for the needy, for example- a form of charity oftencalled ‘overflow services’. Gadol observed in 1913 that 90% of the wor-shippers in such services were Turkish Jews and believed that sendingsuch immigrants to the downstairs auditorium of the synagogue, asbecame the custom, rather than allowing them to occupy seats in themain area, was degrading.

SUCCESFULL BUSINESSMEN Nonetheless, success stories did arise amongst Turkish Jews in NYCdespite a general state of economic despair; the Shinasi Brothers, born inManisa, Turkey, became the most inspiring of such luminaries. Althoughthey arrived in the US without much money in 1892, they were able to turntheir small cigar-factory establishment, which at first began operation with

SEPHARDIC JEWS IN THE USA

gested at one time, unsuccessfully so, that a collector should actually besent to such Sephardic societies to pick up unpaid pledges and subscrip-tion-money for his magazine!Turkish Sephardic immigrants were called ‘Turkinos’ and soon many‘Turkino’ cafes and restaurants were popping up all over NYC, especiallyon Chrystie Street. As such, the Sephardim were gradually getting usedto their new environments while culturally staying in touch with their fel-low Sephardim in this ‘new world’- similar to other such distinctly‘American’ realities as the Chinese of Chinatown or Italians of Little Italy.‘Dark’ aspects of life on the Lower East Side, such as gambling, prostitu-tion, rape, adultery and alcoholism soon found themselves impacting theSephardic community as well, however, causing many to complain of thisnew environment. This was America, after all, and instead of an OttomanSultan inviting Jews being evicted from the Iberian Peninsula, there wasnow the ‘American Dream’ inviting them- and its consequences, both‘positive’ (success in return for hard work) and ‘negative’ (parting frommorality and traditions), can affect every immigrant, regardless of wherehe or she is from, in the same ways. �


Bibliography• Guleryuz, Naim. ‘Iber’den Gunumuze Turk Yahudileri’nin 500 Yillik Yolculugu (Turkish-Jews’ 500 year-old Voyage since the Iberian Peninsula)’,

TUSIAD: Gorus Dergisi (Ozel Sayi)- Turkiye Yahudileri, September 2003• Weiner, Rebecca. ‘Sephardim’, Jewish Virtual Library: A Division of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Jewishvirtuallibrary.org • Birmingham, Stephen. ‘The Grandees- America’s Sephardic Elite’. Syracuse University Press. 1997• ‘SBH 90th Anniversary’, Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, sbhseattle.org• Albert Adatto, “Sephardim and the Seattle Sephardic Community” (M.A. thesis, University of Washington, 1939)• Lorraine Sidell, "Historically Speaking: Sephardic Jews of Seattle," Part II Nizcor: Washington State Jewish Historical Society Newsletter, March 1992• Gurock, Jeffrey S. & American Jewish Historical Society. American Jewish History: A Eight-Volume Series, 1998• Belinfante, Randall C. ‘The Other Lower East Side’. American Sephardic Federation (americansephardicfederation.org)• Angel, Marc D. ‘La America: The Sephardic Experience in the United States’. 1982

Morris Schinasi and his wife Laurette.Schinasi brothers were able to turntheir small cigar-factory establishmentinto a profitable business entitled‘Shinasi Brothers’ making millions ofdollars each year-eventually selling thefactory to the Tobacco ProduceCompany in 1916 for $3.5 million.(Courtesy of Naim Güleryüz)

(June 4, 1912Schools For14,000 Turk

Jews) A newsabout Turkish

Jews immigrants in

New York in1912. (Source:

New YorkTimes June 4,

1912)


The first Jew arrived in Los Angeles in 1841 with theRowland-Workman party. His name was Jacob

Frankfort, a German tailor. Though Frankfort wasn'tSephardic, it was only a dozen years later that someSephardim did arrive from the eastern part of thecountry. Solomon Nunes Carvalho (pronouncedCavayo in Portuguese), a painter and photographerwith the John C. Fremont Expedition to California the1840s, was born in South Carolina in 1815 ofSephardic parentage.

In 1854, Carvalho opened a photographic studio in abuilding owned by the Labatt brothers, Samuel K.and Joseph, the only Sephardim in town at that time.The first native-born American Jewish adults wereSamuel K. and Joseph Labatt who were also the firstSephardic Jew in Los Angeles, but more important,Samuel K. Labatt was the first president of the firstJewish organization to be established here. Theirfather, Abraham Labatt came to San Francisco in1849.

Between the 1850s and the 20th Century there wasonly one instance of a Sephardic Jew in the LosAngeles area. His name was David d'Ancona who

traveled from San Diego to Los Angeles in the 1870s. The real emphasis of the Sephardic community was-n't felt until the beginning of the 20th century, thepredominant influx coming from the OttomanEmpire. They came from Salonica, Egypt, Turkey,Rhodes and other points of the middle east.

The first Sephardic Jew to arrive in 20th century LosAngeles was Mordecai Zeitoun, a veteran of theFranco-Prussian War of 1870-71, a native of Algeria.He was an entrepreneur in the Louisiana PurchaseExposition at St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. "Papa" ashe was affectionately known, along with his daugh-ter Rose arrived in Los Angeles during the closingmonths of 1904, probably in October or earlyNovember. They were followed by brothers Louisand David Bramy. Davidmarried Rose Zeitoun onMarch 6, 1906 and their son, Roger was the firstknown Sephardi to be born in Los Angeles onFebruary 14, 1907.

Another early Sephardic arrival was Jacob (Jack)Caraco. Names like Baruch, Cohen and Levy plus alisting of a Portuguese Jewish Colony (probably theAvat Shalom Congregation founded in 1912) was

The first spiritual leaderwas Rabbi Abraham

Caraco. There were 52families in the

congregation: 37 fromRhodes. In time,

as happens in mostfamilies, the Rhodeslies

and Turkinos, as theycalled one another splitup due to shall we say,

euphemistically forparochial differences.

Sephard›c Jews of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY

By Maurice I. Bob Hattem*

There were 52 families in Los Angelescongregation: 37 from Rhodes. Interior of Kahal

Shalom Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Rhodes,Greece today.


In 1974, High Holy Day Services were conducted for the first time atthe new Temple Center on Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles.In 1994 Sephardic Beth Shalom and Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israelmerged. Apparently their parochial differences had been ameliorat-ed to some degree after 80 years to everyone's delight.

The Sephardic Jews have given the world a rich and beautiful cultureand have left a Heritage of which they can all be proud. Whereverthey went they brought their culture with them and always a bit ofold Spain is evidenced by the Spanish and Judeo-Spanish-Ladinothey have managed to keep as they traveled from country to countrythese past 500 years. This is the key to their survival.�

* Maurice I. Bob Hattem, archivist/historian of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los

Angeles, California.

included in the honor roll of the first Jewish Federation dated 1912.Its members were from Turkey and from Rhodes.

The first spiritual leader was Rabbi Abraham Caraco. There were 52families in the congregation: 37 from Rhodes. In time, as happens inmost families, the Rhodeslies and Turkinos, as they called oneanother split up due to shall we say, euphemistically for parochialdifferences.

In 1917 the Rhodeslies formed the Peace and Progress Society withHaham Haim Levy serving as the Spiritual leader and Morris Sorianoas the first president. In 1919, Avat Shalom composed of Turkinosdivided into three groups: The Sephardic community of Los Angeles,Haim VaHessed, The Sephardic Brotherhood, and Yaacov Tovee. TheSephardic Community of Los Angeles was organized on 1st February1920 in Walker Auditorium near downtown Los Angeles withAbraham Caraco as rabbi and Adolph Danziger De Castro as their firstpresident.

The Rhodeslies built a synagogue at the corner of 55 th Street andHoover Avenue in 1935. It was called Ohel Abraham but theCommunity was known as The Sephardic Hebrew Center. Later thename was again changed to Congregation Sephardic Beth Shalom.The Sephardic Community of Los Angeles dedicated their first syna-gogue at 1516 West Santa Barbara Avenue, (now called Martin LutherKing Boulevard) on 21 February 1932. In 1959 The SephardicBrotherhood (Haim VaHessed) merged with the SephardicCommunity of Los Angeles. The new name became The SephardicCommunity and Brotherhood of Los Angeles. Later the namechanged again, this time to the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, thename by which it is known today.

A PROFILE: MAURICE AMADO Maurice Amado (1888 to 1968) wasborn in Izmir, Turkey and came from a Sephardic Jewish familythat lived for several centuries in the Old Ottoman TurkishEmpire, following their ancestors’ expulsion from Spain in 1492.Amado emigrated to the United States from Turkey in 1904 wherehe settled in New York and, upon his retirement, resettled in LosAngeles in the 1950’s.

Amado was in the tobacco trade business, at first working forStandard Commercial Tobacco Company until he left to work forhimself. With the proceeds from his profits in the tobacco busi-ness he became a successful financier and investor. He was mar-ried to Rose, who had a high-end dress business in New YorkCity. Although Rose had a son from a previous marriage, theynever had children.

Amado was a very cultured man. He taught himself English byattending lectures and speeches in New York City. He read agreat deal, mainly philosophy and kept a large library in hishome. He was also an excellent conversationalist.

He was extremely close to his nephew, Raphael Amado, who hadfive children. These children and their descendents have andcontinue to serve on the Maurice Amado Foundation Board ofDirectors which he established in 1961. Prior to establishing theFoundation he began his charitable work giving funds to aSephardic congregation in Los Angeles. This congregation even-tually merged and became the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israellocated on Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

He established a scholarship fund at the Temple for the childrenof Temple members. His Foundation also funded both capitalprojects and programs at the Temple for several decades.

As one of the Foundation’s most lasting charitable gifts, theMaurice Amado Foundation established an endowed chair atUCLA to support research and teaching in Sephardic culture andhistory by a distinguished scholar in any of the disciplines asso-ciated with the broadest range of Sephardic concerns. Thisencompasses the entire historical and geographical scope ofSephardic culture and religion from its beginnings as a regionalphenomenon in the Iberian Peninsula to its development as awidespread manifestation of Jewish social and intellectual expe-rience throughout the world.

1900 of Rabbi Chilebi NissimCodron in Rhodes

(Source: Rhodes JewishMuseum)


At the end of lunch, the old guy looked into the youngman’s eyes and told him: “You have to do it.” The yo-

ung man couldn’t turn the older one down and he accep-ted his offer by saying,“Yes, I have to do it.”

The old man, Leon Levy, who served as president from1982 to 2001, convinced David Dengoor to become thefifth president of American Sephardi Federation in 2003.

Leon Levy was born in Seattle, Wash. to Sephardic Je-wish parents who emigrated from Turkey. He believedthat the history of Jews in Turkey was an essential one.Under his leadership, the American Sephardi Federationhad very tight relations with Turkey.

Currently president of the federation, David Dangoorwas born in 1949 to Jewish parents who emigrated fromTehran to Sweden. Before moving to Tehran, the mem-bers of his families had lived in Iraq many years. His gre-at-grandfather was chief rabbi of Iraq in 1900’s. His mot-her’s side is Austrian Sephardic Jews.

In 1922, when Iraq was created by British, the Jewishcommunity protested it. The Dangoor family was amongthe Iraqi Jews who protested to the British: “You have noright to make us Iraqis. We are Turks. How can you takeour Turkish nationality and convert us into a country inwhich we have no stake?” In 1922, approximately 120,000 Jews, accounting for onethird of Baghdad’s population, were living in Baghdad.

The Jewish population in Iraq was 148,000 in 1948 and itdecreased to 35 in 2004. Now it is counted at less than 10.

Dangoor says that these Jews were not Iraqis. “Just like to-day, when you ask a Kurd in Iraq where he is from, he ne-ver says that he is Iraqi; he says he is a Kurd. It was the sa-me in the Jewish community in Iraq as well,” he adds.

Where did the Iraqi Jews come from? According to Mitc-hell Bard, director of the Jewish Virtual Library, theworld’s most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Je-wish history and culture, in 722 B.C.E., the northern tri-bes of Israel were defeated by Assyria and some Jewswere taken to what is now known as Iraq. A larger com-munity was established in 586 B.C.E., when the Babylo-nians conquered the southern tribes of Israel and ensla-ved the Jews.

WHEN DID THE FIRST SEPHARDIC JEWS ARRIVE IN THEUNITED STATES? According to sources, the first Sephardic Jews arrived inthe U.S. in 1654. There are between six and seven milli-on Jews living in America today. First Sephardic Jews we-re originally Portuguese and they came by way of Brazil.In that time a big section of Brazil belonged to the Dutch,but the Dutch lost this territory to the Portuguese. SoJews moved from Portugal to Brazil. 23 Jews ended up inNew Amsterdam, a 17th-century Dutch colonial settle-ment that later became New York City. They started toestablish the first Jewish congregation.

David Dangoor:

“Turkey saved a big

chunk of the Jewish

religion when the

Jews came from

Spain. God knows

what would have hap-

pened to them if they

had no place to go.”

AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION

Dav›d Dangoor, Pres›dent of

Amer›can Sephard› Federat›on

“The Ottoman Mental›ty Was

Always An Educated One”

Dav›d Dangoor, Pres›dent of

Amer›can Sephard› Federat›on

“The Ottoman Mental›ty Was

Always An Educated One”

One of Dangoor’s remarkable pieces ofwork is still on the wall of The Center for

Jewish History building.


him how it was to be a prisoner of war of the Ottomans. He said: “My lifeas a prisoner of war was much better than my life as King of Sweden.”

The third reason for Dangoor’s affection is that he grew up in Sweden inthe 1950s and 1960s where there was always a strong Turkish presenceTurkey in terms of diplomatic relations. In that time, there were not manyMiddle Eastern people in Sweden. When his father came to Sweden in1949 for the first time, he had a picture of front page of a newspaper thatannounced that Middle Eastern businessmen had arrived in Stockholm.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when Turkish ambassadors came to Sweden,there were no people to help facilitate their stay. Dangoor says: “So theyalways found my father. So I grew up with every Turkish ambassador,participated in every event at the Turkish Embassy. My father was actu-ally the man who helped the Turkish ambassador in 1965 to find a housein Sweden which is now the Turkish Embassy.”

At the time, the Turkish ambassador to Sweden was Mehmet Benler.Dangor still keeps in touch with his son, Hasan, who live in California. Hesays the Federation has several members who are Turkish and his bestfriend is a Turkish Jew, ‹zak fienbahar, the president of the developmentfirm Alexico Management in New York City.

In addition to holding the presidency of the Federation, Dangoor runs hisown consultancy company in New York. The reason he moved to the U.S.was because he joined Philipp Morris in 1976. He worked for the companyin Switzerland, Germany England, Canada, then the U.S. He held an im-pressive array of executive positions. His wide and diverse interests inc-lude directorships of a Swedish biotech company, the Swedish-AmericanChamber of Commerce and the New York City Ballet.

When asked when his term as president of the Federation will end, hereplies with a smile: “My term will end when I find someone. The reasonI become president was that the previous president was getting older. Hewas begging people. One day we had a meeting. He looked at me andtold me, you have to do it, and I looked at him, such a nice guy, and I toldhim ‘Yes, I have to’. Now I am looking for someone whom I will look in theeyes and say he has to do it.” �

PRESIDENTS OF AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION Simon Nessim (1952-1968) (remained inactive until 1972)Prof. Daniel J. Elazar (1973-1975) (AFS officially organized) Liliane Winn Shalom (1975-1982)Leon Levy (1982-2001)Mike M. Nassimi (2001-2003)David Dangoor (2003 – Present)

Dangoor says that actually the first Jew came to the U.S. with ChristopherColumbus in 1492: “The navigator was a Jew. It’s very strange that theyleft in the morning of the execution (of Spanish King Ferdinand’s order).The ship was full of Jews. If you go to any Caribbean island, you will seesigns of Jewish communities from that time. So the Jews went two waysin 1492. They went west to find another way to India and Latin America,and a very large chunk of them went to Turkey.”

For Dangoor, today the biggest problem with Sephardic Jews is that theyassimilated. “They consider themselves Jewish, but they are less active inJewish life,” he says.

Under Dangoor’s leadership, American Sephardi Federation, along withSephardic House, has published a new magazine, The Sephardi Report.Working hand in hand with the Director, Esme Emmanuel Berg, they ha-ve succeeded in making the American Sephardi Federation, with Sephar-dic House, an increasingly important partner and representative of Sep-hardic history and heritage at the Center for Jewish History.

One of Dangoor’s remarkable pieces of work is still on the wall of TheCenter for Jewish History building, on 16th street between 5th and 6thAvenue in New York City. On the second floor wall inside the building, the-re is a huge map of Spain. Next to the map there are quotes from KingFerdinand and Sultan Bayezid. The Sultan’s quote is: “You call Ferdinanda wise king, he, who by expelling the Jews, has impoverished his countryand enriched mine!”

Engraving Sultan Bayezid’s quote on the wall was Dangoor’s idea. Meh-met Samsar, Turkish Consul General to New York, participated in the un-veiling ceremony of the engraved quote on the wall.

He empathizes that the Ottoman mentality was always an educated oneand he adds: “The saving of the Spanish Jews was a very positive influen-ce that the Ottoman Empire had on the big Jewish communities that stillexist all over the Middle East. Turkey saved a big chunk of the Jewish re-ligion when the Jews came from Spain. God knows what would have hap-pened to them if they had no place to go.”

TRIPLE AFFECTION FOR TURKEYDangoor said he had a triple affection for Turkey. The first one owes to thefact that though he was born in Sweden, his family called themselvesTurks. The second one is for a famous Turkish dish, cabbage dolma (stuf-fied cabbage). This is a Swedish national dish as a result of Charles XII,King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718, staying in ‹stanbul for five years as aprisoner of war. Dangoor says there is a very famous quote in Swedenthat when the King came back from Istanbul after five years, they asked

David Dangoor (at left) with Gwen Zuares, Morrie Yohai, Stella Levi atJewish Costumes in the Ottoman Empire exhibition on March 31st, 2004.(Courtesy of The American Sephardi Report magazine)

David Dangoor, Carole Basri and Hy Harary at 9thInternational Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. (Courtesy of The American Sephardi Report magazine)

In 1492 medieval Spain expelled the last of its Je-wish citizens in an effort to “purify” the Iberian Pe-

ninsula. An estimated 150,000 to 250,000 SephardicJews sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Throughthe centuries, waves of Jewish refugees from otherparts of Europe also escaped to Turkish lands, upthrough the greatest persecution of them all, the Ho-locaust. The Ottoman Jewish community became notonly the largest but also the most prosperous Jewishcommunity in the world. To¬day the Jewish commu-nity of Turkey is the largest in any former Ottomanlands, except for Israel it¬self.

The Ottoman Empire boasted an estimated populati-on of 45.4 million peo¬ple, which included 15.5 mil-lion European Christians, 10.7 million European Mus-lims, 10 million An¬atolians, 8.7 million people in theMiddle East and Africa.

The Ottoman Empire did not define minority by eth-nicity. While more Turks composed the rul¬ing elitethan any other ethnic group, the elites also includedArmenians, Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, Arabs and ot-her ethnic groups. Ottoman law required only thatmembers of the elite share in the same political cul-ture of the family dynasty, including the Islamic reli-gion. In other words, only Otto¬man citizens whowere born Muslim or who converted to Islam eithervoluntarily or through the Devsirme system partici-pated in the elite class and gained political positi-ons. In 1856, however, the Otto¬man Empire revo-ked the religion requirement.

The Ottoman Empire defined minority by religion.The Muslims constituted the majority, while the Jewsand Christians were the minorities. In order to facili-tate coexistence between the different ethnic and re-ligious groups and maintain political support, Sul-tans Mehmed II (1451-1481), Beyazid II (1481-1512),Selim (1512-1520) and Suleyman (Suleyman theMagnificent) (1520-1566) evolved the millet system.The millet system organized the Ottoman society in-to communities (millets) based on religion and allo-wed these communities autonomous self-govern-ment under their respective religious leaders.

In sum, the millet system allowed people to mainta-in their own religions, traditions, cultures, cus¬tomsand languages, without interference; it allowed eachto operate its own courts, schools, charitable institu-tions, hospitals, and even community governments;it insulated people of different religions from eachother and thus attempted to prevent the “kind of in-ter-communal conflicts which have be¬come so com-mon in the Middle East since the Ottoman Empire di-sappeared.” The Ottoman JewrySultan Mehmed encouraged the emigration of Jewsfrom Europe to his Empire to live under the sameconditions of tolerance and freedom that had favo-red the lives of Jews in Muslim Spain. In¬deed, du-ring the next 500 years, Jewish culture, intellectuallife and prosperity flourished brighter in Ottoman ti-mes as in the greatest days of Islamic Spain.

In stark contrast to Byzantine rule, the Jews enteringthe Ottoman Empire were allowed to prac¬tice wha-tever profession they wished, engage in trade andcommerce without restriction, and own real propertyanywhere in the Ottoman Empire. In return, they pa-id a percentage of their revenues to the state as tax,though the Chief Rabbi and other servants of the

“In 1492, Columbus sailed theocean blue.” And so

goes the fairy talerendition of our glori-ous past. But beneath

the big blue sky,Christopher sailed

from the smallSpanish port of

Palos, because themajor ports of Cadiz

and Seville were busy committing one of

the greatest religious trespass¬es in

A MODEL IN DIVERSITY

THE TURKISH JEWRY:

A MODEL IN DIVERSITY*

By Gunay Evinch

Foto by Izzet Keribar26 • TurkofAmerica

an languages, and their contacts with fellow Jews in most Europeantrade centers, helped the Ottoman Empire develop intense commer-cial relations with the west. Ottoman Jewish bankers im¬plementeda sophisticated system of bills of exchange honored by Jewish ban-kers and merchants in different countries to transfer funds in a man-ner that their competitors were not able to do. Finally, Jews did notcopy the Greek and Armenian Ottoman subjects who assumed fore-ign citizenships to take advantage of the Capitulations, thus addingto Muslim suspicions. On the contrary, Ottoman Jews invited their fa-mily members who were still European nationals to manage the fa-mily business so they could take advantage of the Capitulations wit-hout betraying the long-standing Jewish loyalty to the Empire.

In turn, the Ottoman Jewish elite utilized their high positions to pro-tect Jews within and without the Empire from Christian and Arab en-croachments, as well as to nurture the intellectual, cultural and eco-nomic health of the Ottoman Jewish community. For example, in 1530local Armenian priests and notables in Amasya spread a rumor thatJews slaughtered an Armenian child and used his blood at the Passo-ver feast. In the following days, Armenian mobs attacked Jews anddestroyed the Ottoman Jew¬ish neighborhoods. Armenian notablespressured the Ottoman officials to arrest, torture, and hang sev¬eralJewish leaders. Later the child who had been supposedly murderedwas found. The Ottoman officials punished the Armenian accusers.During these incidents, Moshe Hamon (1490-1567), an Ottoman Jew,was the physician of the sultan. Following the ritual murder attackson Jews at Amasya, he secured a ferman prohibiting provincial andlocal officials and judges from being involved in any such cases inthe future, and in punishing Jews accused of ritual murder crimes,and requiring that all such cases he brought before the Sultan.In another example, the banker, Dona Mendes, used her political inf-luence in 1556 to convince Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent to inter-vene with Pope Paul IV on behalf of Jews who had been im¬prisonedin Ancona. She secured their release by getting the Ottomans to boy-cott Ancona’s Mediterra¬nean trade until the Jews were freed. Later,Dona Mendes joined forces with her nephew Don Joseph Nasi to fi-nance the rise to power of Sultan Selim II in 1566 in opposition toPrince Beyazid who was supported by a rival Greek party. Once Sul-tan Selim secured power, Don Joseph encouraged the Otto¬man con-quest of Cyprus in 1570, with the idea of making it into a place of re-fuge for Jews arriving from Europe. As the Jews preferred the HolyLand, the island was settled by Turks and Kurds.

The Ottoman Jews greatly enhanced the rich intellectual mosaic ofthe Empire. The intellectual elite among the Jewish exiles of Spainand the rest of Europe included Talmudists, philosophers, jur¬ists,doctors, poets and writers. While at first they planned to continue onto the Holy Land, when they found the Ottoman Empire to be an asy-lum of tranquility and security, free from the prejudices, strife andclamor of Christian Europe, with a myriad of resources enthusiasti-cally supported by the government, they remained. Istanbul becameknown as the “the city of scholars and scribes.” Salonica becameknown as “the metropolis of Israel, city of righteousness, loyal town,mother of the Jewish nation like Jerusalem in its time.”

The Ottoman Jewry experienced a temporary decline in the sevente-enth and eighteenth centuries. According to Professor Shaw, it allbegan with the decline at the top of the Ruling Class. The OttomanRuling Class had comprised a mixture of Turks, other Muslims, and

synagogues were exempted. Under these favorable conditions, theJewish population of the Ottoman Empire increased in sharp contrastto that of the Byzantine Empire.

The Ottoman Jewish community comprised four groups. The Jewswho had remained under Ro¬man and then Byzantine rule constitu-ted the Romeniotes or Greigos, who spoke Greek and consideredthemselves the aristocracy of Judaism. The Jews of the eastern pro-vinces constituted the Arabized, who spoke Arabic. The OttomanAshkenazi Jews came from Western, Central and Northern Europe.Constant persecution in Europe had forced the Ashkenazis to live inpoverty and isolation in ghettos, compelling them to seek refuge inand adopt the strict observance of all the old Jewish laws and rituals.Finally, the Jews from Muslim Spain and Portugal constituted theSephardic Jews. Unlike most of the other Jewish groups, the Sepha-rads had been wealthy nobles and businessmen, as well as leadingintellectuals. In their assimilation to Spanish culture, they had gre-atly modified their Jewish practices, but to the disgust of the Ashke-nazis in particular.

Unlike the centralized governmental order that the Greek and Arme-nian millets chose, the Otto¬man Jews implemented a system thatallowed for local autonomy. At the grass roots level, the Otto¬manJewish millet was divided into “kahals,” which were communitiescreated according to national, provincial and sometimes city originsof their constituents and which managed communal activities accor-ding to their individual customs and traditions.

It was to the Jews that Sultan Mehmed II turned primarily to help re-vive trade, industry and com¬merce in his capital. The Jews not onlyoffered the economic and financial skills, which had attracted themto European leaders despite great religious prejudices, but they alsohad an aversion towards Christian Europe. Furthermore, Mehmedplaced the Ottoman Jews in a position where they could dominatethe Ottoman Christians financially and economically, in order to ma-ke sure that the latter would not use their wealth to undermine theEmpire, as they intended to do so.

In contrast from Christian Europe, Jewish physicians in the OttomanEmpire were free to indulge and divulge their research without fearof being accused, tortured and executed for heresy. The Otto¬manJewish physicians developed the sciences of anatomy and surgeryfar beyond what was practiced in Western Europe at the time. Theymade the Ottoman Empire a leader in the medical sciences and he-alth care, providing Ottoman subjects of all religions with a superiorlevel of medical treatment to that provided in Europe.

Ottoman Jews were just as effective in the fields of business, bankingand commerce. First, the Jewish elite influenced one another to bringtheir capital to the Ottoman Empire from Christian Eu¬rope. Forexample the Sultan’s physician, Moshe Hamon, persuaded DonaGarcia Mendes (Benba¬naste) a major European banker, to transferall her wealth from Venice to the Ottoman Empire in 1553. Dona Men-des gained great economic power by creating a consortium of Jewsand Muslims in international trade.

The Ottoman Empire gained profitable and far-reaching enterprisesin trade, commerce, and banking, within and outside the Empire. Je-wish knowledge of European banking methods and the main Europe-


conquered non-Muslim peoples who had been recruited and trainedthrough the Devsirme system. The two major governing groupswhich advised the Sultan were the Turkish aristocracy and the Dev-sirme. Late in Sultan Suleyman’s reign, the Devsirme dominated theOttoman government, over the Turkish aristocracy. Soon the Devsir-me men were assassinating and replacing Sultans as they wished.

It was during this period that the Patriarchs insisted with great agi-tation that they, instead of the Chief Rabbis of Istanbul, should ha-ve precedence in official Ottoman ceremonies. This objective was fi-nally achieved in 1697 as a result of French and English pressure inthe Ottoman court. It was dur¬ing this period that Ottoman Christi-ans commenced the persecution of Jews in the Ottoman Empire.Christian subjects were bitter at the imposition of Muslim rule inlands which had for centuries been Christian. Furthermore, they dis-dained the domination by Jews in finance, industry, and trade. Fi-nally, their animosity was heightened by the knowledge that Jewshad contributed significantly to the Otto¬man conquests and ex-pansion. Ottoman Christian domination in the Sultan court and per-secution of the Ottoman Jews continued through the eighteenthcentury. The only other Ottoman peoples who reg¬ularly practiceddiscrimination and persecution against the Ottoman Jews were theKurdish tribes, who controlled by feudal leaders, regularly ravagedthe southeastern Anatolian settled areas, Muslim, Christian, and Je-wish alike.

The Ottoman Jewry recouped their economic and political losses du-ring the nineteenth and twenti¬eth centuries. The Tanzimat ReformMovement, which was planned by Sultan Mahmud II (1809-1839),and implemented by Abdul Mecid (1839-61) and Abdul Aziz (1961-76), and completed during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid, culmina-ted in social, political and economic liberalism in the Em¬pire betwe-en 1908 and 1912. This meant that starting in 1846, all Ottoman sub-jects gradually became equal, first economically and politically. In-deed, all subjects, Muslims, Jews, Christians alike, became equallyexposed to the forces of the market through the revocation of discri-minatory economic regula¬tions, as well as the forces of war throughthe enactment of uniform compulsory military service. For¬eign at-tacks, domestic insurgencies and nationalist revolts, however, en-ded the liberaliza¬tion process until the end of World War I.

Byzantine persecution had wiped out the Jews of Smyrna. However,the Marrano Sephardic immigration from the Spanish persecutionin the 1600s and the Salonica Jewish immigration from Greek perse-cution in the 1800s turned Izmir into a major Ottoman Jewish com-munity. In 1927, during the Turkish Republic, the Jewish- populationof Izmir was 18,157.

The Jews of the Turkish RepublicDuring the Turkish War of Independence, 1918-23, Greek and Arme-nian community leaders in Istanbul and Paris pressured the Allies toexpel by force the Turks from Istanbul and much of Anato¬lia. TheOttoman Jews, however, remembering very well the persecution oftheir people before the Ot¬toman Empire, and alarmed by the resur-gence of the Christian-based persecution as Ottoman territo¬riescame under the control of independent Christian states, refused tojoin the Greeks and Armenians. Moreover, they actively pressed theAllies to permit the Turks to remain in areas where Turks consti¬tu-ted a majority of the population, i.e., Eastern Thrace and the entire

Anatolian peninsula.

Consequently, Greek soldiers and civilians attacked Jews in WesternAnatolia, while Armenians attacked Jews in eastern Anatolia. The Iz-mir incidents illustrate the atrocities against Jews and Turks. Evenbefore the Treaty of Sevres was ratified, the Greek forces invadedWestern Anatolia in May 1919, slaughtering thousands of Jews andTurks in the subsequent two years, and particularly during the Gre-ek retreat to Izmir, when the Greeks ravaged and burned Bursa andother towns and vil¬lages along the way. Between 1919 and 1923,Izmir’s Jewish population was reduced to half its size. Similarly, theentire Jewish population of Salonica, “the metropolis of Israel,” wasmas¬sacred or displaced by Greeks.

These atrocities caused thousands to seek refuge in Istanbul, withMuslims and Jews arriving from Greece, Bulgaria Thrace, Macedoni-a and Anatolia. Thousands more crossed the Black Sea in flight fromthe Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The refusal ofneighboring states to take refugees inundated the falling Empireand rising Turkish Republic with bedraggled, helpless and starvingpeople.

Jewish patience with the Greek occupation steadily dissipated. In1919, Avram Galante (histori¬an, journalist and educator) and BehorHaim Bejerano (Chief Rabbi of Edirne and the first Chief Rab¬bi ofthe Turkish Republic) rejected the Istanbul government’s acceptan-ce of the Allied dictates. They staged the first popular Turkish pro-test against the brutal Greek occupation of Izmir in May 1919 at theJewish Cemetery of Izmir. Eventually the Jewish community ex-pressly and emphatically support¬ed the Turkish resistance, co-ming to Anatolia to join the Turkish national armies.

The Turkish Independence Movement finally drove out the Allied oc-cupiers. In the subsequent treaty negotiations, Haim Nahum, a Je-wish leader high in the echelons of Ataturk’s resistance move¬mentwent to Paris on behalf of the Turkish nationalists to advise the Tur-kish delegation at the Lausanne Conference. The treaty of Lausannesealed the success of the Turkish War of Independence, su¬perse-ded the Treaty of Sevres, and founded the Turkish Republic.

The Constitution of the Republic established a secular nation state inwhich all citizens would have primary loyalty to the state rather thanto their communities. All privileges based on religion as well as com-munal legal and cultural autonomy ended, in order to create a uni-form legal and social or¬der in which no one could seek immunityfrom societal responsibility by virtue of their religious or ethnic affi-liations. The Treaty of Lausanne, however, had contemplated speci-al, enhanced rights for the religious minorities (Jews and Christians).In order to integrate with the new Turkish Republic and eliminate thediscriminatory nature of the Treaty of Lausanne, on September 15,1915, Chief Haim Bejerano voluntarily renounced the Jewish millet’sspecial legal status and rights deriving from Article 42 of the Treaty.The Armenian and Greek communities soon followed though with re-luctance because their nationals had “lost the war” and because the-ir adverse national expectations had been de¬stroyed.

World War II and the HolocaustOne thousand years of Jewish persecution in Christian Europe cul-


minated in the greatest persecu¬tion of them all, the exterminationof the Jews by Nazi Germany. During this period, the support dy¬na-mic of Turkish-Jewish relations was again emphasized. As the “faith-ful people whose destiny (was) united” with the Turkish people, theJews in the Turkish Republic as well as Jews in Europe who were de-nied asylum by the Allied powers and/or who escaped to Turkishlands directly, came under the sovereign protection of the TurkishRepublic.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany and Austria, Turkey tookin many Jewish refugees. Is¬tanbul’s German community bitterly op-posed the arrival of the Jewish refugees. In response, Nazis stimula-ted some anti-Semitic movements and newspaper articles by extre-me right wing and Islamist Turkish groups.

At about this time, Turkish Jews began to participate actively in Tur-kish politics. Dr. Abravaya Marmarali was elected to the TurkishGrand National Assembly, the first Jewish member of the body. In re-action, the Christians enhanced their anti-Semitic activities. In 1938,when it appeared that the “New Order” might dominate Europe, theArmenian-owned Tokatliyan Hotel openly flew the Nazi flag. The Tur-kish goverment closed the hotel and turned it into an office building.

While domestic anti-Semitism was relatively easy to control, Turkishinternational security was seriously strained. The Nazis had extermi-nated most of the remaining Jewish populations of the former Otto-man Balkan possessions and culminated the persecutions begun inthese countries following their independence from the Ottoman Em-pire. Neutral Turkey, however, rejected Nazi demands to deport theTurkish Jewry for extermination.

Furthermore, against serious German protests that Turkey was notbeing “neutral”. Turkey on in¬ternational humanitarian grounds as-sisted the safe passage into its territory of thousands of Jews fle-e¬ing from Nazi persecution in Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia aswell as western and central Europe. Turkish soldiers in Thrace turnedthe other way as Jewish refugees slipped across the borders of Nazi-occupied Greece and Bulgaria.

Istanbul served as the center of Jewish relief operations in Europe.With the passive approval of the Turkish government, Turkish Jewsmounted rescue operations, providing false passports andtrans¬portation to Turkey of thousands of Jewish refugees from Po-land, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hun¬gary, Romania, and the Uk-raine and Russia. The Turkish government maintained them throughthe war and for those who wished, facilitated their passage to Pales-tine.

The net result, according to Jewish leader Moshe Shertok was that“Istanbul was far more impor¬tant as a base for gathering informati-on and providing refuge for Jews fleeing from the Nazis than were theother neutral centers of Europe, Geneva, Stockholm or Lisbon, sinceonly Istanbul provided direct connections between European Jewryand the Yishuv in Palestine.”

As a result of the emigrations, Turkish Jews in Israel rose from 10,701in 1948 to 41,605 in 1951. Indeed, in 1949 alone, 26,306 Turkish Je-wish refugees emigrated to the new state of Israel. In the 1960s andearly 1970s a second wave of emigration of Turkish Jews to Israel

was catalyzed by the de¬sire to support Israel against the threat po-sed by Arab attacks during and after the Six Day War.

Another catalyst were the Greek attacks on Jews in Istanbul, Izmirand Cyprus as a part of the attacks on Turks which accompaniedGreece’s efforts to annex independent Cyprus following the Britishwithdrawal in the early 1970s.

Today, the Turkish Jewry remains extremely comfortable and strong-ly loyal to the Turkish Repu¬blic. Furthermore, they are extremely re-sentful of outside non-Jewish nationalist groups who, in order to at-tract the support of world Jewry for their national causes, have triedto disturb the Turkish-Jewish relationship for their own purposes byclaiming that Turkish Jews are being persecuted.

Contrary to the images portrayed by the myopic views of some of the-se nationalist groups, the Turkish Jewish population remains contentand stable. Turkish Jewish emigration to Israel has virtual¬ly ended.The few Jewish emigrations to Israel or elsewhere are largely becau-se of considerations of greater economic opportunities for privatecommercial enterprise, not feelings of persecution or preju¬dice inTurkey. Moreover, recently, the King of Spain offered the SephardicJews to return to Spain and resume their Spanish citizenship after afive hundred year exile. Not one Jew in Turkey or else¬where accep-ted.

Those Jews who leave Turkey strongly forward their gratitude for theTurks, as exemplified by Mr. Albert Abraham Amateur, who at theage of 103, continues to educate American folks and lead¬ers aboutthe Ottoman Empire, Turkey and the Turks. Coupling their Turkishheritage with their Se¬phardic spiritual heritage, theses émigrésconstitute a strong community. And sometimes, these émigrés applythe wealth that they gained abroad to the tangible benefit of the pe-ople of Turkey. One such outstanding human was Mr. Morris Shina-si, born in Manisa, Turkey, near the Aegean in 1855. He emigrated tothe United States in 1890 and made a fortune in manufacturing ci-gars. When he died in 1929, he left a substantial amount of moneywhich he willed for the establishment in his name of a public chil-dren’s hospital in his hometown of refuge, Manisa. The “Moris Sina-si Cocuk Hastanesi (Children’s Hospital),” continues to serve thechildren of Manisa today.

Indeed, over the centuries, the nature of Turkish-Jewish relations hastranscended economic and political reciprocity, and deeper appreci-ation and acceptance has evolved in its place.

* This article is a synopsis of a broader paper Evinch wrote in 1992 for the Ankara

University Human Rights Review, while researching the Armenian allegation of genocide

on a Fulbright scholarship from the United States. Evinch relied in significant part on the

work of Ottoman and Turkish historian, Professor Stanford Shaw. This submission is in

memory of Professor Shaw. Evinch is the current President of the Assembly of Turkish

American Associations (ATAA). He is also a Director on the World Affairs Councils of

America National Board. Evinch earned his Juris Doctor from Washington and Lee

University, School of Law, Virginia, in 1991. He also studied EU law at the Complutense,

University of Madrid, Spain. Evinch graduated from the University of California, Davis,

with Bachelors of Arts degrees in Economics and Public Service in 1986.

http://www.ataa.org/media/GE_Paper_Turkish_Jews.pdf�



Rhodes is a small island, just off the Turkish Coast,with a history that is as colorful as the natural beau-

ty of the island. According to famous Jewish historianAbraham Galant, as the 16th century opened, CardinalD'Aubusson of Rhodes initiated forced conversion of theJews to Catholicism and other persecutions. His intend-ed expulsions were rescinded only because he died sud-denly. Soon after, Christian pirates captured more than2000 Jews and forced them to work on fortifications.When the Turks, under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) besieged the island, the Jews sided with theinvader, who was victorious.

Suleiman encouraged exiles from Spain to settle inRhodes and gave them favorable conditions, such asautonomy and religious freedom, housing and cer-tain tax exemptions. Jews outnumbered the Turksand created in Rhodes a major Sephardic center thatabsorbed the earlier Romaniot kehillah and led themto adopt Sephardic customs and Ladino. Thekehillah prospered under the tolerant Ottoman rulefor nearly 400 years, until 1912.

One of the residents of Rhodes, Sol Menashe, wrotethat under Italian rule, which began in 1912,

Marc D. Angel, Rabbiemeritus of

Congregation ShearithIsrael, the historic

Spanish andPortuguese synagogue

in New York City, wasborn in Seattle's

Sephardic community;his ancestors are

Sephardim from Turkeyand Rhodes and he

grew up speakingLadino at home.

MARC ANGEL

A Strong Vo›ce of

the Sephard›c

Commun›ty

A Strong Vo›ce of

the Sephard›c

Commun›ty

Rabbi Marc Angel, Rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel.


Rabbi Solomon Maimon was the first Sephardi to receive semiha atYeshiva University and in the country. He remained the rabbi ofSephardic Bikur Holim (SBH) Congregation for 40 years. After himmore than 30 SBH members followed in his footsteps, going to NewYork to further their Jewish education by attending YeshivaUniversity, a private university in New York City, with six campuses inNew York and one in Israel, founded in 1886, at either its YeshivaCollege (for men) or Stern College (for women). Marc Angel was oneof 30 students. After spending his boyhood in Seattle, Angel movedto New York for his education at Yeshiva University. He received hisB.A., M.S., Ph.D., Th.D. honoris causa and his rabbinal Semicha fromYeshiva University and also has an M.A. in English Literature fromthe City College of New York.

The author and editor of 26 books, also a former President of theRabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Marc D. Angel answeredTURKOFAMERICA’s questions at Congregation Shearith Israel, theSpanish and Portuguese synagogue which he has been serving since1969 in New York City.

Shearith Israel was founded in 1654 by 23 Jews, mostly ofSpanish and Portuguese origin, who had been living in Recife,Brazil. It was the first Jewish congregation to be established inNorth America. Shearith Israel was the only Jewish congregationin New York City from 1654 until 1825. Members of ShearithIsrael played an important role in civic life from the earliesttimes. Three of its members were among the founders of the NewYork Stock Exchange.

Rabbi Angel says the synagogue is one of the most remarkable build-ings in New York City. His son now serves at the synagogue as well.Rabbi Angel also founded the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, inthe autumn of 2007, and he serves as its Director. The Instituteworks to foster an intelligent, compassionate and inclusive JewishOrthodoxy.

He still remembers how his family members entertained themselveswith Turkish songs and he sings the famous song “Katibim” andshowed how they danced to the music. He has visited Turkey onlyonce, almost 30 years ago. He is married to Gilda Angel. They havethree children and six grandchildren. Their son, Hayyim, serves asRabbi of Shearith Israel. �

SOME OF ANGEL’S BOOKS A Sephardic Haggadah: Translation and Commentary (Hoboken, 1988).The Jews of Rhodes, The History of a Sephardic Community (New York, 1978)La America: The Sephardic Experience in the United States (Philadelphia, 1982)The Rhythms of Jewish Living: A Sephardic Approach (New York, 1986)The Orphaned Adult: Confronting the Death of a Parent (1987)Voices in Exile: A Study in Sephardic Intellectual History (1991)The Essential Pele Yoetz: an Encyclopedia of Ethical Jewish living (1991)Loving Truth and Peace: The Grand Religious Worldview of

Rabbi Benzion Uziel (1999)Remnant of Israel: A Portrait of America's First Jewish Congregation (2004)Losing the Rat Race, Winning at Life (2005)Choosing to be Jewish: The Orthodox Road to Conversion (2005)The Search Committee: A Novel (2008)"Conversion to Judaism: Halakha, Hashkafa, and Historic Challenge",

Hakirah, vol. 8 (Brooklyn, 2008)

conditions deteriorated gradually, culminating in the rule ofMussolini, whose siding with Hitler resulted in atrocities and depor-tation of virtually all the Jews from the island to labor and deathcamps in July 23, 1944. From its heyday of 5,000 Sephardim, theJewish population was reduced to just a few souls who remained.1,604 died at the murderous hands of the Nazis and the others emi-grated during the Italian occupation, mainly to Africa, Argentina andAmerica. Many Sephardic families fled to Rhodesia before theisland's approximately 5,000 Jews were deported to Nazi concentra-tion camps. There were 40,000 Jews in Rhodes before World War II.Now, only 35 remain.

Marc D. Angel, Rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, thehistoric Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in New York City, wasborn in Seattle's Sephardic community; his ancestors are Sephardimfrom Turkey and Rhodes and he grew up speaking Ladino at home.

Seattle was home to Turkish Jews in the early 20th century. In June1902, the first Sephardic Jews, Solomo Calvo (d. 1964) and JacobPolicar (d. 1961), arrived in Seattle from Marmara, Turkey. In 1904,Nissim Alhadeff arrived in Seattle from the Isle of Rhodes. More Jewsarrived and joined the community in Seattle. Sephardim fromIstanbul and Rodosto (Tekirda¤) joined those from Rhodes andMarmara.


Barry is the youngest

of five children of an

immigrant family

from Ortakoy,

‹stanbul. When the

family decided to

move away in 1958,

like any immigrant

who desired to come

to the U.S., they

thought that money

lay scattered on the

streets and all they

had to do was just

bend down and

picked it up.

BARRY HABIB

Barry Hab›b: A Gu›de to

Mortgage Markets, a

Producer of Broadway

Shows, a Son of an Istanbul

Fam›ly

Barry Hab›b: A Gu›de to

Mortgage Markets, a

Producer of Broadway

Shows, a Son of an Istanbul

Fam›ly

Barry Habib with his wife Toni Billand


a good kid and honest. After college, I continued to sell stereo equipmentbecause even though I was a 21-year-old boy, I was making 60-70 thou-sand dollars cash in a year. Back then in 1981, it was a lot of money for ayoung kid. Also 12 of my friends were working for me.”

Barry saved a little money and he started to research some opportunityin the real estate market. He went to Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, andthe Bronx to purchase some property but the real estate prices were veryhigh. In contrast to New York, prices in New Jersey were very cheap. Hestarted to invest in property in Middlesex County, New Jersey. He startedto buy homes; he fixed them, sometimes flipped them and sold themagain. He opened up a real estate firm. It did very well because real estateprices suddenly went up.

One day he sat down with a guy working in the mortgage business. Heasked, “How do you guys do in the mortgage business? Do you make alot of money in mortgages?” The guy said, “Definitely yes.” He was ayoung, energetic and confident man and was thinking that, “If I could sellstereos, then mortgage would be much easier.”

Barry began his career as a loan originator in 1986 and owned his ownmortgage company by the early age of 27 in 1989. As he thought, he wasthe top mortgage person for three years in the United States. Heremained one of the top people in New Jersey and the United States formany years. Barry averaged nearly $100 million dollars per year in indi-vidual production and is one of very few originators who have personallyoriginated over $2 billion in individual loan production. After selling hiscompany to Unity Bank in 1999, Barry was highly sought after by every-one from major news networks and large corporations to the independ-ent mortgage professionals from across the country for his financialadvice and proven ability to accurately identify market trends.

THE MORTGAGE MARKET GUIDEHe started to diversify his interests. He learned how to look at charts andhow to predict stock prices. He set up a newsletter and managed it verysuccessfully. The newsletter gave him the skills to produce The MortgageMarket Guide, which he founded in the spring of 2001.

It was just before the 9/11 attacks, but Barry knew that most loan officers,even seasoned professionals, had trouble understanding what truly drivesinterest rates, and often relied on false indicators to guess in which direc-tion the market was headed. In his first year he had only 131 subscribers.

Barry Habib has had a huge influence on my mortgage career. I useMortgage Market Guide every day so I may best advise my clients on

how to best position their mortgage financing. With Barry's help, I havebeen able to grow my business in good markets and bad. For that, I willbe eternally thankful for Barry and the Mortgage Market Guide team.”

These words belong to Brent Sute, Branch Manager at New South FederalSavings Bank, one of the Mortgage Market Guide users who wrote BarryHabib on Linked-in, one of the most popular business-oriented social net-working sites.

Today, Habib helps over 18,000 of America’s top originators monitor mar-ket conditions. Members receive a comprehensive series of daily marketcommentaries designed to help them stay on top of the market. On April1, 2008 Habib was named Chairman of the Board of Mortgage SuccessSource, a leading provider of products and services designed to help loanofficers achieve success and grow their businesses.

He is one of the top executives in the American mortgage industry but thesecrets of his success go back to the streets of Brooklyn. Barry is the youngest of five children of an immigrant family from Ortakoy,‹stanbul.

The family are among the many Sephardic Jews who migrated from ‹stan-bul to the United States in the mid 20th century.

Habib’s ancestors had lived in ‹stanbul for over 400 years, since 1492.When the family decided to move away in 1958, like any immigrant whodesired to come to the U.S., they thought that money lay scattered on thestreets and all they had to do was just bend down and picked it up.Habib’s father was 21 years old when he came to the U.S. He had only sixsuitcases, fresh hopes to start a new life, and a sister in Brooklyn. Sothat’s the way he was able to come to Brooklyn.

Barry’s father was a well-educated man. He was a journalist in ‹stanbul,spoke seven languages, but not English at all. Barry remembers, “He wasproud to be a journalist.”

In fact the first years of migration were very tough. Because of the lan-guage barrier his father could not work in his field and so he sold hot dogsin New York.

In 1960, his mother was pregnant with Barry and abortion was illegal inthe U.S. So what they were going to do with a new child? They were verypoor and Barry’s father was 57 years old. His mother working as a seam-stress, making dresses in a sweat shop.

Under hard condition, having a baby was a little bit crazy but there wasno solution. Barry was born in 1960. The parents and three children hadto live in a tiny, modest, and dark Brooklyn apartment. His father passedaway in 1971. “I was only 11 years old. So I had to grow up fast. My moth-er was wonderful but she was not much making money. She had to sup-port us on a yearly income of $3000,” Barry says.

SELLING STERO He went to Baruch College and studied finance and economy. While hewas studying, his first business experiences started in the streets ofBrooklyn. He began to sell stereo equipment from the back of his car. “I was going to people who I never met before to sell equipment but I was

The opening day of Rock of Ages, the hit Broadway musical.

BARRY HABIB

“When I created the Mortgage Market Guide in 2001, email was not thatcommon. I used to send people text messages, I sent voice messages.Now in five minutes 20,000 people get my message.”

Due to its overwhelming success, many companies started showing aninterest in acquiring The Mortgage Market Guide. After a bidding war,United Communications Group (UCG), the nation’s leading provider of busi-ness information, tools and guidance for two million professionals world-wide, came out the winner, acquiring Mortgage Market Guide in 2006.

In 2008, Habib brought together The Mortgage Market Guide with two ofthe other mortgage industry information providers, LoanToolbox and TheDuncan Group, to form Mortgage Success Source (MSS). As Chairman ofthe Board, Barry is the driving force behind MSS and over 100 peoplework for him.

Barry was born in the U.S. and has not seen his parents’ homeland,Ortakoy, since 1992. He recalls the mix of languages at home. “Like English,Spanish, and Turkish, I was hearing a lot of languages as a kid at home.”

His uncle Morris taught him some nasty Turkish words. “My uncle Morrisused to come to us and he used to curse. He made me repeat the word“pezevenk” (pimp in Turkish). When I asked him what pezevenk meant,he used to say pezevenk means a very good person. We had some funwith the language barrier.”

He instantly recalls dolma, a family of stuffed vegetable dishes, when heis asked what kind of Turkish food was prepared at home. ClassicalTurkish music used to be listened to in their home when he was a childbut now Barry likes Tarkan, a World Music award winning German-bornTurkish pop singer, and listens to one of his best known songs, ÖlürümSana (I’ll die for you).

Barry’s big brother Norman remembers many more things than whatBarry recalls. Norman was born in Ortakoy, ‹stanbul. He was only 12 yearsold when he left ‹stanbul. After 35 years he visited ‹stanbul again for the first time, in 2000. “Wespent a week there. I remembered a lot. I was even able to chat with thecab driver. I also was able to bargain in the Grand Bazaar,” says Norman.

Barry has a photograph from Ortakoy on his office wall. Norman showsthe picture and says when he was a child, he used to swim in theBosporus, ‹stanbul’s Strait that forms the boundary between theEuropean part of Turkey and the Asian part. He remembers one particu-lar year that the Bosporus froze over (February 24, 1954) and his fathertook him and they walked across the icy ‹stanbul Strait. Norman works with brother Barry and he is very proud of his brother. “Ican’t be objective because he is my brother. He is incredibly successful,but he never ever forgets his roots,” Norman adds.

PRODUCER OF BROADWAY MUSICAL ROCK OF AGES Barry is very active in his newest endeavor, the entertainment industry.He has an acting role and executive producer credit in four films all set forrelease in 2009. The movies Barry acted in are Sympathy for Delicious,Barry Munday, Nic & Tristan and Lonely Street.

Barry is also a general partner and lead producer of the hit BroadwayMusical Rock of Ages. With five 2009 Tony Award nominations, includingBest Musical and Best Performance by a Lead Actor, Rock of Ages start-ed in 2008 off Broadway and transferred to Broadway in April. Barrybecame involved in the musical industry because of his wife Toni’s inspi-ration. “She fell in love with Rock of Ages. She got me interested in musicand we decided to produce it,” Barry says. He crosses his finger for theshow’s success. �


Barry with his brother Norman in his office.


After arriving in Istanbul, Sephardic Jews wouldmove out to their permanent homes, which the

various communal organizations found for them,settling in the different districts of Constantinoplesuch as Ortakoy and Kuzguncuk, as well as Haskoyand Balat.

Rabbi Capsali became the official representative ofthe Jewish people and had a seat in the Divan (Impe-rial Council). Rabbi Moshe Capsali's rank was higherthan that of the Christian patriarch, being next to thechief spiritual leader of the Muslims.

He was born in Candia on the Island of Crete (Girit) in1420. Not much is known about Rabbi Moshe Capsa-li's earlier life, except that he came from a prominentJewish family, and that he studied the Torah in seve-ral important Yeshiva in Germany and other places.When he came to Constantinople, the communitywas small and poor. He was appointed a Dayyan(member of the Jewish Beth-Din, or Court). But, aswe have seen above, after the city was conquered bythe Turks, he became the Chief Rabbi, and his greatgifts of leadership made him famous. Rabbi MosheCapsali used his high office wisely, and he did muchto help the growth of the Jewish communities in theTurkish empire. He appointed qualified rabbis andcommunal leaders, and personally supervised all theaffairs of the Jewish communities. He was also res-ponsible for the taxes which the Jews had to pay tothe Sultan. This was an important source of revenuefor the Sultan; as the Jews had done well in develo-ping the industry and commerce of the country.Despite his high. position, Rabbi Moshe Capsali wasalways very humble, and he lived very simply andmodestly. He spent much time in fasting and pra-ying, and it was small wonder that he was loved andrespected by all who knew him.Towards the last years of his life, the great tragedy ofthe expulsion of the Jews from Spain took place (in1492). Rabbi Moshe Capsali, his advanced age not-withstanding, threw himself body and soul into agreat effort to help the victims. He personally trave-led to various Jewish communities in his country tocollect funds for Pidyon Shvuim, to redeem the Je-wish refugees from Spain who had been captured bypirates and threatened with slavery. He also impo-sed a special tax, by the authority granted him by theSultan, on Jewish communities in the Turkish empi-re, for the purpose of helping the Jewish refugeesfrom Spain. Many of them were brought to Constan-tinople and welcomed with open arms by their morefortunate brethren.

Rabbi Moshe Capsali, at the age of 75, died three ye-ars after these first refugees arrived in Istanbul, andafter his death, the work was continued by his suc-cessor as Haham Bashi, who was Rabbi Eliyahu Miz-rahi. In 1497, when the kingdom of Portugal also ex-pelled all of the Jews, it fell on Rabbi Mizrahi to ma-ke these converted or Portuguese refugees welcomeand comfortable.�(Source: By Nissan Mindel, Kehot Publication Society)

F›rst Ch›ef Rabb› ›n Istanbul:

Rabb› Moshe Capsal›

CHIEF RABBIS OF TURKEY

CHIEF RABBIS OF ISTANBUL (1453 – 1835) *Mofle Kapsali 1453 1496

Eliyau Mizrahi 1496 1526

Tam ben Yahya ? 1542

Eli Benjamen Ha-Levi ? ?

Menahem Behar Samuel ? ?

Eli Ben Haim 1575 1602

Yahiel Bassan ? 1625

Yasef Mitrani ? 1639

Yomtov Ben Yaefl 1639 1660

Yomtov Ben Hananya ben Yakar 1660 1677

Haim Kamhi ? 1730

Yuda Ben Rey ? ?

Samuel Levi 1727 ?

Abraham ben Haim Rosanes ? 1743

Salamon Haim Alfandari 1757? ?

Meir ‹shaki ? ?

Eliyau Palombo 1762 ?

Haim Yaakov Ben Yakar ? ?

Source: Compiled and prepared by Naim A. Güleryüz

CHIEF RABBIS OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE (AFTER ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICIAL OTTOMAN CHIEF RABBI POSITION)

Abraham Levi 1835 1836

Samuel Haim 1837 1839

Mofle Fresko 1839 1841

Yaakov Behar David 1841 1854

Haim Ha-Kohen 1854 1860

Yaakov Avigdor 1860 1863

Yakir Geron (1) 1863 1872

Mofle Levi (1) 1872 1908

Haim Nahum Efendi 1908 1920

Sabetay Levi (2) May 1910 and September 1912

‹sak Ariel (2) November 1918 and September 1919

(1) Kaimakam of Chief Rabbi (Locum Tenens)

(2) Interim position

REPUBLIC OF TURKEYHaim Mofle Becerano (3) 1920 1931

Haim ‹sak fiaki (4) 1931 1940

Rafael David Saban (4) 1940 1952

Rafael David Saban (5) 1952 1960

David Asseo (6) 1961 2002

‹shak Haleva (7) 2002 Present

(3) Kaimakam of Chief Rabbi (Locum Tenens)

(4) As president of Bet Din

(5) First Chief Rabbi of Turkish Republic

(6) Second Chief Rabbi of Turkish Republic

(7) Third Chief Rabbi of Turkish Republic

Source: Compiled and prepared by Naim A. Güleryüz

In 1453, when the

Turkish Sultan

Mehmed II conquered

Istanbul from the

Byzantine Empire, he

selected Rabbi Moshe

to guide the affairs of

all the Jews living in

the vast Ottoman

Empire, most of

whom were Greek-

speaking Jews known

as Romaniotes. This

was thirty-nine years

prior to the

Sephardim’s arrival in

Turkey after the

Spanish Expulsion of

1492.


Some call them the Turkish Oskar Schindlers for whatthey did to rescue Jews of Turkish origin. Necdet Kent

was consul general in Marseilles, France, between 1941and 1944, Selahattin Ülkümen was a consul in Rhodesduring the Second World War, and Nam›k Yolga was theVice-Consul at the Turkish Embassy in Paris, France.

Turkish diplomats are estimated to have saved 10,000Turkish Jews by insisting the Germans respect their Tur-kish nationality. Another 10,000 Jews from Romania andHungary may also have found refuge in Turkey duringthat time.

Desperate Hours, filmed in five countries -- Israel, Tur-key, Italy, Austria and the United States -- tells the littleknown story of Turkey’s rescue of thousands of Jews fa-cing certain death during the Holocaust.

All three diplomats have died since being captured onfilm. Desperate Hours reveals these stories of Muslims,Christians and Jews co-operating in saving lives duringthe Holocaust. Producer, director, writer and actor Victo-ria Barrett talked to TURKOFAMERICA about her currentprojects Journey of Faith and her well-known documen-tary Desperate Hours.

What can you tell us about yourself?I have 20 years experience in the entertainment industryas a producer, director, writer and actor, and I am presi-dent of Shenandoah Films. My most recent production isJourney of Faith which I produced, co-wrote and hosted.

What is it about? This documentary traces the history of Christianity in the

Republic of Turkey. Called Asia Minor in Biblical times,Turkey is second only to Israel in Biblical sites, and is atreasure-trove of early Christian history. Journey of Faithwas shot in Super 16mm in 15 locations throughout Tur-key. Stunning locales include Mt. Ararat, the Aegean andMediterranean coasts, Ephesus and Istanbul. The Bro-adcast Premiere of Journey of Faith was on West Virgini-a PBS in December 2008, with national distribution ex-pected in 2009.

You also directed and producedd the award-winning do-cumentary film, Desperate Hours, which has aired natio-nally on PBS stationss throughout the United States. Co-uld you tell us about the documentary? This production, filmed in five countries, tells the littleknown story of Turkey’s rescue of thousands of Jews fa-cing certain death during the Holocaust. Turkish diplo-mats put their lives at risk to save Jews being shipped toconcentration camps, and as Germany began excludingJews from university and professional positions, Turkeywelcomed them. The film also explores how ArchbishopAngelo Roncalli, Apostolic Delegate in Istanbul duringthe war, who later became Pope John XXIII, worked withfuture leaders of Israel in rescues. Pope John XXII-I convened the Second Vatican Council, which issuedNostra Aetate. Desperate Hours reveals these stories ofMuslims, Christians and Jews co-operating in saving li-ves during the Holocaust.

Which awards did you wiin with Desperate Hours? Desperate Hours premiered at the U.S. Holocaust Me-morial Museum in Washington D.C and was the GrandJury Winner and Audience Award Winner at the DC Inde-pendent Film Festival in 2003. I was also recognized for

Turkish diplomats are

estimated to have

saved 10,000 Turkish

Jews by insisting the

Germans respect

their Turkish

nationality. Another

10,000 Jews from

Romania and

Hungary may also

have found refuge in

Turkey

during that time.

The Turk›sh Oscar Sch›ndlers

DESPERATE HOURS

Ali Ç›nar [email protected]


You also conducted interviews with Jews who were rescued by Turkishdiplomats? What was your first rreaction when you first listened to theirstories?I was saddened by the horrible things done to the Jews, but hopeful forhumanity by the actions of the diplomats and others involved in rescue.

Did Coca Cola CEO Muhtar Kent contact you? You had an interview withhis father Diplomat Necdet Kent.Yes, I’ve spoken with Muhtar several times. I spoke with him right afterhis father died, marveling at what an amazing life the Ambassador hadled and that it was my honor to have met him and told some of it.

What did you want people to take away from youur documentary?Hope but to never forget the past.

What kind of feedback did you receive from Jews and Jewish-American or-ganizations??They have been very kind to me and in their praise of the film. Many didnot know about this particular chapter of history in the Holocaust.

Do you think you received a satisfactory response in Turkish, Israeli &American media on your doocumentary?I was very happy to have Desperate Hours air nationally on PBS. It is stillplaying. However, I would have liked more news coverage of the film.

Where do you see the Turkish and Israeli relationship in 2009?The relationship between the Turks and the Jews is a very old one. In anylong relationship there are ups and downs. I hope that 2009 brings “ups”.

Are you planning or woorking on a project?Projects in development include a full-length documentary on the Penta-gon and 9-11, a story that has largely been overshadowed by media atten-tion on other tragedies of that day, and “The Guilt of the Innocent” a do-cumentary on Pope John XXIII and his rescue of Jews during the Holoca-ust as well as his transformation of Catholic teachings towards Jews.

Any final words?Making this documentary, the many screenings around the world that fol-lowed and the wonderful people I have met have greatly affected my life.I hope it has made me a little better person.

Thank you so much, Victoria Barrett. �

Creative Excellence as Director of Desperate Hours at the InternationalFilm and Video Festival in CA. B’nai Birth Canada honored me with TheGlobal Excellence in the Arts Award in 2004. Desperate Hours has alsobeen broadcast in Europe and the Middle East, including Israel ChannelOne and CNN-Turk. The film has had many festival screenings as well asspecial screenings internationally.

Could you tell us about your current projects? As far as I know, you hadstarring roles in some films as well. Projects in development include a full-length documentary on the Penta-gon and 9-11, a story that has largely been overshadowed by media atten-tion on other tragedies of that day, and “The Guilt of the Innocent” a do-cumentary on Pope John XXIII and his rescue of Jews during the Holoca-ust as well as his transformation of Catholic teachings towards Jews. For the U.S. Agency for International Development, I produced and direc-ted an educational series about the role of religion in developing countri-es and how it impacts US foreign assistance programs, especially in conf-lict areas. As an actor, my films include starring roles in Russian Roulette,Three Kinds of Heat, America 2000 and Over the Brooklyn Bridge. I was aguest star on the hit television program Cheers.

Can you tell us how you came about wanting to shoot the Desperate Ho-urs documentary? I heard about the stories of the Turkish diplomats involved in rescues. Irealized that this was a little known chapter of the Holocaust, and giventhe age of those involved, that the story needed to be documented – andsoon.

What made you want to do tthis, and what was going through your mindthe first day you picked up the camera?I was inspired and humbled by the actions of those that I had now rese-arched. On the first day, I was hoping to truly capture these remarkableindividuals telling their own stories and preserve it for history.

What is your ownn movie background and how does this tie into the sub-ject of your documentary?As an actress I had filmed in Israel, living there for months. I had been li-ving in Turkey for several years when I started Desperate Hours, so I feltconnected to both countries.

How many people diid you chronicle?I interviewed about 50 people.

Can you define Desperate Hours in one sentence? Desperate Hours tells the little known story from World War II of Turkeyand the Holocaust - a rare moment when Muslims, Jews and Christians allwork together to save lives. The story is told by the people that lived it ininterviews filmed in five countries. They tell their stories of bravery, res-cue and hope during some of the darkest hours of human existence. Fromthis time come future world figures - from Pope John XXII-I to leaders of Israel and Turkey.

What was the most unforgettablee shot on your documentary? Why?I don’t think there is just one shot. However, the section on AmbassadorKent always gets a strong reaction from audiences. At the end, after thisremarkable story is told by Ambassador Kent and Dr. Mordeca-i Paldiel, Head of the Department of Righteous of the Nations of the Earthat Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, the audience is usually emotional. Ambassa-dor Kent modestly says: Anyhow, I got all the Turks out. That’s about all.


The Jewish presence in Asia Minor predates the OttomanEmpire (the presence of Jews in Asia Minor as early as

the 4th c. BC is known). However, the story of the OttomanJews really starts around the 15th century. Unlike other sta-tes the Ottoman Empire welcomed the Sephardic Jews in-to their lands and a lot of Jewish people settled in the co-untries that are now Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and others. Tothis day as their native language Sephardic Jews speak La-dino, a Romance language containing elements of Medie-val Spanish, Hebrew, and languages such as Turkish, Gre-ek, and Arabic, depending on where they lived.Ladino also happens to be the language which the sec-ular music of the Sephardic Jews used. Some of thisrepertoire has its roots in urban music from pre-15th c.Spain. However, a good deal of it was part of a larger

shared urban folk music tradition from the Near and theMiddle East; therefore these songs often had their coun-terparts in Turkish, Greek and Arabic. To this day some of these urban folk songs are perfor-med and loved by the people who live in these countri-es. One can easily give songs such as Kante katife (Kadi-feden kesesi) as well-known examples of the shared re-pertoire. On the other hand, as stated before, somesongs recorded by famous Ottoman Jewish artists (du-ring the early 20th c.) were considered to have roots inMedieval Spain (romansa is the word that is used to de-fine this repertoire). Even though these pieces weren’t apart of a larger shared repertoire, most of them stillemployed the unmistakable sound of the Middle East. Agood example for this repertoire is the wonderful La ro-sa enfloresse recorded by Haim Efendi around 1907.

Aside from their influence in the urban folk music tradi-tions, a number of Ottoman Jews became famous andvery influential in classical Ottoman music. We can eas-ily mention Musi (Haham Mofle Faro), Tanburi ‹sak,M›s›rl› ‹brahim Efendi (Avram Abut) and ‹zak Algazi assome of the more notable names. One of the first Ottoman Jewish musicians we know is Mu-si (d. 1776). His instrumental Ottoman classical musiccompositions are still performed and respected greatly.However, unquestionably the most respected Ottoman Je-wish musician of all times is Tanburi ‹sak (18th cc.). Whencompared to his contemporaries quite a large number ofhis instrumental and vocal music compositions survive tothis day, and he is considered one of the most influentialOttoman classical composers of all time. He is also respec-ted as one of the creators of the stylistic performance aest-hetics of the classical tanbur (long necked lute). More recent Ottoman Jewish musicians such as M›s›rl›‹brahim Efendi (1872-1933) became famous as the com-poser of classical Ottoman vocal songs. It is most likelythat he came from Egypt to Istanbul where the ud (shortnecked lute) was a popular instrument. He is regardedas one of the ud players that helped this instrumentbecome famous in Turkey once again after over threehundred years of disappearance (the ud was a popularinstrument in Ottoman classical music until the mid 17thc.; however, later it was replaced by the tanbur). Finallyone has to mention the legendary singer ‹zak Algazi(1889-1950) whose recordings from the early 20th c.demonstrate the incredible vocal range and mastery ofclassical Ottoman music he had. Other important musical contributions of the Ottoman

A number of OttomanJews became famousand very influential in

classical Ottomanmusic. We can easily

mention Musi (HahamMofle Faro), Tanburi‹sak, M›s›rl› ‹brahim

Efendi (Avram Abut)and ‹zak Algazi as some

of the more notablenames.

The Ottoman Jews:The›r Mus›cal Trad›t›ons,

Influences and Contr›but›ons

SEPHARDIC JEWS IN CLASSICAL OTTOMAN MUSIC

By Dr. Mehmet Ali SANLIKOL*

‹sak Algazi with his hazzan clothes.(Courtesy of the QuincentennialFoundation Museum of Turkish Jews)


cially instrumental Ottoman classical music that was composed by theMevlevis (commonly known as “whirling dervishes” in the West). Sincethe synagogue wouldn’t allow instruments, the maftirim choir traditionwould simply take classic Mevlevi instrumental music (such as Segahpeflrev by Neyzen Yusuf Pafla, 1820-1884) and use it to set vocal pieceswith Hebrew texts. The close relationships between Jewish and Muslim mystics were morevisible in the Mevlevi and Bektafli Sufi orders particularly. It was commonto find Mevlevi and Bektafli tekkes (dervish lodges) built next to syna-gogues in the Ottoman Empire. And musically, as it was discussed above,the maftirim choir tradition displays clear influences of the Mevlevidervishes. Bektafli dervishes, however, had a more intricate relationshipwith Jews. The Sufi order that represented a heterodox form of Islam withstrong Shiite tendencies in the Ottoman society was the Bektafli order,which was incredibly influential and popular. Bektafli traditions put spe-cial emphasis on numerology, which brings them close to Kabbalah(Jewish mysticism which gives special meanings to letters and the num-bers that are associated with them). It is very common to find nefes—asong type characteristic of Bektafli Sufism—to have poetry which displaythese shared characteristics. However, unlike Mevlevi music it’s harder tofind clear traces of Jews in the music of the Bektafli.

* Mehmet Ali Sanl›kol, Emerson College, Professor DÜNYA, President, www.dunyainc.org�

Jews are found in sacred music traditions, one of which is entitled maftir-im. This choir tradition of the 16th to 20th centuries, in which Hebrew poet-ry was sung to the melodies of secular Ottoman court music and Sufi devo-tional music, follows the tradition of the famous Rabbi and mystic IsraelNajara (1555-1625), the legendary founder of the maftirim. In this traditionit’s common to find piyutim (Hebrew liturgical poems) by famous Jewishmystics like Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra (1092-1167), set to the melodies ofwell-known Turkish Sufi songs (such as the ones commonly associatedwith the words of the 13th century Muslim mystic, Yunus Emre), and espe-

For the past 10 years, on the first Sunday of September, from Germanyto Portugal, from France to Russia, from England to Spain with 30 differ-

ent European countries participating, the European Day of Jewish Culturehas been held. The purpose of the organization running, which comes upwith a different theme each year, is to share the cultural and historical her-itage of the Jews with the rest of the people in these countries. The European Day of Jewish Culture has been held for eight years in ‹stan-bul. The events for that day, Sept. 6, took place in ‹stanbul’s Galata dis-trict and aimed to help the public at large discover the cultural and histor-ical heritage of Judaism. The events in ‹stanbul included exhibitions, concerts and panels. Thehighlight was the symbolic circumcision ceremony, along with the iftar, orRamadan dinner, that took place at Beyo¤lu’s Municipality Building. Asthe European Day of Jewish Culture has coincided with Ramadan thisyear, the iftar was held as a symbol of unity between cultures.�

European Day of Jew›sh Culture ›n Istanbul

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TURKISH JEWS turkyahudileri.com – The site has all you’d want to know Turkish Jews. Thesite was designed by Beyoglu Musevi Hahamhanesi Vakfi. musevicemaati.com – The official web site of the Chief Rabbinate of TurkishJews. All information about cemeteries, synagogues, holidays, eating kosherin ‹stanbul, and obituaries. muze500.com – The official web site of first Turkish Jewish museum. orahayim.com – The oldest Jewish hospital in ‹stanbul, which was founded in1896 as a small home clinic with the contributions of idealist physicians andphilanthropists, with the mandate of Sultan Abdulhamid II. salom.com.tr – The only Jewish weekly newspaper published in Turkey. Itsname is the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew word Shalom. It was establishedon 17 Jan. 1947. nevesalom.org – The official web site of Neve Shalom Synagogue Foundation.Neve Shalom is the central and largest Sephardic synagogue in ‹stanbul. yahudikulturuavrupagunu.com – The official web site of the annual EuropeanDay of Jewish Culture in ‹stanbul.

M›s›rl› ‹brahim Efendi, second row sixth from left, sitting with his ud (short necked lute). (Courtesy of the Quincentennial Foundation Museum ofTurkish Jews)


For 300 years following the expulsion, the prosper-ity and creativity of the Ottoman Jews rivaled that

of the Golden Age of Spain. After 1492 and theedict of Alhambra which forced Jews to choosebetween leaving Spain or converting to Christianity,the Ottoman Empire – especially cities like Istanbulor Salonika – became one of the main place ofrefuges for these Iberian Jews but also for Jews fromCentral Europe who fled anti-Jewish politics. At theother chronological extremity, during the SecondWorld War, Turkey would greet an important numberof Jewish people who fled Western Europe. So, thereis a particular link between the history of theOttoman Empire and then the Turkish Republic andthe history of the Jewish Diaspora.

The Jews, lived under the rule of Christianity forthree centuries, began to break up after the peninsu-la was removed from Islamic Rule, which had con-quered and dominated it for three and half centuries.After 1095 the Jews were begging fearfully for pro-tection as the German Jews suffered from oppres-sion, converting to Christianity and being killed. TheJews were massacred by the Crusaders in Germanyand Hungary. The first comers from Europe were theAshkenazi who came from France (1394 Exile),Hungary (1376), and Sicily and Italy. The biggestJewish immigration to the Ottoman Empire was theSephardim exiled from Spain in 15th Century.

THE KINGDOM OF POLAND AND OTTOMAN EMPIREThe Jews were living in the land of two big countriesin the 16th and 17th centuries: The Kingdom ofPoland and the Ottoman Empire. Additionally therewere three Jewish groups, namely, the Jewish com-munity speaking Farsi in Iran, the Jews speakingArabic in lands from Iraq to Morocco and old Jewishcommunities from the Byzantine Period speakingTurkish or Greek. But they were eclipsed by the oldJewish communities established by migrations. Inthe beginning of Ottoman conquests they were theItalian Jews under the Italian Merchant Unions andthose settled in the Balkans. The Jewish minority inSalonika had existed there before those who migrat-ed from Spain.

A letter – original

held at National

Library in Paris -

sent by Rabbi Yitzhak

Sarfati who migrated

to Turkey in the first

part of 15th century

to Jewish

communities in

Germany and

Hungary inviting his

co-religionists to

leave the torments

they were enduring in

Christendom and to

seek safety and

prosperity in Turkey.

His few words in his

letter tell us a lot.

Ottoman Jews ›n the

Context of Geograph›cal

D›str›but›on,

Populat›on & Hous›ng

OTTOMAN JEWS

By Assistant Prof. Göknur Akçada¤*


Government). He was appointed as the Naksos Duke by the OttomanSultan. Alvaro Mendes was appointed as the Midilli Duke.

The Jews chose an Islamic country on purpose. Defecting toChristianity in any Christian country and converting again to Judaismmeant to be sentenced to death. But according to Islamic law, peo-ple have a right to choose their religion and convert. In 1555-56 agroup of Jews in Ancona subject to the Pontificate were accused of“being marrano” and stood trial. Finally those who quitted Judaismwere sentenced to hard labor for life. 24 men and 1 woman werestrangled to death by the authorities. Though the Ottoman Sultancarried out an intensive diplomatic attempt he could not secure theirfreedom.

JEWS FROM ISTANBUL TO DIYARBAKIR, BUDAPEST TO JERUSALEMThe Jews in Istanbul lived in and around Yeni Mosque, Balat, Hasköy,Ortaköy and Kuzguncuk. There was a Jewish cemetery in E¤rikap›.The number of the Jewish families was 1647 in 1477. The number offamilies in total in Istanbul was 16,324. According to Joseph Hutter, there were 5000 Christians and about1000 Jews out of 25 thousand in the mid 19th century in Vidin, whichis situated to the right of the River Danube. There were about 500Jews in Shumen, a Balkan city. Philllip Kom in his memoirs mentionsthat the Christians and Jews had their own temples and schools inVidin and Shumen.

Famous Turkish historian Kemal Karpat says in his book, OttomanPopulation 1830-1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics, thatthere was a “Yahudiyan” (Jews) District in Diyarbakir, is the largestcity in southeastern Turkey, according to the eighteenth and nine-teenth century registers. There were also co-districts where theylived together with the Muslims. There were about 80 families in1804. Their number decreased as they migrated to the cities such asIstanbul, Baghdad and Aleppo. Their number was reported to be 1170in the second half of the nineteenth century. Buckingam, who visit-ed Diyarbakir, writes that there were just a few Jews in 1815 and theymigrated to other cities. According to the findings of P. Dumont therewere 7000 Jews in Silivri during the years of the SecondConstitutionalist Period (II. Meflrutiyet). B.Lewis gives some important information related to the existence ofSephardic Jews in Budapest. He states that the Hebrew inscriptionshe saw in the Buda Castle were in the writing style of the OttomanSephardic Jews. The Ottoman archives belonging to that periodprove that the Ottoman Empire settled some Jews from its land afterit conquered some parts of Hungary in the early 16th century. It tookits Jewish subject back when it left this area in 1686. There are someSultan firmans (decrees) concerning protection and settlement ofJews in new places in the Ottoman lands.

There are some documents suggesting the existence of Jews in Bursabefore the Turkish conquest. Orhan Gazi brought his people from theneighboring countries to develop Bursa. The Jews, who disliked theByzantine rule, settled in Bursa and constructed a synagogue by thepermission of the Sultan. Therefore a Jewish district in Bursaappeared.

Evliya Çelebi writes in his travel book that there were 6 Jewish quartersin the Alt›parmak District. The Jewish population and the number ofdistricts increased in Bursa after Bayezid II and Kanuni Süleyman

The Jews had been living in Anatolia and Rumelia, the southernBalkan regions of the Ottoman Empire, since the Roman Empire. Butthanks to the encouragement of freedom granted by Mehmet II tothe non-Muslim subjects, Jews from Western Europe and Austriacame to the Ottoman land, too. As is seen, the Jewish migration tothe Ottoman Empire did not start in 1492. The origins of those whomigrated were not only Spain. Most of the Jews who came were fromSpain, though some migrated from Italy and Central Europe, whichwere under the rule of Spain. The Sephardim Ottoman Jews migrat-ed from Spain, and the Mediterranean was the community thatspread over the largest area geographically in the Ottoman land.They were in Arabian provinces, Maghreb, Egypt, Tripoli, Yemen,Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine as well as Mesopotamia, SoutheasternAnatolia, Central Anatolia and almost in all city centers in WesternAnatolia. They were living in Izmir as a big community. It was evenpossible to see the Jewish communities in the Balkans, Edirne,Salonika, Gallipoli, Bosnia, Southern Bulgaria and Macedonia.

“IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPARE THE CONDITIONS” The Ashkenazi Jewish communities drew attention everywhere whenthey migrated from Eastern Europe and Russia. The crowded com-munity coming from Spain spoke different languages in differentareas in addition to Judeo-Espagnol (Ladino) language. There wereItalian Jewish communities having separate synagogues in the bigport cities such as Istanbul, Izmir and Salonika. They had syna-gogues in Yaz›c› Street in Istanbul and Zülfam Street in Karaköy. Aseparate cemetery was appropriated for the Italian Jews in fiiflli.

For example the number of Jews living in Balat in 1477 was about7200 according to the census carried out after the conquest ofIstanbul. F. Babinger states that it is impossible to compare the con-ditions of Ottoman Jews with the Jews living in the West in everyrespect.

What the Jewish suffered caused them to act with solidarity withthe Turks. There was an example witnessed in 1480 during theSiege of Rhodes. According to Johannes Adelpus, while the siegewas going on and extending in difficulty, the Ottoman Army band-ed their troops in the Jewish quarters and started to act. TheOttoman troops organized their siege and fights according to thelocations of Jews. The Jews, who dreaded the religious oppressionsand persecutions, wished the Ottomans to conquer Rhodes but thisdid not come true. Therefore the Jews continued to live there underthe same difficulties.

When the decree was enacted regarding the deportation of the Jewsin Castilia and Aragon, this affected approximately 200 thousandJews, about 50 thousand of them baptized. First 100 thousand ofthem took refuge in Portugal. About the 50 thousand migrated fromAlmeria to Northern Africa and later found another way to Italy andthe Ottoman Empire from Valencia and Barcelona. 50 years laternuevos cristianos- Marranos-Conversos, that is those who convert-ed, migrated from Portugal. Most of them went to the Ottoman land.Among the cities they went to, Salonika especially became a centerof attraction and there was a Portuguese colony in the late 16th cen-tury. Eva Groepler wrote her book, Jews in Islam and Ottoman World,among the Marranos migrated two important figures who gainedpolitical power: Yosef Nasi, who converted again to Judaism inIstanbul, became one of the leading diplomats of Bab-› Ali (Ottoman

OTTOMAN JEWS

accepted the Jewish people in the Ottoman lands. For example, in onedistrict there weren’t any Jews 1487; this number increased to 117 in1521 and 308 in 1573. It was also possible to determine in which citythey had lived before they arrived in another city.

For example according to a Tahrir Book register dated 1573 theKuruçeflme Jews (Baber-G›ruz communities) stayed in Bal›kesirbefore coming to Bursa. They came to Bursa at least 20 years beforethis date. The Jews had an important place in the ethnical and reli-gious structure of Bursa and did business extensively with IstanbulJews. There was a document proving cultural interaction and sharingbetween the Muslims and Jews. This document tells that Muslimsstopped working and participated in a Jewish Holiday in 6-7 Maycalled Shavuot (Gül Donanmas› Holiday) symbolizing the returningof Moses from Mount Sinai (Though this document is about a theftwhich occurred as there was no one at home since they were cele-brating).

Gaza, Safed and Jerusalem became some cities where the Jews set-tled after these cities were included in the Ottoman lands. This wasone of the reasons affecting the growing of the cities. The Ottomanapproach to the Jews and Christian communities in Jerusalem wasnot different from that of their approach to Muslims. Therefore thathelped them integrate into the Ottoman Empire. One of the evidenceof that is that they applied to the Ottoman Kadi in their judicial mat-ters and asked a verdict according to the Ottoman laws though it wasnot obligatory to do so.

MIGRATIONS AND POPULATIONS OF JEWS AS OTTOMAN SUBJECTSThe Jewish community, when considered generally, became a socie-ty living in scattered parts of the Ottoman Empire in different lan-guage and cultural environments and mainly an urbanized one. So itdid not interact much with European Judaism. An important issue tobe addressed is that the Jews were the community which sufferedfrom the land loss of the Ottoman Empire together with the Muslimsand became émigrés. Historical records show that the Jews, who didnot please the Christian rulers, had the same troubles as the Muslimpeople did when the Ottomans lost their land. For example duringthe Crimean War it was thought that they supported the Ottomantroops together with the local Muslim people. Therefore theCrimean Jews had to migrate together with the Muslims. In a docu-ment dated 15 November 1856 it reads “Upon a petition submittedto the Sultan by the people, who were from Crimea and Jewish andmigrated to the Dersaated, they were settled in Rumelia and properplaces there as they are from Crimea…” In other documents thereare some provisions for these émigrés to be granted land to estab-lish a life and tax exemption if they take Ottoman citizenship. Thesekinds of migrations later continued. The Jews together with theMuslims migrated from Rumelia after the 1877-78 Ottoman-Russiaand 1912 Balkan War.

Though the the separation movements started among the communi-ties breeding hostility against each other in the Ottoman Empire inthe 18th century none of them could establish a majority to found astate in a specific region. During these separation movements theMuslims and Jews were on the one side while the OrthodoxChristians were on the opposite side. The Ottomans retreat from theBalkans starting in 1877 caused many people to emigrate until 1914.The Jews preferred to live under Ottoman rule as there was a risk of

discrimination by the Orthodox Christians against them. TheOttoman state settled them in Anatolia, bearing their transportationcosts. Several Jews were killed in Nifl by the Serbians in 1878. TheBulgarians, armed by the Russians, killed Turks and Jews. They werefree to migrate to the Ottoman land or Palestine. This explains theexistence of Jews in Palestine after 1914.

According to Kemal Karpat’s findings the Southeastern EuropeRegion harbored the 25.27% of all the Ottoman Jews. 21.63% settledin Anatolia, 14.61% in Istanbul, 23.88 in Iraq and Palestine as well asabout 14.61% in Syria.

An important finding of Karpat must be recalled here: Both Jews andMuslims invented their national identity brands, which would unitetheir migrated people in their motherland, as a reaction to thenationalism mixed with the ethnicized Orthodox belief ofSoutheastern Europe, dominated by Poland and Russia. Ben Gurionand Itzak Ben Zvi, the real ideologists and nation builders of Jewishnationalism, established their ideological formations not only inPoland but also in Turkey. Both of them could speak Turkish. Gurionstudied in the Faculty of Law in Turkey. The Jews and Turks experi-enced similar historical courses as the Turkish identity originatedfrom the Ottoman identity and Jewish nationalism was born out ofthe Jewish identity.

* SUNY- Binghamton University- Fernand Braudel Center former scholar, Yildiz

Technical University, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Turkey / Inonu

University, Department of History.�



New York – If you live in the rural United States and yo-u don’t have any Turkish restaurants in your neigh-

borhood, you do not need to worry anymore. One of themost prestigious Turkish restaurants in New York City,Pera Mediterranean Brasserie, now sells its meats onlineand ships it to customers nationwide.Pera Mediterranean Brasserie recently launched the PeraOnline Store, which provides a nationwide distributionchannel for its specialties to those guests who are locatedtoo far to travel to Pera on a regular basis. “We enjoy thin-king about ways to make our guests' experience continu-ally more convenient and interesting,” Burak Karaçam,Pera's managing partner, says. Pera Mediterranean Brasserie opened in November 2006.TURKOFAMERICA talked to Burak Karaçam about his al-most three years of business experience with Pera.

Could you tell us what Pera has achieved since its ope-ning? What is Pera’s position in the New York ethnic res-taurant market?

We were quite careful from the beginning notto pigeonhole Pera as an ethnic restaurant perse, but rather as one that focuses on the cuisi-ne of a particular region of the world. The dis-tinction here is that from its ambiance to thepresentation of its dishes, from the servicestandards to the musical selections accom-panying one's meal, Pera presents a truly cos-mopolitan setting and operation. I believe indoing so, Pera not only reaches out to those

guests who are already favorably inclined to-wards eastern Mediterranean cuisine, but also

to those who know little about the cuisine but arewilling to experience it given the comfort provided to themby the familiarity of many other aspects of Pera. Having be-come a NYC restaurant, rather than an ethnic restaurant, isone of Pera's differentiating accomplishments.

Do you have a Pera clientele? At what frequency do the-se clients visit Pera? We have been quite fortunate in achieving a dedicated gro-up of Pera clientele at a relatively early stage. This group isnow a few hundred strong and their dining frequencies ran-ge from five times a week to once a month. Some guestscome over and over again for their favorite dishes, and so-me are drawn by the generous selection on our menu, theseasonal adjustments to it and the daily specials, allowingthem to experience something new and fresh on every visit.

You're an executive who pursues continuous innovation.What are somee of your current such initiatives and howdo your customers react to them?We believe new initiatives keep our concept fresh and ex-citing in our guests' minds. Whether these be new dis-hes, new wines and cocktails, or avenues where we seekto extend our brand, like the picnic baskets or our re-cently launched Pera Online Store. We enjoy thinkingabout ways to make our guests' experience continuallymore convenient and interesting.

We have several ongoing initiatives to keep our guestsengaged in Pera throughout the year. Currently we are fe-aturing our picnic baskets, which are very popular amongBryant Park movie goers as well as couples' or small gro-up celebrations in Central Park or the East and Hudson Ri-ver Parks. The Pera Online Store (www.peraonlinesto-re.com), allowing our meats to be shipped nationwide, isanother recent initiative. In this effort, we have also part-nered with tulumba.com and created special combo pac-kages that are featured on their website. Yet another oneof our current initiatives is the Chef-for-Hire catering prog-ram whereby we cook and cater our guest's daytime ornighttime party at a venue of their choice, whether it betheir home, garden or another venue. We want our brandto be accessible to our clients in more ways than simplyhaving one or several restaurant locations.

Can you talk about thhe profile of Pera customers? Do youhave any famous customers who like to dine at Pera? Our current clientele base is widely varied. Given our loca-tion and our private dining facilities, we have a significantbase of corporate clients, ranging from large multinationalcompanies and organizations to small- and mid-sized lo-cal ones. We also have a foodie following, appreciative ofthe traditional but also the new and innovative spin onthose traditional dishes we offer. More recently, celebra-tory events have found a new home at Pera, whether it bebaby or bridal showers, engagement/rehearsal dinners,graduation receptions, birthday get-togethers etc. Andthere is always the ever hungry and exploratory New Yor-ker looking for a new taste and place to become one ofhis/her favorite. While our policies do not permit the sha-ring of VIP and celebrity names who have dined at our res-taurant, they include prominent figures of government, fo-reign dignitaries, top corporate executives, TV, movie andsports celebrities. The one anecdote I can share is last ye-ar's filming of a scene from the movie "Duplicity" in ourrestaurant, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

Would youu like to add anything? Please do stay tuned in to Pera for other upcoming initiati-ves and programs. Guests can now become a fan of Pera onFacebook, follow us on Twitter, check out our pictures andvideos on FlickR and YouTube and also sign up to receiveperiodic updates from Pera on our website, www.pe-ranyc.com. We have been receiving great feedback aboutsome dishes and certain preparation methods, as well as inour music, and we will continue to work on new initiatives tomake the Pera brand more accessible on these fronts.�

Karaçam: “The oneanecdote I can share islast year's filming of ascene from the movie

"Duplicity" in ourrestaurant, starring

Julia Roberts and CliveOwen.”

CULINARY

Pera

Restaurant

Sh›ps Its

Meats

Nat›onw›de

Pera Online Store


The synagogues in Turkey span from the 3rd centu-ry C.E through the early twentieth century. Most

of the synagogues were influenced by local architec-tural designs. Among them is the synagogue ofSardis, discovered during excavations in the 1960s,that is believed to be one of the most grandiose syn-agogues of ancient times.

Over a period of two months, they traveled morethan 6,000 miles to systematically document andstudy nearly 50 synagogues and former synagogues,resulting in 3,000 photographs and 150 measuredarchitectural drawings, a small portion of which areincluded in the publication The Historic Synagoguesof Turkey.

The Historic

Synagogues of

Turkey, a 201-page

book, published by

The American

Sephardi Federation,

includes the pictures

of 34 synagogues in

Turkey. The other

album book

“Synagogues of

Turkey” in which the

photographs belong

to the famous artist

‹zzet Keribar, the

texts are written by

researcher Naim A.

Güleryüz, and the

concept was carried

out by Joelle

‹mamo¤lu is pub-

lished by Gözlem

Publishing.

The H›stor›c Synagogues of Turkey

SYNAGOGUES OF TURKEY

Photos by Izzet Keribar,Synagogues of Turkey by

Gozlem Publishing


THE HISTORIC SYNAGOGUES OF TURKEYJoel A. Zack, The Historic Synagogues of Turkey / Türkiye’nin Tarihi Sinagoglari ISBN: 978-0-615-23948-4 Library of Congress Control number: 2008936582Gözlem Gazetecilik ISBN No: 978-9944-944-27-9To buy:http://www.americansephardifederation.org/sub/store1/photo_art_books.asp ($45)

THE SYNAGOGUES OF TURKEYISBN: 9789944994255 Publication Date & Place: 2008, ‹stanbul Dimensions: 240x310mm, 3200 gr. Price: 250 TL (166.87 USD) (www.gozlemkitap.com / www.turkiyesinegoglari.com)

SOME TURKISH SYNAGOGUES FROM THE BOOKSynagogue, 3rd century (Sardis)The famous synagogue at Sardis, outside Izmir, ranks among theoldest synagogue ruins in the world. Not originally built as a syna-gogue, it was converted from an earlier (unknown) function andserved a sizable Jewish population. Although little remains, it was alarge building preceded by a square courtyard. Featuring a numberof mosaics, these ruins are under the protection of the governmentand part of a heavily touristic archaeological site.

Synagogue Ahrida, 1430 (Balat Quarter, ‹stanbul) Although originally built as two separate synagogues by Romaniot Jews,this synagogue was later used by Jews who came from Spain via theMacedonian city of Ohrid (Ochrid). The synagogue was most recentlyrestored in 1992; the accuracy of its restoration is a subject of controver-sy. The tevah is shaped like the prow of a ship, symbolic perhaps of trav-el. According to local legend, Sabetay Tzvi (Shabbetai Tsevi), the 17thcentury false Messiah from Izmir (Smyrna), preached in this synagogue.

Synagogue of tthe Karaites (Hasköy Quarter, ‹stanbul) This humble wooden building is one of the few remaining Karaitesynagogues in the world and the last in Turkey. Karaite Jews, whooriginally came to ‹stanbul from Baghdad, are a somewhat reculsivesect who follow only the Torah and maintain an identity distinct frommainstream (rabbinic) Judaism. In the 18th century, the Karaites hadeight synagogues in ‹stanbul. This aged and sagging building, whichlocal legend dates to the 12th century, has been rebuilt many times.

Synagogue ‹stipol, early 17th century (Balat Quarter, ‹staanbul) One of a handful of remaining wooden synagogues in Turkey, thissynagogue was originally founded by Jews who came from Spain tothe Ottoman city of Stip (‹stip) in Macedonia. From Stip, they laterresettled in Balat – the first in a series of Jewish quarters in ‹stanbul,located on the southern side of the Golden Horn.

Synagogue Yanbol, 15th century (Balat Quarter, ‹stanbul) Originally built by Romaniot Jews (Jews of the Byzantine Empire who livedin Constantinople and elsewhere long before the arrival of theSephardim), this synagogue was later used by the Jewish community thatimmigrated to ‹stanbul from the town of Yambol in Bulgaria. It is nowused only on major holidays and some Shabat (Sabbath) services

Joel A. Zack, architect, the founder of Heritage Tours Private Travel,set out with a research team in late 1996 to measure, draw, and pho-tograph the synagogues of Turkey. His team included Devon Jarvis, atalented photographer from New York, Ceren Kahraman, then a grad-uate student in architecture in ‹stanbul, and Muharrem Zeybek, theirdriver and logistical facilitator.

The Historic Synagogues of Turkey, a 201-page book, published byThe American Sephardi Federation, includes the pictures of 34 syn-agogues in ‹stanbul, ‹zmir, Ankara, G. Antep, Bursa, Edirne, Antakya,K›rklareli, Çanakkale, Kilis, Samsun, Adana, Bergama, Turgutlu andSardis.

The federation also created, as part of the digital archives of theCenter for Jewish History, an on-line archive of 2,827 of DevonJarvis’s Turkish synagogue photographs.

The project was funded by the Maurice Amado Foundation, theMitrani Family Foundation and ‹zak fienbahar, a Turkish Jewish busi-nessman in New York. The synagogue pictures were also exhibitedat the Topkapi Museum in the fall of 2008.

THE SYNAGOGUES IN TURKEEY FROM TWO MASTERS: ‹ZZET KER‹BAR & NA‹M GÜLERYÜZIn 2005, the president of the Jewish community of Turkey, Mr.Silvyo Ovadia, approached Izzet Keribar, a world renowned pho-tographer and winner of many international prizes, and offered himto document all the synagogues in Turkey as a legacy to future gen-erations.

‹zzet Keribar embarked on his research by establishing contacts withleaders of various Jewish communities in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara,Bursa, Chanakkale, Edirne and elsewhere in Turkey. His researchrevealed more than sixty synagogues around Turkey. The texts arewritten by researcher Naim A.Guleryuz, and the concept was carriedout by Joelle Imamoglu is published by Gozlem Publishing.

Unfortunately, many of them suffered substantial deterioration, andothers were used for different purposes or completely ruined. Thephotographer tirelessly set out to capture every detail of the gloryand splendor of the synagogues that were once the pride and theheart of the Jewish community in Turkey, in order to preserve themfor future memory before the deterioration of time takes its toll. Theresult of "The Synagogues of Turkey" project is consisting of morethan 70 photographs.

The book’s framework incorporates a ‘promenade course’.“Synagogues of Istanbul”, covering the areas from Balat to theshores of Marmara and the Princess Islands, the two banks of theBosphorus on each side, and the neighborhoods of Shishli-Beyoglu-Galata and Haskoy-Kemerburgaz constitutes the first volume and“Synagogues of Thrace-Anatolia”, covering the areas starting withEdirne throughout Thrace, the shores of the Aegean and theMediterranean, southeast Anatolia and the cities of Ankara andBursa, constitutes the second volume.

“Synagogues of Turkey” represents ‘the Turkish-Jewish Heritage’ inthe best possible way was published on special paper, utilizing themost modern technology, in both Turkish and English.�


Distinguished Readers,It is truly exciting for me to address the members of the

Sephardic community living in the USA in this special issueof TURKOFAMERICA, which is an important communicationchannel between the two countries.

It is exciting because the role of the ancestors of this com-munity in the history of the Turkish business world is indis-pensable. A glance over the archives of the IstanbulChamber of Commerce, which sheds light on our commerciallife over its 127 years of history, will tell us that the trade car-ried out in the Ottoman lands from the 16th century onwould be unthinkable without the non-Muslim communitiesmade up of Sephardim, as well as Levantine, Greek, andArmenian citizens.

Therefore, I will try to evaluate the outcomes of this immigra-tion in the 15th century which brought us together and hadso many social, cultural, and political aspects from the per-spective of the segment I represent, namely the economicand commercial perspective.

When expelled from the lands they had lived in for centuriesand arriving in their new home, their knowledge, skills, andentrepreneurship were the only assets they were able tocarry with them to enable them to start from scratch andestablish new and productive lives. They became masters inmany sectors, especially handicrafst such as tannery, cop-perwork, fabric painting, jewelry, shoemaking, and shipbuilding. They even manufactured fabric for the uniforms forthe Ottoman Army.

More importantly, they did not keep these skills to them-selves; on the contrary they preferred to share them with theirhosts in order to produce and to add value to the lands they

had started to live in. In this respect, they have been a com-plementary factor for the native Ottomans who had tradition-ally been engaged mostly in agriculture. At the same time,they started to introduce Western civilization to these lands.As they were familiar with printing, which was marking a newera in Europe in those days, they (the Nahmias Brothers) firstopened a printing house in Istanbul and made the city thecenter of supply for publications, especially for those of theirown language and culture. By doing so, they also developeda new business and contributed to welfare and employment.

THE MEMBERS OF SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY

In addition to production in various sectors, they occupiedcrucial places in government, economy, and social life, aswell. Many Sephardic people worked in high positions suchas diplomats, school governors, religious leaders, judges,etc. For instance, Josef Nasi served Sultan Selim, the secondmost important man in the palace, as a leading person inOttoman foreign politics in the 1550’s. Medicine was anoth-er field the Jewish community was famous in with their spe-cialization. Doctor Yakup, Jozef Amon, Mofle Amon werewell-known names among the doctors serving the royal fam-ily in the palace.

Moreover, the members of this community played a vital rolenot only in domestic trade, but they were also in the center ofour commercial relations with Europe thanks to their lan-guage and culture familiarity easing their communicationwith the outer world. Their affiliation with their relatives inArabia, Africa, and even in Eastern Asia contributed to the for-eign trade of the Ottoman Empire, as well. Not surprisingly,the places these communities settled were all located on cen-ters or arteries of commerce such as Istanbul, Thessalonica,Bursa, Damascus, Cairo, the Balkan cities, the Aegean regionand islands, and some centers in Anatolia.

Among the administra-

tive body and the staff

of ‹stanbul Chamber of

Commerce, it is quite

possible to come across

names such as

Monsieur Bernar,

Monsieur Vital, Moiz

Levi, Vitali Kamhi.

Sephard›c

Jews

Commun›ty

and The›r

Role ›n

Istanbul’s

Commerc›al

L›fe

COMMERCIAL LIFE OF SEPHARDIC JEWS IN ISTANBUL

By Dr. Murat Yalç›ntafl*

From Guild to Chamber, ITO Publications


As the President of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, representing the gianteconomy of Turkey, I want to make a call to these brothers of ours: Come and re-discover the lands in which your ancestors found peace, see the opportunitiesthese lands offer to you so that we can strengthen our connection. By leaning oneach other, we will also overcome the crisis shaking the whole world currently.

The USA, which is still the “land of opportunities” despite all the economicinconveniences, is the most important target market of our Chamber forimproving commercial relations. It is our goal to increase our trade volume of16 billion to much higher levels and to expand our cooperation, which is main-ly limited to the military area, to a much broader scope. To pursue this goal, ourChamber informs the business people in both countries about the mutualinterests they may have and lobbies the US Congress and its partner entitiesthere in order to overcome the obstacles in front of closer relations arising fromprejudices and lack of information.

THE HISTORICAL MISSION

Now, we are willing to support this economic mission with a historical mission byre-connecting the Sephardic community living in the US to their old homeland,because we know that our Sephardic fellows who successfully hold importantpositions in the US have much to contribute to the promotion of our country.

As the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, hosting numerous foreign trade delega-tions every year and participating in many international and domestic fairs, weare ready to put our facilities and experience at their disposal. Such a coopera-tion will both give them the opportunity to get to know their roots in Turkey andhelp us to establish a new communication channel for our promotion efforts.500 years ago, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror opened his lands to these com-munities with the invitation “to ascend the site of the Imperial Throne, to dwellin the best of the land, each under the shadow of this vine and his fig tree, withsilver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle...". Likewise, our doors are stillwide open to them.

Finally, I would like to thank TURKOFAMERICA for this special issue bringing usback together on these pages and announce that we are committed to go intofurther cooperation in this regard with them. Yours Sincerely, *President of the Executive Board Istanbul Chamber of Commerce.�

SEPHARDIC MEMBERS OF THE CHAMBER

In particular, the habitations they resided in Istanbul were Eminönü, Sirkeci,and the Golden Horn covering also the Ottoman Palace –recently calledHistorical Peninsula- which was considered to be the cradle of trade and stillmaintains this characteristic. This is also the region which has been hosting ourChamber since its establishment 127 years ago. Therefore, the affiliation of thiscommunity with trade is quite expected.

What best indicates this affiliation is the records of our Chamber -then calledDersaadet (port of happiness or gate to heaven, referring to Istanbul) Chamberof Commerce- established with the initiative of successful merchants in 1882.Among the administrative body and the staff of this institution, which has beenthe most important representative of commercial life since then, it is quite pos-sible to come across names such as Monsieur Bernar, Monsieur Vital, MoizLevi, Vitali Kamhi. The allocation of industrialists in the Empire at the beginning of the 20th cen-tury points to the same conclusion. According to our archives; 10 percent of thecapital belonged to foreigners and 15 percent to native Turks, while 85 percentwas possessed by the non-Muslim minorities of Armenian, Jewish, and mostlyGreek origin.

Sultan Bayezid II explained their contribution to the Ottoman Empire with thefollowing words: “How can one call such a King (Ferdinand) bright? He impov-erishes his own lands while enriching mine.” And today with 20,000 Sephardic brothers we live together, we work together,we produce together, and we earn together in our country. Although this num-ber is very low relative to the population of Turkey, now 70 million, their impactand prominence in many fields such as business, arts, and social and culturallife is far more noticeable than their numbers would indicate.

Unfortunately at the beginning of the 20th century, part of this community,which was one of the most important parts of the cultural mosaic and one ofthe most active actors in the business community in this country had to moveto various parts of the world, mainly North America, due to various reasons.Just like their ancestors did centuries ago, they started a new life in this newcountry out of nothing thanks to their entrepreneurship and skills. We still con-sider that a part of them belong to Turkey and proudly listen to their successstories in their new homelands.

An Ottoman ship carrying Jews fromSpain to Ottoman Empire.

(Painting by Mevlut Akyildiz)

OttomanHospitality and

Its Impact onEurope, ITOPublications

Ottoman Hospitality and Its Impact onEurope, ITO Publications

AnIstanbulese Jewish Merchant Woman.

An Istanbulese Jew.A Jewish WomanPlaying the Violin.

An Istanbulese Merchant.


Edirne (Adrianople) is a city in the Balkans in the TurkishRepublic, located at the confluence of the Meriç River and

its two principal tributaries, the Tunca and the Varda. Thetown had a population of 99,000 in 1901, consisting of 40,000Turks, 6,000 Albanians, 30,000 Greeks, 10,000 Bulgarians,9,000 Jews and 4,000 Armenians.

Jewish public life was organized around sub-communities, 13in number, each with its own synagogue. The first synagogu-e was the Poli Yashan, belonging to Romaniots Jews ofByzantine origin. There were two synagogues of EuropeanAshkenazi Jewish origin, namely Budun of Hungary and Kü-çük Alman or Ashkenazi belonging to Jews that immigrated toEdirne from France and Germany over the centuries. The re-maining ten were those of the communities of the Spanishexile, named after the town or region they hailed from, suchas Toledo, Cordova and Catalonia. According to Jewish sources, there were 12,000 Jews living inEdirne in 1873 and 17,000 in 1902. Their numbers reached apeak of 20,000 in 1912 on the eve of the first Balkan War.

The community elected its own Chief Rabbi and so did theEdirne Community. In fact, between 1722 and 1902 there we-re two of them that officiated simultaneously, with one repre-senting seven of the thirteen sub-communities and the se-cond the remaining six. The provincial Governors informallyrecognized the Chief Rabbis of the Edirne Province as the he-ads of their communities. Their election by the Jewish com-munity was only a formality as there were two ruling rabbini-cal dynasties, the first the Givret, and the second the Behmoi-res from whose rank the chief Rabbis always came.

Chief Rabbis played a dominant role in shaping the affairs oftheir communities. This was because all community mem-bers observed their religion and most believed in its writtenword. Against any one committing transgressions, the ChiefRabbi had a powerful instrument at his disposal, called he-rem. Literally translated it means boycott. The communitymembers would ostracize a person who was subjected tosuch punishment. He would not be admitted to a synagogu-e. No one except possibly close members of his family wouldsocialize with him, and worst of all he could not earn a living,as no one would buy his products and services, or employhim. Enforcing a herem was not difficult in a society whereeveryone was religiously observant. In such a society thethreat of a herem was sufficient to cause strict religious ob-servance to a Chief Rabbi’s ruling.

JEWISH ASSOCIATIONS

The community established, for the first time in its history, acouncil (Meclis-i-Cismani) to run the affairs of the community.

According to

Jewish sources,

there were 12,000

Jews living in Edirne

in 1873 and 17,000 in

1902. Their numbers

reached a peak of

20,000 in 1912 on the

eve of the first

Balkan War.

Ed›rne and Its

Jew›sh

Commun›ty at

the Turn of the

19th Century

Ed›rne and Its

Jew›sh

Commun›ty at

the Turn of the

19th Century

JEWS IN EDIRNE

By Erol Haker *

From the mid 17th through mid 19th centuries, Edirne was an important center of rabbinical law whose writ covered the Jewish communities of Edirne Vilayet and beyond.(Courtesy of Erol Haker)


During the first years of the 20th century The Community Council of the EdirneJewish Community was composed of 36 members. The males of the communityabove a certain age that held regular employment, elected thirty-three of them.The remaining three were Rabbis, including of course, the Chief Rabbis. An Exe-cutive Council of seven members elected by the Community Council ran its dailyaffairs. The senior one of the two Chief Rabbis was appointed in an ex-officio ca-pacity to the Municipal Council of the city and was formally recognized as the he-ad of the Jewish Community that lived in Edirne. In this capacity he had the aut-hority to countersign all the decisions of the municipal council on subjects thatwere of common interest to the different Millets (ethnic groups) that made up thecity population, for example infrastructure projects, their location and scope.

During the second half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, manyassociations were established and flourished. In each such association threemain activity types merged with varying emphasis in any one of them. They we-re welfare, social life, and intellectual or ideology related activities.

JEWISH INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN EDIRNE

Most of the Spanish exiles that settled in the Ottoman Empire congregated in lar-ge numbers in relatively few centers, bringing together scholars who in the Ibe-rian Peninsula would have been scattered in many localities. Istanbul, Salonika,Edirne, and later Izmir emerged as the sites of a rich intellectual and cultural life.Under the liberal disposition the Ottoman State showed towards Jews, Edirnebecame a center of a blossoming Jewish intellectual life. The following were so-me outstanding contributors that lived in Edirne.

Hekim Yakup became the personal physician of Sultan Mehmet II, the Conque-ror, when Edirne was still the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to hisprofessional function, he made available to the Ottoman court his extensive dip-lomatic connections. With the conquest of Byzantium, he settled in it and beca-me a member of the Sultan’s court.Salamon Ibn Verga, who lived in Edirne during the second half of the 15th centuryand the first quarter of the 16th, was a Rabbi, judge, and historian, and becamewidely known for his history of the persecution of Jews in Christian countries.

Joseph Caro came to Edirne from Toledo as a young person and wrote part of hisbook Beit Joseph (The house of Joseph) in which he codified Jewish RabbinicalLaw in all its intricacies and practice across centuries. A summary of the book,called Shulhan Aruh (The Set Table), was adopted by all the Jews of the world asthe most authoritative statement on the practice of the Jewish religion.

MUSIC AND PRESS

Edirne was a center of Jewish music. A choral society was founded in Edirne inthe 17th century. The society succeeded in making the city a center for hymn wri-ters. The best known among them was Aron Isaac Hamon, known as Yahudi Ha-mon in Turkish musical circles. Hamon composed Turkish music after the styleof the Dervish brotherhoods, though still retaining Iberian themes in his compo-sitions, and this makes him unique.

The first Hebrew press in the Ottoman Empire was established in Istanbul in1493, and was followed by the presses in Salonika in 1510, in Edirne in 1554, andin Izmir in 1646. The Ottoman Levant emerged as a major center for Jewish pub-lishing, printing a multitude of works composed by Jews outside the OttomanEmpire.

EDUCATION

The Torah academies in Salonika, Edirne, Istanbul, Tsfat and Jerusalem providedthe institutional setting in which sages could discuss and debate the wide rangeof issues deeply embedded in the various layers of rabbinical culture. From the

A Jewish family in Edirne. (Courtesy of Erol Haker)

A Jewish family in Edirne.(Courtesy of Erol Haker)

Jewish students in Edirne in May 1912. (Courtesy of Erol Haker)

JEWS IN EDIRNE

mid 17th through mid 19th centuries, Edirne was an important center of rabbini-cal law whose writ covered the Jewish communities of Edirne Vilayet and beyond.

In the mid 19th century, an intelligentsia appeared on the scene, consisting of asmall group of educated persons that aimed at extricating the Jewish religion outof the rut it had got itself into. The Haskalah movement that was doing the samething on a European scale was their source of inspiration, but the one located inEdirne was more nationally oriented, as expressed in their support for the revi-val of Hebrew as a living language, for day-to-day use, and to express thinkingnot always associated with religion.

One of the earliest on record was Yehuda Nehama, [who] wrote in Hebrew andLadino, producing biographies, poetry, and history. He corresponded with othermaskilim in Europe, and created a newspaper in Judeo-Spanish, El Lunar(1865/66,) which aimed to educate people. After him, the two leading lightsamong those who were active during the third quarter of the 19th century wereJoseph Halevi and Baruch Mitrani. A generation later Avraham Danon appeared.

Joseph Halevi was a maskil who was a leading force behind the movement for anew school. Halevi was a Hungarian Jew who made Edirne his home for some ye-ars. He started his public life in Edirne in 1856. Halevi became the director of theTalmud Torah of the Portuguese congregation of the town. He slowly began tointroduce reforms at his school, teaching Hebrew grammar systematically, andintroducing the teaching of French. A group of reformers coalesced around him.

Baruh Mitrani: This student of Halevi in Edirne was passionately concerned withthe revival of the Hebrew language as a living medium. He combined religious,messianic, and moderate Haskalah ideas into an ideology which prefiguredmany of the elements of religious Zionism. “Baruh Mitrani fought for modernmethods of education, founded a school for this purpose in Edirne, Akedat Yitz-hak, and devoted many years of his life to teaching. He wrote books on educati-on in Hebrew and a grammar of spoken Judeo-Spanish, contributed to Hebrewperiodicals such as Hamagid (1856-1913) and Havatselet (1863-1914) publishedin Istanbul. He also wrote poetry”.

Avraham Danon: A later figure, to whom the title of “Giant” can be rightfully at-tributed, is Avraham Danon. He was born in 1857 and belonged to an important


Grand Synagogue in Edirne.(Courtesy of Erol Haker)

rabbinical family in Edirne. Avraham Danon began his public life in 1878; a yearafter he had established the Hevrat Dorshei Haskalah referred to earlier. Avra-ham Danon translated the poems of Virgil, Hugo, and Saadi… and also JewishHistorian Reinach’s Histoire des Juifs into Hebrew and published this versionwith extra additions by himself under the title of Toldot Bnei Avraham (The His-tory of the Children of Abraham, Pressburg 1897). He wrote many of his workson the folklore of the Jews of the Spanish exile. Also, he published in Hebrew ahistory of the Jews of the Spanish exile.

PERIODICALS

In a publication containing a bibliography of newspapers and periodicals inHebrew and Ladino published in the Ottoman Empire, a newspaper and thre-e periodicals published in Edirne are mentioned. Their contents are brieflypresented below.

Yosef Deat (The Knowledge of Joseph): This is a remarkable periodical, whichAvraham Danon published starting in 1888. Two main types of articles appea-red in the periodical. The first was articles on Ottoman history and they werewritten in Hebrew. The second covered the history of the Jewish Communityof the Ottoman Empire. These were invariably in Ladino, written in Rashiscript. A few of the articles were in Turkish using the Arabic alphabet as it waswritten during those years.

Some characteristics are worth noting about both types of articles. Precedingeach article there was an abstract of usually two to three short sentences des-cribing in succinct form what the article was about. Unlike traditional Jewishscripts, all dates appearing in the article were reported in the Julian calendarwhile their Hebrew equivalent was given only occasionally. Abbreviations andexclamations with religious meaning were almost entirely missing in them.The articles contained orderly footnotes, including references in Latin and so-metimes in Greek script.

The outlook of the articles, though strongly Jewish and traditional, was essen-tially secular. The Hebrew used was rich in vocabulary, concise, and clear, al-most identical with contemporary Hebrew used by Israeli scholars of our pre-sent day. At the time of their publication a battle was raging among the ranksof the Alliance and the Jewish Community of Edirne, and in fact all over theworld, as to whether Hebrew should be taught as a living language or a lan-guage of prayer only; and here was a periodical publishing articles in perfect,

and close to modern Hebrew! That the authors of these articles and many oftheir readers must have spoken Hebrew fluently, and with whom any educa-ted Israeli person of our time would feel entirely at home with, there is no do-ubt. The Ladino used in the articles written in the language is rich in vocabu-lary and clear in its style.

La Boz de la Verdad, Andrianople, (Kol Haemet): The paper was published inLadino using the Rashi script. The headings over the various news items, ar-ticles and commentary, though mostly of secular content, were invariably inHebrew written in Hebrew letters. This suggests that both the newspaperstaff that wrote them and the readers who read them knew Hebrew to a sa-tisfactory extent, and not just prayer Hebrew. Its publication started in 1910and ended in1922. This was a newspaper that assumed the role of spokes-man for the ”Haskalah” movement of Edirne. The paper supported educationreform but of a variety which gave more weight to the learning of Hebrew, inc-luding its spoken variety, and to the study of Turkish, and was not in favor ofcompletely abandoning Ladino as both a spoken language and one of lear-ning. The paper had Zionist leanings.

Like everywhere else in the Empire, Jews were perceived by Christian com-munities as part of the Ottoman adversary from whom Greeks, Bulgariansand later Armenians were trying to win their independence. The Christianreligion’s “You killed Jesus” tack added fuel to this perception which at ti-mes caused much trouble for Jews in general, and more specifically, to tho-se living in Edirne.

As mentioned earlier, the dominant community in the economic life of the citywas the Greek one. Relations between Jews and Greeks showed much ambi-valence. Jews had close trade ties with Greeks. Members of the Greek Com-munity supplied the majority of the professional services in the city as physi-cians, various craftsmen, skilled workers, household help, retail food outletsand restaurants. A few Greeks sent their children to the Alliance schools evenwithout the school having to solicit them. The reverse movement, namelyJews sending their children to Greek schools and in particular their girls, wasseveral-fold larger. The Alliance Girls’ School could not do without Greek te-achers and other staff, during its early years. In some of these years the direc-tor of the school was a Greek woman Members of the Jewish Community we-re in daily contact with Greeks, and seemed to get on well with them. An indi-cation as to how close relations were is that among middle to upper classJews there were many who could speak Greek as well as Turkish. The JewishCommunity establishment invited Greek grandee, to all major public and so-cial events, and those invited inevitably attended.

During the Balkan wars, when Edirne was under siege, the Community assis-ted in the war effort by operating the Girls School of the Alliance as a work-shop to produce bandages and nightgowns for hospitalized wounded soldi-ers of the Ottoman army. The school won an award for meritorious conductfrom the Governor of Edirne. “The Jews of Edirne welcomed the return of Ot-toman rule with delirious joy.” It is not to be wondered that Jews acquired thetitle of “en sad›k millet” (the most faithful nation) among the Ottoman estab-lishment.

Concerning anti-Semitism manifested by the Turkish people or by the Turkishcommunity, generally speaking, compared to European countries and evenamong the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the pheno-menon was a rare and muted one. “Relations between Jews and Muslims we-re on the whole much more satisfactory… The documents examined coveringa thirty-year period note only three cases of anti-Jewish riots on the part ofTurks.”�



Although it is written in numerous sources thatJews had come to and settled in Istanbul and Bur-

sa after being expelled from Spain during the reignof Ferdinard V, it is also indicated in several docu-ments that Sultan Orhan, the second chief of thenascent Ottoman Empire, donated a channel of wa-ter to the Jew-house.

And this shows us that Jews have actually lived inBursa since the time of Sultan Orhan. It is documen-ted that Jews did not leave the city of Bursa whenSultan Orhan took over that city and that Sultan Or-han, in fact, invited the Jews from nearing cities toBursa and established a town for them.

According to some sources, there was a colony ofJews in Bursa in the year of 79 B.C. It is understoodfrom the presence of an inscription in Zindankapi be-longing to the year 580 A.D. and the mentioning ofJewish names in certain Greek inscriptions that Jewshad lived in Bursa even prior to the Turks’ settlementin the region.

Sultan Orhan not only allotted a town for the Jews inBursa in order to ensure their safety but he also letthem be free in practicing their religion. For this rea-son, he gave permission for the building of the EfsEhaim synagogue –the first synagogue in the Otto-man state- in what today is called Arapsukru Streetin the Jewish town. Unfortunately, this oldest syna-gogue in Anatolia burned down in a fire in 1802 androads have covered its ruins. Only the door of thisstructure remains.

‘Romanoflar’ are the Anatolian Jews, who are the ol-dest Jewish dwellers of the region. After the year1492, a significant number of Jews expelled fromSpain came to Bursa. These groups formed a sepa-rate community and established the ‘Gerisue’ syna-gogue, the name of which meant ‘those who are ex-pelled.’ The ‘Gerisue’ synagogue is still active today.Those who came from Mayorka established the Ma-yor synagogue, which is also currently active.

According to a judicial file from the year 1496, a gro-up of Jews from Bursa was moved to Istanbul. Pos-sibly, these groups, who were invited by Fatih SultanMehmet to Istanbul, revived the economy in Istan-bul.There is also a Jewish bath in Bursa. When the thre-e synagogues burned down during the big fire in1801, their restoration was allowed by the state. Thestate inspected the construction of these synagogu-es. Additionally, there are also synagogues in Kara-cabey and M.Kemalpasa.

Jews did not leave

the city of Bursa

when Sultan Orhan

took over that city.

Sultan gave

permission for the

building of the Efs

Ehaim synagogue

–the first

synagogue in the

Ottoman state- in

what today is called

Arapsukru Street in

the Jewish town.

Oldest Dwellers of Bursa: Jews

JEWS IN BURSA

By Raif Kaplano¤lu

In the south of bursa,there is a 160-acrerecreational areacalled The Old Jewry.(Courtesy of Bursa Kültür A.fi.)

The Jews were mostly living inthe towns and cities of Bursa.(Courtesy of Bursa Kültür A.fi.)


amount of tax they paid was ‘26,000 akca.’ For this reason, they we-re always protected by the state; and the Jews likewise were thoro-ughly committed to the state.

Jews have lived in the area called The Jewry in Bursa for centuriesand been able to practice their religious and economic freedoms incomfort. Thus, it is even observed in a judiciary record from the ye-ar 1522 that Jews in Bursa were given privileges as any trials regar-ding them were to take place in Istanbul instead of Bursa. Additio-nally, it is also understood that Jews in Bursa were not charged ta-riffs.

As it is seen in the articles ‘Jewish Patriotism’ (1924, Ertugrul;No.751) and ‘The Devotion of the Jewish Community’, appearing inold newspapers from Bursa, Jews had given a helping hand to the im-migrants from Rumelia, and sided with the state during the war (Hu-davendigar Newspaper, 1914).

CONTRIBUTION OF JEWS TO THE ECONOMYJews contributed to the Turkish society through their expertise espe-cially in medical, technical, commercial, and diplomatic issues. Forexample, in the year of 1493, the first printing house in Ottoman Em-pire was built by Jews. During Ottoman rule, in Bursa, it was almostas though the minorities had chosen specific sectors as their occupa-tion consciously. While the Jews would work as jewelers, tailors, andbankers; Greeks would be in the bar and restaurant business and se-riculture. Muslims, on the other hand, were engaged in governingand agriculture. These diverse groups not only avoided bickeringbut rather complimented each other and had a relationship of mutu-al dependence.

It is also understood that Jews conducted important activities in Bur-sa Kapalicarsi since the 16th century and they were protected by thestate. It is observable that they were active in the bazaar for a longtime. According to a document that is from the year 1573, there wasan attempt made to take away some of the stores owned by Jews be-cause they were located near a masjid. The order of the state on thisregard was that it was wrong to do such thing and that Jews could al-so open stores even next to the masjids. In addition to their role inmanaging the mint and the banks, Jews also were responsible forcollecting silk taxes. In the 19th century, Jews regulated 38 of the 71silk guilds in Bursa. A. Galanti claims that it was Jews that broughtthe silk industry to Bursa. And Paul Lucas, who came to Bursa in1714, wrote about how the entire silk sector was in the hands of Jewsin Bursa and Britain.

Mari Dolone came to Bursa in 1880’s and wrote his observationsabout the Jews in Bursa: “Cities with advanced commerce are knownfor their specific characteristics. A significant number of these citiesare dwelled in by Jews. It is natural that in Bursa, as a city famousfor its industry and commerce, an important portion of the populati-on is Jewish. Some of the Jews are in commerce, banking, and the je-welry business. They generally engage in itinerant trade and com-missions, and live in a separate town.”

As a result of their communal solidarity, they had a common cash re-gister for the town; and as part of this tradition, wealthy Jewish fami-lies used to leave copper pots with molasses and wine by their doorsfor the use of the poor.

While other minorities in Bursa lived in scattered ne-ighborhoods, it is interesting that Jews lived toget-her in only one town, in Kurucesme. This must havebeen so because of the privileges Sultan Orhan gaveto the town and the value Jews gave to communal so-lidarity.

In the south of Bursa, between Maksem and Hamza-bey, there is a 160- acre recreational area called TheOld Jewry. As this place is mentioned even in the jo-urnals of 1934, it is probably the oldest Jewish sett-lement in the area. The Jewish cemetery, though, islocated in Merinos, quite distant from the Old Jewry.

The Jews were mostly living in the towns and cities ofBursa. There were not any Jews living in the villages.The most significant reason for this is, undoubtedly,the kind of work that Jews did. As artisans and merc-hants, Jews were not sent to the fields in the villagesunder Ottoman rule.

THE POPULATION OF JEWS IN BURSAThe population of Jews in Bursa continuously increa-sed over the years. In 1530, there were only 117 ho-useholds in the Hudavendigar province. In 1573, thisnumber increased to 128; in 1590 to 370; in 1594 to403; in 1620 to 683; and in 1831 to 627.

In 1885, the total population of Jews was 2,450; in1888 2,559; in 1890 3,000; in 1908 3,514; in 19114,622; and in 1914 it was 4,126. According to theFrench traveler Cuinet, during the 1880’s there were73 Jews in Mihalic and 80 in Kirmasti. Around thewhole city the total number was 2,704; and in thecenter of Bursa it was 2,548. There is also a Jewishschool in Karacabey.

While other minorities left the region after the WWI,Jews remained. After the establishment of the Re-public, there were 1,915 Jews living there in 1927,and 1,900 – 880 female and 1020 male- in 1935, inthe city center. In M.Kemalpasa, there were 90 Jews.During these years, of the Jews living in the center,159 were industrialists, 242 were merchants, 18 we-re carters, 31 were self-employed, and 10 were inte-rested in house-maintenance. The occupations of410 people are not clearly known. 750 Jews spokeTurkish and 355 spoke Hebrew. All of the womenstated that they did not speak Turkish.

The president of the Bursa Turkish-Jewish Commu-nity Foundation, Izra Venturero, is the son of a familyfrom M. Kemalpasa. During the early years of theRepublic, his family migrated to Bursa, as other Jewsdid as well, because of shrinking in their communiti-es. Today, there are only 70 Jews in Bursa.

The contribution of the Jews in Bursa to the Ottomaneconomy is significant. Just in the year of 1571, the

JEWS IN BURSA

There were two Jewish schools in Bursa, and, in the 19th century,there were 150 male students. Celal Bayar, third President of Tur-kish Republic, also had attended Bursa Alyans Izrailit Musevi Okulu.

To exemplify the integration among the three sacred religions, thereis an interesting temple in the Karacabey town of Bursa. The struc-ture that is known as the Tumbekli Mosque is actually composed of

two sections. The first section is a structure with a dome and there isa cross placed on the tip of the poles, which are by the entrance of thebuilding. From this entrance there is gateway to another building andthat is an old synagogue. In its garden, there are still Hebrew tombinscriptions. So, this building, which carries within a synagogue anda cross, is also an active mosque today. For these special features,the Tumbekli Mosque is monument of religious tolerance.�


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I N C O M E T A X I N C O M E T A X P r e p a r a t i o n P r e p a r a t i o n

Gerus Synagogue was built in the early16th Century by Selim II.(Courtesy of Bursa Kültür A.fi.)


Turkish Sephardic Music is an adventure that starts inthe year 1492. The Sephardic Jews had brought with

them a specific language and musical culture. The lan-guage that they brought was basically 15th century Spa-nish. However, through the years this language develo-ped on its own under the influences of the languages aro-und it and finally it came to be known as “Judeo-Spa-nish”, the language of the Sephardic Jews. The Sephar-dic Jews were able to preserve most of the aspects of the-ir language and culture in the atmosphere of tolerancethat reigned in the Ottoman Empire. Today, Judeo-Spa-nish, in spite of all the efforts made to make it survive, isslowly declining because it has lost its basic function forthe Sephardic Jews.

The musical culture that dominated 15th century Spainwas a musical culture called the “Romansa”. The Roman-sas were, at first, epic songs that depicted tales of braveryand wars of the nobles. These tales were then adoptedby the common people and the stories took on moreeveryday type of themes. The musical tradition that theSephardic Jews brought to the Ottoman Empire was ma-de up of basically this type of song. Down through the ye-ars, Sephardic music was greatly influenced by Turkishclassical music and all the other musical genres around it.So in time, Sephardic music blended all these influencestogether and a lot of songs appeared with themes consis-ting of love, gossip, jealousy, the events of everyday lifeand all sorts of interpersonal relationships and feelings.The language used in these folk songs has always beenJudeo-Spanish. In addition to the many original butanonymous compositions there are also many melodiesborrowed from the popular ones of their day and to whichlyrics in Judeo-Spanish have been written. Among thethousands of songs that were transmitted from mother todaughter through the years, there are certain melodiesthat have had many different lyrics written for them andthere are also certain lyrics with many different melodies.

Another aspect of Turkish Sephardic Music is liturgical mu-sic. A tradition of religious music performed in Turkishsynagogues has also been transmitted from generation togeneration. The lyrics of the Sephardic religious music ha-ve always been in Hebrew but the melodies have been per-formed with the Turkish classical music maqams. Thesemelodies had not been recorded, or archived until 2002.The many musicologists and ethnomusicologists that ha-ve come to Turkey for research have mainly been interes-ted in the folk songs in Judeo-Spanish. However, most ofthese researchers could not write the music of most of themelodies that had been composed under the influence ofTurkish classical music because it has a different notationsystem altogether. Even though these researchers havecompiled hundreds of songs, there are many more hun-dreds of songs composed in the Turkish classical music

mode. It is this particular part of the Sephardic heritagethat the group Los Pasharos Sefaradis have made it theirmission to preserve.

LOS PASHAROS SEFARADISLos Pasharos Sefaradis have constituted a milestone inthe revival of the Turkish Sephardic culture by seriouslyresearching and studying the language and the seculartype of music of their ancestors. They have been doing re-search since 1978; have toured and performed at many ofthe Jewish and non-Jewish cultural centers throughoutEurope, the U.S.A. and Mexico.

One of the most important characteristics of Los PasharosSefaradis is the fact that, in contrast to all other interpretersof Sephardic music in the western world, they give a lot ofimportance to the lyrics of the songs and take great care toenunciate each word clearly. Their being the last generationof Turkish Sephardim to speak Judeo-Spanish well is a gre-at asset. Another characteristic is that they make a specialeffort to sing in as authentic a manner as possible, the waytheir grandmothers used to do, with the oriental techniqueof using their voices and acting every song out, so as to lea-ve their audience in no doubt as to what they are saying.�

JEWISH COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERSOF TURKISH MUSICHayim Alazraki (?-1913): Composer, very famous forhis “Yahudice Romans’›”. ‹sak Varon (1884-1962): Turkish songwriter andcomposer of Jewish origin. ‹sak Barikî (?-1850): Violin player, composer. M›s›rl› ‹brahim Efendi ((Oud): M›s›rl› ‹brahim Efendi’sreal name was Avram Levi. David Behar (?-1880?): Composer and musicianRabbi Semoil Mendil (?-1849): Rabbi and composer.Isak Algazi (1890-1960?): Composer and famoussinger of Jewish origin. ‹sak Tannburi (1745-1814): A composer and player ofthe tambur. Musi (Rabbi Mufle Fao) (?-1760): A composer andplayer of the tanbur. Selim Efendi (?-1930?): Jewish ud player.

Source: www.turkishmusicportal.org

Los Pasharos Sefaradishave constituted a

milestone in the revivalof the Turkish

Sephardic culture byseriously researching

and studying the language and the

secular type of music oftheir ancestors.

TURKISH-SEPHARDIC MUSIC

Turk›sh-Sephard›c

Mus›c By Karen Sarhon

Los Pasharos Sefaradis has fourmembers: Karen Gerson fiarhon

(voice), ‹. ‹zzet Bana (voice), S.Selim Hubefl (ud, guitar), Y. Yavuz

Hubefl (kanun, ud, percussion).


On November 16, 1885 in Vienna, during the cer-emony for the establishment of a new syna-

gogue in the Zirkusgasse Second District, No.22,the president of the Sefarad, Vienna Jew MarcosRusso spoke to the invitees as follows: “When hismajesty Franz-Josef is the emperor of Austria andhis majesty Sultan Abdulhamid II is the emperor ofthe Ottoman Empire, when Sadullah Pasha is theambassador of Ottoman Empire in Vienna andMarcos Russo is the president of the Turkish-Jewish community…the construction of this build-ing is started in order to meet the religious needof the Jews of Sefarad…”

This synagogue, which had Turkish and Austrianflags swaying by its door, was officially opened onSunday, September 17, 1887, at 7pm, and, duringthe opening ceremony, prayers in Judeo-Spanishwere read, followed by the prayer (Anoten), on

behalf of Franz-Josef I and Abdulhamid II and forthe permanence and success of the country andthe head of state; then the Austrian and Turkishnational anthems were played.

The Sefarad synagogue, which had large picturesof the two rulers in its central hall, was a templeAshkenazis continuously visited with pleasure foryears and enjoyed its wonderful music, which wasmodernized without the changing of its authenticEastern-Spanish melodies, and its excellence inreligious services. After the establishment of theTurkish Republic, the aforementioned pictureswere removed and replaced by large mirrors.

Architect Ritter von Weidenfeld designed thisbuilding in maghrebi design, inspired by the archi-tecture of the Granada Elhamra Palace; there were314 seats for men and 100 for women and, addi-tionally, there was a space for 500 people tostand. The birthday of Sultan Abdulhamid II usedto be celebrated in this synagogue, every year,through a special ceremony. The ceremony, whichwould be attended by a senior official from theForeign Ministry and a high-ranking general fromthe War Ministry representing the Austrian gov-ernment, and by the Turkish Ambassador and sen-ior embassy officials dressed in their uniforms,used to be remembered as the ‘Sultanfeirn’, theFestival of the Sultan.

Since Austria and the Ottoman Empire werealigned on the same side during WWI, Austrianand Turkish flags continued to fly together at thedoor of this synagogue throughout this time.

With the start of new racist movements around1925, the Jews of Sefarad began to leave Viennagradually. The 800th birthday ceremony of thegreat intellectual Maimonides (Musa binMeymun), in 1935, is remembered to be the lastmagnificent event to take place in the synagogue.

The synagogue,

which had Turkish

and Austrian flags

swaying by its door,

was officially opened

on Sunday,

September 17, 1887 in

Vienna. The birthday

of Sultan Abdulhamid

II used to be celebrat-

ed in this synagogue,

every year, through a

special ceremony.

THE TURKISH JEWISH COMMUNITY IN VIENNA

By Naim “Avigdor”Güleryüz – Researcher

The Turk›sh-Jew›sh

Commun›ty and the

Synagogue

›n V›enna


and using his birth name, Mose (Moses) Lopez Pereira.

From 1723 to 1739, Mose Lopez had control of the Austrian StateTobacco Monopoly, acquired by the exchange of 7 millionflorins, and he received the title of Baron in 1726. Meanwhile,he contributed to the construction of the Schönbrunn Palace inthe amount of 300,000 florins. Appointed to the Palace as aspecialist consultant with the title of Hofjude (Jew in thePalace), Lopez used his influence not only in Austria but also inother countries in order to protect the lives and rights of his fel-low coreligionists. He helped the Jews in Moravia in 1742, inPrague in 1744, in Mandua and Belgrade in 1752. There areHebrew writings, which reads ‘Mose Lopez Pereire – 5498’(1737-1738), on the decorations of a silver Sefer Torah crownthat was found in the Vienna Synagogue. Until it was destroyedin 1938, prayers were read in the synagogue on behalf of him, asthe founder of the community, on the major fasting day of YomKippur.

Around the same time, several Spanish families, suchas the Kamondo, Nisan, and Eskenazy families,

began to settle in Vienna. Mose Lopez, his wife,Samuel Oppenheimer, and his nephew Samson

Wertheimer organized the Jews in Sefarad andestablisedh the first Sefarad Community inVienna in 1736. The Jews of Sefarad, whomostly had Ottoman roots, were living inmuch better conditions, compared to otherAustrian Jews, under the item in PasarofcaTreaty which allowed free residency andtrade for those in business with Ottomantobacco industry, and they used to conduct

their worship in the building, inside the Ringwalls, on lot number 307, which they used as a

synagogue.

SEFARAD IN VIENNAHowever, this tranquility and peace did not last long.

Mose Lopez learned about the empire’s plans, which wereinfluenced by the fanatic church, to expel Jews from the countryin 1742, and he managed to receive the support of the OttomanSultan Mahmud I by telling him of the conditions through thehelp of his fellow coreligionists living in the Ottoman Empire,especially through the main goldsmith Yuda Baruh. EmpressMaria-Teresa could not risk rejecting the memorandum of thePadishah and gives up on her decision.

Around the 1750’s, there were several Jewish families fromSefarad in Vienna that came from Turkey due to business relatedmanners. Most of these groups of Jews lived in Vienna, and oth-ers in Timisoara; and since they always protected their Ottomanidentity and remained under the authority of the Sultan they weregiven the name ‘Turkish Jews’ and this reference was also official-ly recognized by Austrian offices and used in all decrees and doc-uments. The titles ‘Turkish Jews’ and ‘Turkish-Jewish Community’(‘Tukisch Israelitische Gemeinde’) appear in the decree whichwas published on June 17, 1778 and which had fourteen pointsdetermining the status of the Sefarad Community. During those

NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASSOn Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938 (November 9-10, 1938 isremembered as the ‘night of broken glass’ as hundreds of syna-gogues were destroyed and burned down in Germany and Austriaby the Nazis), the Sefarad Synagogue also shared the fate of allother German and Austrian synagogues. It was burned down anddestroyed.

So, why is there such an interest in the Ottomans, in their rulers,in their flag and their national anthem in Vienna, although theOttomans never ruled there and, actually, Vienna had, twice,faced attempted invasions, by Suleiman the Magnificent (1529)and Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha (1683), who were both turnedaway from the doors of the city? Now we should go back to thevery beginning of the story, to the time when the Inquisition stillwas in power in Spain during the 18th century.

According to the tale, a child named Mose Lopez Perera, inMadrid, is taken away from his family and is converted toChristianity. His name is changed to Diego d’Aguilarand he is trained as a priest. Diego, who speedi-ly progresses in his education, becomes one ofthe passionate defenders of Inquisition andbecomes a bishop. Mose Lopez’s motherand his sister are Marranos, converted Jewswho secretly continue practicing theirfaith. His sister is caught as a result ofdenunciation, tried, and sentenced to beburned alive (Auto de Fe). One day beforethe execution, the hopeless and sorrowfulmother visits Bishop Diego d’Aguilar andbegs for the forgiveness of her daughter.However, the bishop rejects this request. Indespair, the mother tells the Bishop thetruth, that she is his mother, the convicted ishis sister, and that his real name is Mose Lopez.This name instills many memories from childhoodin the mind of the young priest. Sobbing greatly, thebishop leaves the palace running; however, it is alreadytoo late. His sister has lost her life in a tragic way. As he hastaken off and thrown away his bishop’s clothes, Diego –or Mose-- can not stay in the country any longer. Escaping from there,he goes to Austria, where Maria-Teresa, who, as Archduchess,had given a golden chain to him during her visit to Madrid withher father Emperor Charles VI, is now reigning as Empress. TheEmpress allows Mose and a few more Jewish people that wereable to escape with him to stay in and take refuge in her coun-try and to practice their religion freely.

ACCORDING TO THE ENCYLOPEDIA JUDAICAThe plot of this story is different in the Encyclopedia Judaica andin historical research. According to the Encyclopedia, MoseLopez Pereira was born in 1699 in Portugal as the son of a‘Marrano’ banker. The father, Pereira, was privileged to hold themonopoly in the tobacco business. As it was difficult to secretlylive as a Jew (this is referred to as being a ‘Marrano’) in Portugal,Diego first migrated to London in 1722, and, then, to Vienna.Renouncing Christianity, Diego returned to practicing Judaism

THE TURKISH JEWISH COMMUNITY IN VIENNA

years, Salamon Kapon and Israel B. Haim were the leaders of thecommunity.

When the synagogue of the Turkish Jews in Oberon Donaustrassewas burned down in 1824 by a reason unknown, they began torent a building in Leopoldstadt-321; and the conducting of wor-ship in rental buildings continued until the 1840’s. When the syn-agogue that was built in 1868 in place of the previously enlargedsynagogue from the year 1848 did not any longer serve for theneeds of the growing Ottoman-Jewish population of Vienna,under the leadership of Marcos Russo, who was elected as theTurkish-Jews’ President in 1881 and re-elected in 1885, it wasdecided in consensus that the existing synagogues were to bedemolished and replaced by a large and new synagogue.

THE GRAVESTONES OF VIENNA CENTRAL CEMETERYA few objects related to religious rituals remaining from theVienna Synagogue, which was opened for service in 1887 anddemolished in 1938, were placed in the Vienna Jewish Museum;and a paroheth (a decorated veil that was put over the ‘Ehal’ cab-inet, which was used to contain the Sacred Torah Rolls) is pro-tected in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Among those who werecaptured and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, only a fewsurvived. The most valuable memories remain in our day fromthe times of the magnificent Turkish-Jews of Sefarad in Viennaare the gravestones in the Sefarad section of the Vienna CentralCemetery. Currently, the Sefarad community living in Vienna hasno ties to the Ottoman-Turks of Sefarad as they are Jews withroots in Tashkent and Bukhara.

In the aftermath of the perishing of thirteen synagogues in theGreat Fire (Harik-I Kebir) of August 1905 in Edirne, construction ofthe Great Synagogue, in place of the ruined ones, in the townwhere the Mayor and Polya synagogues previously existed, waspermitted; and French architect France Depre built the syna-gogue, inspired by the Vienna Synagogue. It opened for service in1907 under the name of Kal Kados ha Gadol (The Great SacredSynagogue). As there are no Jews residing in Edirne any more,despite the attempts of the Ministry of Culture, certain represen-tatives, the University of Thrace, and the Turkish Haham Bashi

since 1979, it is so unfortunate that the roof of this magnificentsynagogue collapsed due to the pressure of amassed snow; and,in the following years, its back and side facades were beaten bynatural conditions bit by bit. Although efforts to ‘revive’ this his-toric synagogue and finalize the restoration project were notcompleted on its 100th anniversary, it is hoped that this comple-tion will happen in near future.

* President of The Quincentennial Foundation. �



The Jewish Museum of Turkey was established by theQuincentennial Foundation in the former Zulfaris

Synagogue (Kal Kadosh Galata) situated in the Karakoydistrict of ‹stanbul, not far from the Golden Horn shore.

It aims to promote the story of 700 years of amity betwe-en Turks and Jews, beginning with the Ottoman conquestof Bursa (1326), to show how through the past seven cen-turies the two cultures influenced each other, and to disp-lay the humanitarian spirit of the Turkish nation. The Mu-seum’s mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit, interpretand disseminate knowledge about the cultural heritageof the Turkish Jews.

There is evidence that this synagogue existed in 1671. Ho-wever, the current building was erected over its originalfoundations presumably in the early 19th Century. TheZulfaris Synagogue remained in service until Jews living inthe area moved to other neighborhoods, around 1985. Af-ter that it was assigned to the Quincentennial Foundati-on, which restored the building as a Museum without al-tering its appearance as a synagogue.

The Museum was made possible by the financial backingof the Kamhi Family and the valuable contributions of MrJak Kamhi (President of the Foundation) and the visionand dedication of Mr Naim Güleryüz.

The exhibition in the Main Hall explores, through artifacts,documents and photos, the cultural heritage of TurkishJews, their common life and interaction with the Muslimmajority, and their contribution to the social, intellectualand political life of the country. In the Azara (former wo-

men’s gallery) photos are displayed and case histories de-picted. On the ground floor, arranged as an EthnographicSection, inheritance becomes cultural heritage. Throughscenes such as birth and circumcision, trousseau and wed-ding, this section summarizes the customs of Turkish Jewsand explores the influence of the broader society.

The display concept is intended to be dynamic; case his-tories change from time to time.The Museum is open from Monday to Thursday (10:00 to16:00), Friday and Sunday (10:00 to 14:00), but is closedon Saturdays and High Holidays.

Address : Karaköy Meydani (Square), Percemli Sokak Karaköy

Phones : (0212) 292 6333 and 2926334 Fax : (0212) 244 4474E-mail : [email protected], [email protected]

THE QUINCENTENNIAL FOUNDATION1992 marked the five hundredth anniversary of this mostgracious welcome of Sephardim to Turkish lands. TurkishJews felt it was both fitting and proper to launch an extensi-ve celebration in Turkey, in the United States and in Europe.

The Quincentennial Foundation was established in 1989by a group of 113 Turkish citizens, Jews and Muslims ali-ke. Founded and headquartered in Istanbu,l the Quincen-tennial Foundation planned a three-year (1990 - 1992)cultural and academic program both within Turkey andabroad - mainly in the U.S, Canada and Mexico on theAmerican continent; France, the United Kingdom and dif-ferent countries in Europe.�

The Museum was madepossible by the financial

backing of the KamhiFamily and the valuablecontributions of Mr Jak

Kamhi and the visionand dedication of Mr

Naim Güleryüz.

SEPHARDIC JEWS IN CLASSICAL OTTOMAN MUSIC

The Jew›sh Museum of Turkey

Photos by 500. Y›l Vakf›


Jews had no more than a walk-on role in the story ofmodern Greece’s appearance on the international

stage. Even as late as 1912, Jews made up the largestethnic group in Salonica, Greece; and, Saturdays, whichis the day of Shabbat, used to be a holiday on the pier.A few Jews were wealthy businessmen; however, manyothers were porters, tailors, street vendors, beggars,fishers, and workers in the tobacco business. The marksremaining from those days to our times are the grave-stones with inscribed with Hebrew writing, which arescattered around.

During the time period when Greece was on the path ofgaining independence from the Ottoman Empire, Jews,along with Muslims, suffered due to the Greek revolt.Starting in the second half of the 18th century, Greekrebels and gangsters carried out systemic attacksagainst both Muslim and Jewish populations. As a resultof such acts, the Jews of Egriboz (Chalkis), Istifa(Thebes), and Inebahti (Navpaktos) were completelyannihilated.

A Greek delegation, which was given the responsibilityof activating the ‘Megali Idea’ in 1908, visited Salonica,investigated the economic and social make-up of thecity and determined the main principles of the policythat was to be followed in case of a Greek invasion.According to the reports that the delegation prepared,Greeks did not have much of a voice in the economic lifeof Salonica. Turning this situation around and enablingGreeks to become the real rulers of the city were indis-pensable for the sake of Greece’s interests. Salonicawas to be extricated from being a Turkish and Jewishcity. Following the preparation of this report, Greek offi-cials began to make efforts at reaching their goals andmaking Greeks the rulers of the city. With this aim,some Greek banks were established in Salonica duringthat period.

Propaganda intended to keep the agricultural productsof Greek farmers from being sold to Jewish commission-ers was spread. The Harostis Thessalonikis newspaper,which was published by the Greeks of Salonica, includ-ed articles about the necessity of starting off an econom-ic war against the Jews by the Greeks. Jews, on theother hand, formed a union called ‘Club des Intimes’ inorder to oppose this Greece-sponsored campaign.Becoming worried about the possibility of the tensionsbetween the communities resulting in a clash, theTurkish officials of the city prohibited the Greek newspa-pers from publishing articles that targeted Jews.

EXPLOSION OF THE BALKAN WARWith the explosion of the Balkan War in 1912, the atmos-phere of peace and security atmosphere in the Balkancountries disappeared and nationalism based on racismand religious intolerance took its place. One of thegroups that were harmed due to this situation was theJews in Salonica. Immediately following the Greek inva-sion, the Greeks that made up one-third of the popula-tion of Salonica attempted to take violent acts againstJews and Turks.

The actual incidents began with the entrance of first theGreek troops and then the Bulgarian troops into the city,after the Turkish commander of Salonica surrenderedon November 9, 1912. Turning this situation into an opportunity, the Greeksdisplayed great fanaticism and began to attack Jewishand Turkish neighborhoods. The Greek troops, most ofthe time, acted along with the fanatic Greeks, instead ofpreventing the attacks. Over fifty women were raped.Four hundred stores and three hundred houses belong-ing to Jews were looted and those who resisted werekilled.

The newspaper that followed up on the events mostclosely and reflected on them in detail was the TheJewish Chronicle, which was a newspaper published byEnglish Jews in London. In the reports this newspaperprovided, on a regular basis, from 1913 on, the followingscenes were reflected on:

“The Jewish towns of Salonica, which were once in pros-perity, are in absolute appearance of ruins. The massmigration of Jews from the city is continuing. It is impos-sible to see even a tiny sparkle of hope. Speculationsabout how this situation came about were mostly direct-ed on the new rulers of the city” (May 29, 1914).

Incidents that took place during the invasion causedinternational reactions from Jewish communities inother countries, as well. The committee that was estab-lished, jointly, by The Anglo-Jewish Association andGerman Hilfverein, as well as by Paul Nathan, ElkanAdler and Bernard Kahn, came to the region in January1913 and determined the situation of the Jews on thespot. The committee indicated in its report that the sit-uation in the lands under Greek invasion, especially inSalonica, was much worse than the situation underSerbian and Bulgarian control.

The wide coverage of the pressures inflicted upon Jews bythe Greeks by the world media caused certain powerfulstates, especially England and France, to attempt initia-tives against the Greek government and to desire the end-

The most significant

incident that took

place in Salonica

during the years of

the First World War

was the fire that

occurred on August

5, 1917 and destroyed,

within a few hours,

the Muslim and

Jewish towns in the

city completely.

Jews of Salon›ca and the

Jew›sh Cemetery

JEWS OF SALONICA

By Neval Konuk*


customs tariffs on products coming from abroad limited the opportunitiesof cross-border trade for the Jews. The regulation that requested the set-up of the bazaar on Saturdays was a blow to Jews’ commercial affairssince they were not permitted to work on Saturdays, the sacred day.Furthermore, government’s favoritism towards Orthodox Greeks in thedistribution of import licenses was another blow to Jews. Lastly, as thegovernment placed the shipping companies from Pire into Salonica, Jewslost control over port regulations, which they had uninterruptedly man-aged for 400 years. On the political stage, the Greek government under the leadership ofVenizelos put up barriers against the political empowerment of minoritiesand against their ability to send a representative to the parliament andform an active opposition by placing the Jews of Salonica and the Turks

ing of this situation. The Venizelos administration promptly made state-ments and took measures against actions aimed at Jews. Jewish prisonersof war and those who were held in prisons for no reason were released.

THE FIREDuring the years between 1912 and 1919, Greece followed a soft policytowards the Jews in order to gain the support of Jews who were especial-ly dominant in the social, economic, and cultural life of Salonica. Around70,000 – 75,000 Jews that lived in and near Salonica made up the social,economic, and political dynamics of the region. Although the Jews ofSalonica did not, initially, reject the allegedly peaceful hand of Greece,they realized, in time, that such cooperation was to be against them. Theautonomy of Greece over Salonica meant that the bonds between Jewsand the Balkans would break apart. Also, on the other hand, this situa-tion meant that Salonica was to become ‘Hellenic’, and, consequently, forthe Jewish culture and existence to be ousted.

The most significant incident that took place in Salonica during the years ofthe First World War was the fire that occurred on August 5, 1917 anddestroyed, within a few hours, the Muslim and Jewish towns in the city com-pletely. During this fire, which also caused the commercial centers of the cityto perish, 52,000 Jews and 11,000 Turks lost their houses and work places.The real cause of the fire and how it spread so quickly is still not clear.

Regardless of what caused the fire to start, events in its aftermathshowed that this incident worked not on the side of the Jews but for theadvantage of the Greeks. A week after the fire, the government made allof the areas damaged public and designed a plan to re-develop the city.However, under the framework of this plan, Jews and Muslims who wereharmed in the fire did not receive equal rights when the new buildingswere being constructed, and they were cast out of Salonica. The govern-ment purposefully slowed down the progress of Jews that wanted torebuild their towns on their own. And all of this caused the tensionbetween the government and the Jews to reach high levels. TheHellenization policy, which aimed to gain control in Salonica where Jewspredominantly lived, sped up its pace after WWI ended, especially afterGreek’s ‘Asia minor Expedition’ in 1922 resulted in defeat.

The lives of the Jews in Greece, which were already inconvenient, becameeven more difficult when a great number of Greeks living in Turkey beganto move to Greece as a result of an exchange agreement between Turkeyand Greece. This new population was settled in the towns where Turkslived; and they became neighbors with Jews. The number of Greeks whomoved to Salonica through this agreement was over 100,000 and this sit-uation turned the population distribution of the city upside down.Although Jews had possessed an unchallenged superiority in commerceand handicrafts for centuries, they began to regress in the face of thenewcomers, who, with the encouragement of the government, becameactive in the same sectors.

JEWS LOST CONTROL OVER PORT REGULATIONSThe time period when the migrants from Anatolia settled in Salonica andnearby was also the years when Greeks were trying to heal the woundsthey received in their defeat by the Turks. Those who looked for excusesfor their unsuccessful outcome started to blame the Jews that took sidewith the Turks during the Anatolian resistance. Jews in Salonica alsowere subjected to these accusations. Under these circumstances, somedecisions the Greek government made between the years 1924 and 1936resulted in the exclusion of Jews from economic life. The increase of the

JEWS OF SALONICA

of Western Thrace in separate electoral districts. Empowered byVenizelos’ anti-Semitic policies, certain groups organized a great demon-stration on June 29 1931 in Salonica. Nearly 2000 Greeks that participat-ed in the demonstration headed towards Kampbell town in Salonica,where 220 Jewish families resided, and set numerous buildings on fire,including the synagogue, school, community center and the residenciesof the rabbi and the doctor. The fire turned the centuries-old Jewish towninto ashes in a very short period.

Shortly after, a synagogue in the town of Harilaos, in Salonica, was also seton fire in July of 1931; and this was followed by an attack by Greek groupson the Jews of Sefardim in town #15. Those who attacked Jewish townswere tried before the courts. However, all of them were then set free. Toavoid the spreading of the word about the actions against Jews to peoplein foreign lands, letters sent abroad by Jews in Greece were confiscated.

A new era began in Greece in 1936 when Venizelos was removed fromoffice, the republican government was dismantled, George II wascrowned, and the monarchy was re-established. During the dictatorialadministration of Prime Minister Metaxas, Jews achieved a somewhateased situation. However, with the start of WWII, one of the most painfulpages in the history of Jews in Greece was opened.

GERMAN TOOK OVER CONTROLFor the 56,000 Jews living Salonica, the actual negative events beganwhen Greece was occupied by the Germans. Immediately after enteringSalonica, as one of their first actions there, the Germans closed down allof the newspapers that Jews were publishing. Organizations of republi-can Jews were disbanded.

On July 11, 1942, the general of the German troops in northern Greece,General von Krenzki, ordered all Jewish males in Salonica to gather in thecity center. Jews were told they were to receive workers’ card in order towork. That day, around 10,000 Jews were beaten by German soldiersuntil the evening. The next day, they were sent to the swamps on thewestern side of the city. A majority of them got malaria there.

When the Nazi SS commanders took over control in the German-occupiedregions in February of 1943, Jews were sent to the camps. Areas that werevacated by the Jews were handed over to the Greeks by the Germans.

In the month of 1942, the old Jewish cemetery, which had a history goingback to the 15th century and had 50,000 gravestones, was expropriated.

The major Jewish cemetery in Salonica was given to the control of themunicipality with the excuse of the need to enlarge the university. In ashort period, Greeks demolished this cemetery. The gravestones werebroken down; and some of them were used in the construction of hous-es. Today, it is possible to see Jewish gravestones from those yearsplaced as upholstery in the Agios Dimitrios church in Salonica and asroadblocks across from the university.

Attacks on Jewish cemeteries have taken place again in recent years in var-ious parts of Greece. Some of these incidents are as follows: Greek extrem-ist nationalists destroying the Jewish cemetery in Trikala on March 18, 1997;an unidentified group entering the 3rd section of the Jewish cemetery inEgaleo, Athens on May 27, 2000 and drawing crosses with gamma designsand writing anti-Semitic slogans on gravestones and the Jewish GenocideMonument with spray paint; and the incident on October 18, 2003, duringwhich the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Yanya were soiled andneo-Nazi slogans and crosses with gammas were written on them.

Today, the population of the Jewish minority living in different parts ofGreece is about 6,000. There are two reasons for the further decrease inthe Jewish population, which was actually nearly 10,000 following thegenocide of the WWII. One of them is due to Greek-Jews, just like manyother Jews in various parts of the world, leaving the lands they lived in forhundreds of years and migrating to Israel after the state of Israel was estab-lished in 1948. The second and the more interesting reason is the fact thatmany Jewish people had to leave these lands due to the anti-Semitism thatprevailed in Greece not only before the war but also in its aftermath.

In 1997, a small Jewish school was opened in Salonica, where 1000 Jewslive. In our day, this continues in the same way. In 2000, a group of Jewsbegan to search for ways to retain the community’s wealth, which isworth $2.4 million.�

* Neval Konuk has an expert on Ottoman architecture and culture in the Balkans. Konuk

has published five books and 20 research papers, participated in 10 international confer-

ences. She worked to find out Ottoman architectural works in Bulgaria, Macedonia,

Kosovo, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Hungary. She still works on Ottoman

architectural works in Greece for Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Art historian.


Sephardic Jew brought along with them from Spain notonly their customs and practices but also their cuisi-

ne. Going through a number of changes over the gene-rations, these traditions are left to us as an inheratence.The changing conditions of life have caused them to be-gin to disappear. In our time, less time is spent in thekitchen. For example, instead of first boiling a certain fo-od and, then, broiling or baking it in the oven, simpler dis-hes, such as a salad and grilled meat, are preferred. Our eating habits are changing, and the Sephardic cuisi-ne, which is much richer, is taking a secondary place onour tables. The cooking of Sephardic dishes require verycareful and time-consuming work. Certain dishes are pre-pared by firstly picking the vegetables and boiling them;and, then, followed by their being braised and cooked.

For instance: Albondigas de Prasa (Turkish leek meatballs)1.5 kg leeks (3.3 lb)250 grams ground meat (8.8 oz) 1 slice of bread crumb (soaked)1 eggSalt and pepper

Trim and wash the leeks and cut them into pieces, thenboil them until they are very soft. Drain, and when thevegetables are cool enough to handle, press them bet-ween your palms as hard as you can to get all the waterout that you possibly can. Now put the leeks, breadcrumb, meat and egg into the food processor with abo-ut 1 tsp of salt and pepper and blend to a soft paste. Sha-pe into little round flat cakes and pan-fry in oil, turningthem over once. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.In Sephardic cuisine, there are a greater number of ve-getable dishes in comparison to meat dishes. We sup-

pose that this is due to worries about remaining faithfulto the rules of keeping kosher. In order for the meat tobe declared kosher, the animal must be inspected bythose who are coreligionists and educated.

The animal is killed by a trained Jewish butcher withoutpain as they use a very special, sharp, and smooth knifeand strike only once. Later, the internal organs of theanimal are inspected one by one. If healthy, it is sold tothe butcher shops that only sell kosher meat. Since ea-ting the blood of the meat is forbidden in Judaism, themeat is taken through another process in the houses be-fore it is cooked. This process involves washing the me-at carefully and letting it sit in salted water for nearly anhour. This way, the pouring out of the blood is madepossible. Once it is made sure that the meat is well clea-ned, it is cooked. Meat and milk can not be cooked to-gether. This is a religious rule.Among the other characteristics of the Sephardic cuisi-ne that we can point out is the usage of multiple vege-tables. Eggplant and zucchini could be used together inpastries. Onion, tomato, parsley, and lemon are usedvery often in order to add flavors. From different parts ofa vegetable, different dishes may be cooked. Forexample, a dish could be prepared by using the inside ofa zucchini and another by using its skin. While a certainkind of dish may be made from spinach leaves, a diffe-rent kind may be made from spinach stems. There is a‘plum sauce’, which is called ‘agristida’, that is one ofthe main ingredients in the this cuisines.

Agristida: Water, lemon, oil, and salt are boiled toget-her. Flour is dissolved in a small amount of cold water ina separate cup and added to the boiling water. Whenthe mixture reaches a creamy stage, it is taken awayfrom the heat, and a whipped egg is gradually added in-to it. This sauce is mainly used with grilled meat patties,boiled fish, and boiled brains.

In Sephardic cuisine,there are a greater

number of vegetabledishes in comparison to

meat dishes. We suppose that this is

due to worries aboutremaining faithful tothe rules of keeping

kosher.

Sephard›c Cu›s›ne

CUISINE

By Viki Koronya

Photos: Courtesy of Carne Restaurant.



boil, the fish is placed in it and cooked for about ten minutes.

During the Friday dinners, after the fish, meat or chicken, a few types of ve-getables, and rice are brought to the table. After this wonderful dinner, va-rious types of desserts are eaten. On Saturdays, the males of the house-hold go to the morning prayers. The women, on the other hand, prepare agrand breakfast for the men when they return. This is called ‘dezayuno.’

On the table, there would be bulemas (‘rose boreks’ that are made of phyl-lo and stuffed with eggplant, spinach, or cheese), borekas, tapadas (a panborek that is made of dough), biskocos (biscuits), boiled eggs, variouskinds of cheese, watermelon, and grapes.Among the important holidays, there is ‘Rosh Hashanah’ (New Year’s Eve inthe Hebrew calender). This holiday is celebrated in the month of Septem-

ber and out-of-season fruits and vegetables are eaten throughout. Al-so on the table would be the leek patty, for which we gave the re-

cipe earlier, spinach borek, fish, chicken or meat, vegetables,pumpkin pie, apple jam, pomagranates, dates, and wine.

Immediately after this holiday, the ‘Yom KippurFasting’ is practiced. Throughout the fast, whichlasts twenty six hours, nothing is eaten or drunk.Prior to the fast, a full course meal, without spi-ces, is eaten. The fast is broken by eating smallloaves of bread that are dipped in oil. Followingthis, coffee with milk is drunk and sweet andsalty biscuits are eaten. After taking a short bre-ak, vermicelli soup with chicken is eaten. Anot-

her holiday celebrated by Jews is ‘Pesach’ (Pas-sover), which is symbolized with a diet excluding

leavening. The families gather around the table forthe meal named a ‘seder.’ Before the seder, the

story of the Jews’ escape from Egyptian captivity is re-ad. On the seder table, the following is placed symboli-

cally: Matzoh (bread without leavining), a leg of lamb (thesacrifice), hard-boiled eggs, celery leaf, charoset (a kind of spread

prepared with grapes or dates; it sybolizes the mixture used in constructi-on during the time of captivity), and vinegar.

The meal, on the other hand, includes the following: densely boiled egg‘bimuelos’ (boreks that are prepared without leavening), ‘fritadas’ (bo-reks with vegetables), fish, and lamb meat.

The desserts that are special to this holiday are these; Marzipan (almondspread), Sarope blanko (white dessert), ‘tez pisti’ (a dessert with walnuts).

Passover lasts for about a week. Only home-cooked meals are eaten. Forthis reason, this is a quite tiring holiday for the women. Sepharidic Jewssettled in various parts of Turkey. Primarily, Bursa, Izmir, Canakkale, Te-kirdag, Edirne, and Istanbul are the cities they live in. The cuisine of eachregion has its own characteristics. While same dishes could be nameddifferently according to the region, dishes that have the same name co-uld be prepared with different methods in different places.

Currently, the Levi Restaurant, which is located behind the Istanbul Egy-ptian Bazaar, serves Sephardic food; it has provided service, especially toJewish businessmen, for years. * This text has been taken from the September-October 2003 - 56th issue of the ‘Gorus Maga-

zine’ of TUSIAD. �

KINDS OF ‘BOREK’This cuisine has various, rich kinds of ‘borek’ (a kind of pastry). The dif-ferent kinds of borek, made by rolling out dough, may be prepared withvarious vegetables and meat. Among the ones that are prepared by rol-ling dough, the ‘boreka’ is the most typical one. The ‘borekas’ may bestuffed with different ingredients such as cheese, eggplant, and potato.It could be claimed that the ones that are stuffed with eggplants are themost delicious ones.

And the recipe for it is the following:Ingredients for the dough: 1 cup of sunflower oil, 1 cup of melted marga-rine, 1 cup of water, a pinch of salt, flour needed.

Ingredientts for the stuffing: 2 eggplants, 100 grams feta cheese, 1 cup ofgrated kosher or Gruyere cheese.

Instructions: The eggplants are cooked over hot ashes;then, they are peeled, washed, and drained. The egg-lants are then blended very well in the blender and thecheeses are added into it. The ingredients for the do-ugh are mixed together and it is kneaded until it re-aches the thickness of an ear lobe. The dough isthen rolled out with the rolling pin; the eggplantstuffing is spread over it and it is covered with do-ugh. The pastries are given the form of a half-mo-on by using a coffee cup to press out the shapes.They are placed on a pan and whipped egg isspread over them. Grated cheese is sprinkledover them and they are baked in the oven.

The vegetable boreks: Ençusa de espinaka (withspiniah), Ençusa de Berencene (with eggplant), Al-modrote de Kalavasa (with zucchini).

Encusa de espinaka: The spinach leaves of are washed andchopped finely. After this dries, bread crumbs, eggs, feta cheese,kosher cheese, sunflower oil, and salt are added and the mix is kneaded.This mixture is spread over an oiled pan and it is cooked in the oven aftergrated cheese is sprinkled over it.

HOLIDAY FOODWe should mention a little about the holiday foods. (Friday evenings andSaturday days are considered holidays). In every Jewish household, Fri-day evenings have a special place. In general, there is a big family dinner.Youngsters gather in the homes of the elderly. The host looks after Fri-day evenings with great care.

The table is preparedd elegantly. There is a special way of tablepreparation: white table cloth, the Shabbat candle, Kiddush glass, awhole loaf of bread, and flowers are used.

The menu is different from that of other evenings of the week. A few kindsof borek and fish (mostly ‘Gaya Kon Avramila’ with the ‘plum sauce’) arethe general dishes of these evenings.

We cannot go on without providing the recipe of the ‘plum sauce’: Sourplums are washed and boiled; after they are drained, they are squeezedthrough the strainer until their pulp is left over. The pulp is then cookedin a pan along with oil, sugar, salt, and a bit of water. When it begins to

Volume 8 Issue 34 - 3rd Edition - A Special Issue on Sephardic Jews

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