History of the Jews in Turkey

See also: History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Antisemitism in Turkey

Ethnic group

Turkish Jews
Türk Yahudileri / Türk Musevileri
יהודים טורקים
Djudios Turkos / Cudios Turkos

Total population
est. 330,000–450,000
Regions with significant populations
Israel| 280,000[1]
Turkey| 14,500 (2022)[2]
14,300 (2024)[3][4][5][6]
United States| 16,000[citation needed]
Canada| 8,000[citation needed]
Languages
Hebrew (in Israel), Turkish, Judaeo-Spanish, English, French, Greek, Yevanic (extinct), Levantine Arabic[7] Kurdish[8]
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Jews, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Spanish Jews, Greek Jews
Part of a series on

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* Rabbinic Judaism
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Related groups

* Bnei Anusim
* Lemba
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* Kaifeng Jews
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* Anusim
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Population

* Judaism by country
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Land of Israel

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Africa

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Asia

* Afghanistan
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Oceania

* Australia
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Denominations

* Orthodox
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Culture

|  Customs

* Minyan
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Music

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Art

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Languages

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Politics

|  Jewish political movements

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* Category
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* v
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* e

Religion in Turkey

Secularism in Turkey

Islam in Turkey

* Sunni Islam
(Hanafi, Shafi'i)
* Shia Islam
(Alevi, Ja'fari, Nusayri)
* Sufism
(Bektashi, Mawlawi, Naqshbandi, Qadiri)
* Nondenominational Muslim

Christianity in Turkey

* Eastern
(Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Turkish Orthodox)
* Catholic
(Latin Catholic, Greek Catholic, Chaldean Catholic)
* Protestant

Judaism in Turkey

* Sephardi
* Ashkenazi
* Romaniote
* Sabbatean

Minor religions

* Bahá'í Faith in Turkey
* Tengrism
* Yazidis in Turkey
* Hinduism in Turkey
* Buddhism in Turkey

Irreligion in Turkey

* v
* t
* e

The history of the Jews in Turkey (Turkish: Türk Yahudileri or Türk Musevileri; Hebrew: יהודים טורקים, romanized: Yehudim Turkim; Ladino: Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey.

There have been Jewish communities in Anatolia since at least the beginning of the common era. Anatolia's Jewish population before Ottoman times primarily consisted of Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews, with a handful of dispersed Karaite communities. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, many Sephardic Jews from Spain, Portugal and South Italy expelled by the Alhambra Decree found refuge across the Ottoman Empire, including in regions now part of Turkey. This influx played a pivotal role in shaping the predominant identity of Ottoman Jews.[9]

By the end of the sixteenth century, the Jewish population in the Ottoman Empire was double (150,000) that of Jews in Poland and Ukraine combined (75,000), far surpassing other Jewish communities to be the largest in the world.[10][11] Turkey's Jewish community was large, diverse and vibrant, forming the core of Ottoman Jewry until World War I. Early signs of change included education reforms and the rise of Zionism. The community declined sharply after World War I, with many emigrating to Israel, France and the Americas. Turkish Jews in Israel became leaders of the Sephardic community, and their Ladino language was a prominent characteristic.[12]

Today, the vast majority of Turkish Jews live in Israel, though Turkey itself still has a modest Jewish population, where the vast majority live in Istanbul, and the remainder in İzmir. Jews are one of the four ethnic minorities officially recognized in Turkey, together with Armenians, Greeks,[13][14][15] and Bulgarians.[16][17][18]

## History

[edit]

### Roman and Byzantine rule

[edit]

Main articles: History of the Jews in Greece, History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, and History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire

Sardis Synagogue was a section of a large bath-gymnasium complex that was in use for about 450–500 years.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Noah's Ark landed on the top of Mount Ararat, a mountain in eastern Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, near the present-day borders of Turkey, Armenia, and Iran.[19]

In the 1st century AD, Jewish historian Josephus cited records confirming the presence of diaspora Jews in Lydia and Phrygia by the late 3rd century BC, a community established through the relocation of 2000 families by Seleucid king Antiochus III.[20] Josephus notes Jewish origins for many of the cities in Anatolia, though much of his sourcing for these passages is traditional.[21] Descendants in Sardis and other centers gained civic privileges by the Late Republican Rome.[20]

The New Testament has many mentions of Jewish populations in Anatolia: Iconium (now Konya) is said to have a synagogue in Acts of the Apostles 14:1, and Ephesus is mentioned as having a synagogue in Acts 19:1 and in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. The Epistle to the Galatians is likewise directed at Galatia, which once held an established Jewish population.[22][23][24]

Based on physical evidence, there has been a Jewish community in Anatolia since the fourth century BCE, most notably in the city of Sardis. The subsequent Roman and Byzantine Empires included sizable Greek-speaking Jewish communities in their Anatolian domains which seem to have been relatively well-integrated and enjoyed certain legal immunities.[23]

The size of the Jewish community was not greatly affected by the attempts of some Byzantine emperors (most notably Justinian I) to forcibly convert the Jews of Anatolia to Christianity, as these attempts met with very little success.[25] The exact picture of the status of the Jews in Asia Minor under Byzantine rule is still being researched by historians.[26] Although there is some evidence of occasional hostility by the Byzantine populations and authorities, no systematic persecution of the type endemic at that time in western Europe (pogroms, the stake, mass expulsions, etc.) is believed to have occurred in Byzantium.[27]

Jews arrived in Anatolia between the sixth century BCE and 133 BCE, when the Romans arrived. They were Romaniote Jews and first settled in Phrygia and Lydia.[28] In 2020, a seventh-century synagogue was uncovered in Side.[23]

### Ottoman era

[edit]

A Krymchak, a Turkic-speaking Crimean Jew (Crimean Khanate, Ottoman Empire)

Main article: History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire

See also: Romaniote Jews and Alhambra Decree

The first synagogue linked to Ottoman rule is "Tree of Life" (Hebrew: עץ החיים) in Bursa, which passed to Ottoman authority in 1324. The synagogue is still in use, although the modern Jewish population of Bursa has shrunk to about 140 people.[29]

The status of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire often hinged on the whims of the sultan. So, for example, while Murad III ordered that the attitude of all non-Muslims should be one of "humility and abjection" and that they should not "live near Mosques or tall buildings" or own slaves, others were more tolerant.[30]

The first major event in Jewish history under Turkish rule took place after the Empire gained control over Constantinople. After Mehmed the Conqueror's conquest of Constantinople he found the city in a state of disarray. After suffering many sieges, the devastating sack of Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204 and the arrival of the Black Death pandemic in 1347,[31] the city was a shadow of its former glory. Since Mehmed wanted the city as his new capital, he decreed its rebuilding.[32]

In order to revivify Constantinople he ordered that Muslims, Christians and Jews from all over his empire be resettled in the new capital.[32] Within months, most of the Empire's Romaniote Jews, from the Balkans and Anatolia, were concentrated in Constantinople, where they made up 10% of the city's population.[33] At the same time, the forced resettlement, though not intended as an anti-Jewish measure, was perceived as an "expulsion" by the Jews.[34] Despite this interpretation, Romaniotes would be the most influential community in the Empire for a few decades, until that position would be lost to a wave of Sephardi immigrants.

The number of Romaniotes was soon bolstered by small groups of Ashkenazi Jews that immigrated to the Ottoman Empire between 1421 and 1453.[33] Among these immigrants was Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati, a German-born Jew of French descent[35] (צרפתי Sarfati, meaning "French"), who became Chief Rabbi of Edirne and wrote a letter inviting European Jewry to settle in the Ottoman Empire, in which he stated, "Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking," and asking, "Is it not better for you to live under Muslims than under Christians?"[35][36]

The greatest influx of Jews into Anatolia Eyalet and the Ottoman Empire occurred during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror's successor, Bayezid II (1481–1512), after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. The Sultan issued a formal invitation and refugees started arriving in the empire in great numbers. A key moment occurred in 1492, when more than 40,000 Spanish Jews fled the Spanish Inquisition.[37] At that point in time, Constantinople's population was a mere 70,000 due to the various sieges of the city during the Crusades and the Black Death, so this historical event was also significant for repopulation of the city. These Sephardi Jews settled in Constantinople, as well as Thessaloniki.

The Jews satisfied various needs in the Ottoman Empire: the Muslim Turks were largely uninterested in business enterprises and accordingly left commercial occupations to members of minority religions. They also distrusted the Christian subjects whose countries had only recently been conquered by the Ottomans and therefore it was natural to prefer Jewish subjects to which this consideration did not apply.[38]

Ottoman Jewish wedding in 1904

The Sephardi Jews were allowed to settle in the wealthier cities of the empire, especially in Rumelia (the European provinces, cities such as Constantinople, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, Adrianople and Nicopolis), western and northern Anatolia (Bursa, Aydın, Tokat, Tire, Manisa and Amasya),[9] but also in the Mediterranean coastal regions (Jerusalem, Safed, Damascus, and Egypt). İzmir was not settled by Spanish Jews until later.

The Jewish population in Jerusalem increased from 70 families in 1488 to 1500 at the beginning of the 16th century. That of Safed increased from 300 to 2000 families and almost surpassed Jerusalem in importance. Damascus had a Sephardic congregation of 500 families. Constantinople had a Jewish community of 30,000 individuals with 44 synagogues. Bayezid allowed the Jews to live on the banks of the Golden Horn. Egypt Eyalet, especially Cairo, received a large number of the exiles, who soon outnumbered Musta'arabi Jews. Gradually, the chief center of the Sephardi Jews became Thessaloniki, where the Spanish Jews soon outnumbered coreligionists of other nationalities and, at one time, the original native inhabitants.

Although the status of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire may have often been exaggerated,[39] it is undeniable that they enjoyed tolerance. Under the millet system they were organized as a community on the basis of religion alongside the other millets (e.g. Eastern Orthodox millet, Armenian Apostolic millet, etc.). In the framework of the millet, they had a considerable amount of administrative autonomy and were represented by the Hakham Bashi, the Chief Rabbi. There were no restrictions in the professions Jews could practice analogous to those common in Western Christian countries.[40] There were restrictions in the areas Jews could live or work, but such restrictions were imposed on Ottoman subjects of other religions as well.[38]

Like all non-Muslims, Jews had to pay the haraç "head tax" and faced other restrictions in clothing, horse riding, army service etc., but they could occasionally be waived or circumvented.[41] Jews who reached high positions in the Ottoman court and administration include Mehmed the Conqueror's Minister of Finance (Defterdar) Hekim Yakup Paşa, his Portuguese physician Moses Hamon, Murad II's physician İshak Paşa and Abraham de Castro, master of the mint in Egypt.

During the Classical Ottoman period (1300–1600), the Jews, together with most other communities of the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity. Compared with other Ottoman subjects, they were the predominant power in commerce and trade as well in diplomacy and other high offices. In the 16th century especially, the Jews were the most prominent under the millets, the apogee of Jewish influence could arguably be the appointment of Joseph Nasi to sanjak-bey (governor, a rank usually only bestowed upon Muslims) of Naxos.[42] Also in the first half of the 17th century the Jews were distinct in winning tax farms, Haim Gerber describes it: "My impression is that no pressure existed, that it was merely performance that counted."[43]

Friction between Jews and Turks was less common than in the Arab territories. Some examples: During the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640), the Jews of Jerusalem were persecuted by an Arab who had purchased the governorship of that city from the governor of the province.[citation needed] Under Mehmed IV (1649–1687), the 1660 destruction of Safed occurred.[44][45][46]

An additional problem was Jewish ethnic divisions. They had come to the Ottoman Empire from many lands, bringing with them their own customs and opinions, to which they clung tenaciously, and had founded separate congregations. Another tremendous upheaval was caused when Sabbatai Zevi claimed to be the Messiah. He was eventually caught by the Ottoman authorities and when given the choice between death and conversion, he opted for the latter. His remaining disciples converted to Islam too. Their descendants are today known as Dönmeh.

The history of the Jews in Turkey in the 18th and 19th century is principally a chronicle of decline in influence and power; they lost their influential positions in trade mainly to the Greeks, who were able to "capitalize on their religio-cultural ties with the West and their trading diaspora".[43] An exception to this is Daniel de Fonseca, who was chief court physician and played a certain political role. He is mentioned by Voltaire, who speaks of him as an acquaintance whom he esteemed highly. Fonseca was involved in negotiations with Charles XII of Sweden.

Ottoman Jews held a variety of views on the role of Jews in the Ottoman Empire, from loyal Ottomanism to Zionism.[47] Emmanuel Carasso, for example, was a founding member of the Young Turks, and believed that the Jews of the Empire should be Turks first, and Jews second.

As mentioned before, the overwhelming majority of the Ottoman Jews lived in Rumelia. As the Empire declined however, the Jews of these region found themselves under Christian rule. The Bosnian Jews for example came under Austro-Hungarian rule after the occupation of the region in 1878, the independence of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia further lowered the number of Jews within the borders of the Ottoman Empire.

### Early republic

[edit]

See also: Single-party period of the Republic of Turkey

A 1902 Issue of La Epoca, a Ladino newspaper from Salonica (Thessaloniki) during the Ottoman Empire Morris Schinasi, Ottoman Jewish businessman, who immigrated to the United States in 1890

The Jewish population of Ottoman Empire had reached nearly 200,000 at the start of the 20th century.[48] The territories lost between 1829 and 1913 to the new Christian Balkan states significantly lowered this number.

The troubled history of Turkey during the 20th century and the process of transforming the old Ottoman Empire into a secular nation state after 1923, however, had a negative effect on the size of all remaining minorities, including the Jews.

After 1933, a new law put into effect in Nazi Germany for mandatory retirement of officials from non-Aryan race. Thus, the law required all the Jewish scientists in Germany to be fired. Unemployed scientists led by Albert Einstein formed an association in Switzerland. Professor Schwartz, the general secretary of the association, met with the Turkish Minister of Education in order to provide jobs for 34 Jewish scientists in Turkish universities especially in Istanbul University.[49]

However, the planned deportation of Jews from East Thrace and the associated anti-Jewish pogrom in 1934 was one of the events that caused insecurity among the Turkish Jews.[50] Before the start of the pogroms, Ibrahim Tali Öngören, the Inspectorate General of the Trakya Inspectorate General, suggested to remove the Jews from the region as they presented an economic threat to the Muslim population.[51] In 1934, the Turkish government expelled all the Jews from Edirne and the Straits.[52]

The effect of the 1942 Varlık Vergisi ("Wealth Tax") was solely on non-Muslims – who still controlled the largest portion of the young republic's wealth – even though in principle it was directed against all wealthy Turkish citizens, it most intensely affected non-Muslims. The "wealth tax" is still remembered as a "catastrophe" among the non-Muslims of Turkey and it had one of the most detrimental effects on the population of Turkish Jews. Many people unable to pay the exorbitant taxes were sent to labor camps and in consequence about 30,000 Jews emigrated.[53] The tax was seen as a racist attempt to diminish the economic power of religious minorities in Turkey.[54]

### World War II

[edit]

Main article: Turkey and the Holocaust

Grand Synagogue of Edirne Administrative entrance to the Grand Synagogue of Edirne

During World War II, Turkey was officially neutral although it maintained strong diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.[55] During the war, Turkey denaturalized 3,000 to 5,000 Jews living abroad; 2,500 Turkish Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Sobibor and other extermination camps. When Nazi Germany encouraged neutral countries to repatriate their Jewish citizens, Turkish diplomats received instructions to avoid repatriating Jews even if they could prove their Turkish nationality.[56] Turkey was also the only neutral country to implement anti-Jewish laws during the war.[57] More Turkish Jews suffered as a result of discriminatory policies during the war than were saved by Turkey.[58] Although Turkey has promoted the idea that it was a rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust, this is considered a myth by historians.[59] This myth has been used to promote Armenian genocide denial.[60]

Turkey served as a transit for European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution during the 1930s and 1940s.[61][62]

A memorial stone with a bronze epitaph was inaugurated in 2012, as the third of individual country memorials (after Poland and the Netherlands) at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for eight Turkish citizens killed during the Nazi regime in the said camp. The Turkish Ambassador to Berlin, Hüseyin Avni Karslıoğlu stated in an inauguration speech that Germany set free 105 Turkish citizens, held in camps, after a mutual agreement between the two countries, and these citizens returned to Turkey in April 1945, although there is no known official record for other Turkish Jews who died during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

According to Rıfat Bali, Turkish authorities bear some responsibility for the Struma disaster, killing about 781 Jewish refugees and 10 crew, due to their refusal to allow the Jewish refugees on board to disembark in Turkey.[63][64] William Rubinstein goes further, citing British pressure on Turkey not to let Struma's passengers disembark, in accordance with Britain's White Paper of 1939 to prevent further Jewish immigration to Israel then-Palestine.[65][66]

### Emigration from Turkey to Israel

[edit]

Bet Israel Synagogue (İzmir) Hemdat Israel Synagogue

When the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, Aliyah was not particularly popular amongst Turkish Jewry; migration from Turkey to Palestine was minimal in the 1920s.[67]

Between 1923 and 1948, approximately 7,300 Jews emigrated from Turkey to Mandatory Palestine.[68] After the 1934 Thrace pogroms following the 1934 Turkish Resettlement Law, it is estimated that 521 Jews left for Palestine from Turkey in 1934 and 1,445 left in 1935.[68] However, although the Law on Settlement may well have actually provoked the incidents’ outbreak, the national authorities did not side with the attackers but immediately intervened in the incidents. After order was restored, the governors and mayors of the provinces involved were removed from office.[69]

Immigration to Palestine was organized by the Jewish Agency and the Palestine Aliya Anoar Organization. The Varlık Vergisi, a capital tax which occurred in 1942, was also significant in encouraging emigration from Turkey to Palestine; between 1943 and 1944, 4,000 Jews emigrated.[70]

The Jews of Turkey reacted very favorably to the creation of the State of Israel. Between 1948 and 1951, 34,547 Jews immigrated to Israel, nearly 40% of the Turkish Jewish population at the time.[71] Immigration was stunted for several months in November 1948, when Turkey suspended migration permits as a result of pressure from Arab countries.[72]

In 1949, Turkey officially recognized Israel, becoming the first Muslim-majority country to do so.[73] Migration permits were reinstated and emigration continued, with 26,000 emigrating within the same year. The migration was entirely voluntary, and was primary driven by economic factors given the majority of emigrants were from the lower classes.[74] In fact, the migration of Jews to Israel is the second largest mass emigration wave out of Turkey, the first being the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey.[75]

After 1951, emigration of Jews from Turkey to Israel slowed perceptibly.[76]

In the mid-1950s, 10% of those who had moved to Israel returned to Turkey. A new synagogue, the Neve Şalom, was constructed in Istanbul in 1951. Generally, Turkish Jews in Israel have integrated well into society and are not distinguishable from other Israelis.[77] However, they maintain their Turkish culture and connection to Turkey, and are strong supporters of close relations between Israel and Turkey.[78]

### Democratic Party period

[edit]

See also: Antisemitism in Turkey

On the night of 6/7 September 1955, the Istanbul Pogrom was unleashed. Although primarily aimed at the city's Greek population, the Jewish and Armenian communities of Istanbul were also targeted to a degree. The damage caused was mainly material (over 4,000 shops and 1,000 houses belonging to Greeks, Armenians and Jews were destroyed) it deeply shocked minorities throughout the country.[79][80]

### 21st century

[edit]

Neve Shalom Synagogue, completed in 1951 in the Galata district of Istanbul, Turkey Yeniköy Synagogue in Istanbul

The present size of the Jewish community was estimated at 17,400 in 2012 according to the Jewish Virtual Library.[81] The vast majority, approximately 95%, live in Istanbul, with a community of about 2,500 in İzmir, and until the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, much smaller communities in Antakya and İskenderun. Sephardi Jews make up approximately 96% of Turkey's Jewish population, while the rest are primarily Ashkenazi Jews and Jews from Italian extraction. There is also a small community of Romaniote Jews and the community of the Constantinopolitan Karaites who are related to each other.

The city of Antakya, was home to ten Jewish families, numbering 20 members in 2014, many of whom were Syrian Jews of Mizrahi Jewish extraction, having originally come from Aleppo, Syria, 2,500 years ago. Figures were once higher but families have left for Istanbul, Israel and other countries.[82]

Turkish Jews are still legally represented by the Hakham Bashi, the Chief Rabbi. Rabbi Ishak Haleva is assisted by a religious council made up of a Rosh Bet Din and three Hahamim. 35 lay counselors look after the secular affairs of the community and an executive committee of fourteen, the president of which must be elected from among the lay counselors, runs the daily affairs. The Istanbul community also has 16 synagogues and well kept and guarded cemetery.[83]

In 2001, the Jewish Museum of Turkey was founded by the Quincentennial Foundation, an organisation established in 1982 consisting of 113 Turkish citizens, both Jews and Muslims, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Sephardic Jews to the Ottoman Empire.[84]

The Turkish-Jewish population is experiencing a population decline, and has dwindled to 17,000 in a few years from an original figure of 23,000.[when?] This is due to both large-scale immigration to Israel out of fear of antisemitism, but also because of natural population decline. Intermarriage with Turkish Muslims and assimilation have become common, and the community's death rate is more than twice that of its birth rate.[85][86]

As of 2022, the Jewish population in Turkey is around 14,500.[87]

In the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, the leaders of the Jewish community of Antakya were killed, the Antakya Synagogue was badly damaged, and the entire Jewish community, numbering 14 members, was evacuated from Antakya.[88][89][90]

## Languages

[edit]

Late 20th – early 21st century language distribution.
• Turkish
• Arabic speakers  are shown by religious affiliation: Alawite (circle), Christian (triangle), Sunni (square), Bedouin Sunni (rectangle), Jewish (rhombus).[91][a]

The Jewish community in Turkey was linguistically diverse. Sephardic Jews spoke Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) and French was used as a prestige language in the community. Sephardic Jews completely shifted to Turkish after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. Ashkenazi Jews spoke Yiddish or French and similarly shifted to Turkish. In Istanbul, many Jews would also speak Greek or Armenian until the mid 20th century given the city's ethnic diversity.[92] Jews in Hatay spoke Levantine Arabic.[7] The 11 Jewish communities in Turkish Kurdistan spoke Kurdish but the community doesn't exist anymore.[8]

Jews and their linguistic rights are officially recognized as a minority in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.[13][14][16][15] According to this Treaty, officially recognized minorities (Armenians, Greeks and Jews) can use their mother tongue freely, especially for education purposes. At the time, the mother tongue of the majority of Turkish Jews was Ladino. French was also the medium of instruction in most Jewish schools run by the Alliance Israélite Universelle in the Ottoman Empire. However, the Turkish government considered that, for the purpose of the Treaty of Lausanne, the mother tongue of Jews was Hebrew, and therefore only allowed teaching in Hebrew.[93][94] The Ministry of National Education refused to change its decision despite requests from the Jewish community. For that reason, Jewish schools switched from French to Turkish.[93]

## Antisemitism

[edit]

Main article: Antisemitism in Turkey

According to researchers at Tel Aviv University, antisemitism in the media and books was creating a situation in which young, educated Turks formed negative opinions against Jews and Israel.[95] Moreover, violence against Jews has also occurred. In 2003, an Istanbul dentist was murdered in his clinic by a man who admitted that he committed the crime out of antisemitic sentiment. In 2009, a number of Jewish students suffered verbal abuse and physical attacks, and a Jewish soldier in the Turkish Army was assaulted.

Bet Yaakov Synagogue was built in 1878 at the Kuzguncuk district of Istanbul.

The Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul has been attacked three times.[96] First on 6 September 1986, Arab terrorists gunned down 22 Jewish worshippers and wounded 6 during Shabbat services at Neve Shalom. This attacked was blamed on the Palestinian militant Abu Nidal.[97][98][99] The Synagogue was hit again during the 2003 Istanbul bombings alongside the Beth Israel Synagogue, killing 20 and injuring over 300 people, both Jews and Muslims alike. Even though a local Turkish militant group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, claimed responsibility for the attacks, police claimed the bombings were "too sophisticated to have been carried out by that group",[97] with a senior Israeli government source saying: "the attack must have been at least coordinated with international terror organizations".[99]

Traditionally, aliyah from Turkey to Israel has been low since the 1950s. Despite the antisemitism and occasional violence, Jews felt generally safe in Turkey. In the 2000s, despite surging antisemitism, including antisemitic incidents, aliyah remained low. In 2008, only 112 Turkish Jews emigrated, and in 2009, that number only rose to 250.[100] However, in the aftermath of the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, antisemitism in Turkey increased and became more open, and it was reported that the community was also subjected to economic pressure. A boycott of Jewish businesses, especially textile businesses, took place, and Israeli tourists who had frequented the businesses of Turkish Jewish merchants largely stopped visiting Turkey. As a result, the number of Turkish Jews immigrating to Israel increased.[101] By September 2010, the Jewish population of Turkey had dropped to 17,000, from a previous population of 23,000[102] Currently, the Jewish community is feeling increasingly threatened by extremists. In addition to safety concerns, some Turkish Jews also immigrated to Israel to find a Jewish spouse due to the increasing difficulty of finding one in the small Turkish Jewish community. In 2012, it was reported that the number of Jews expressing interest in moving to Israel rose by 100%, a large number of Jewish business owners were seeking to relocate their businesses to Israel, and that hundreds were moving every year.[103]

In October 2013, it was reported that a mass exodus of Turkish Jews was underway. Reportedly, Turkish Jewish families are immigrating to Israel at the rate of one family per week on average, and hundreds of young Turkish Jews are also relocating to the United States and Europe.[104]

## Turkey and Israel

[edit]

Arkadaş Association in Yehud, Israel

See also: Israel–Turkey relations

Turkey was among the first countries to formally recognize the State of Israel.[105] Turkey and Israel have closely cooperated militarily and economically. Israel and Turkey have signed a multibillion-dollar project to build a series of pipelines from Turkey to Israel to supply gas, oil and other essentials to Israel.[106] In 2003 the Arkadaş Association was established in Israel. The Arkadaş Association is a Turkish–Jewish cultural center in Yehud, aiming to preserve the Turkish-Jewish heritage and promote friendship (Arkadaş being the Turkish word for Friend) between the Israeli and Turkish people. In 2004, the Ülkümen-Sarfati Society was established by Jews and Turks in Germany. The society, named after Selahattin Ülkümen and Yitzhak Sarfati, aims to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue and wants to inform the public of the centuries of peaceful coexistence between Turks and Jews.[107][108]

## Diaspora

[edit]

Main article: Turkish Jews in Israel

The various migrations outside of Turkey has produced descendants of Turkish Jews in Europe, Israel, United States, and Canada. Today, there are still various synagogues that maintain Jewish-Turkish traditions.

The Sephardic Synagogue Sephardic Bikur Holim in Seattle, Washington, was formed by Jews from Turkey, and still uses Ladino in some portions of the Shabbat services. They created a siddur called Zehut Yosef, written by Hazzan Isaac Azose, to preserve their unique traditions.

In recent years, several hundred Turkish Jews, who have been able to prove that they are descended from Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497, have emigrated to Portugal and acquired Portuguese citizenship.[109][110][111]

## Notable Turkish Jews

[edit]

See also: List of Turkish Jews and Category:Turkish Jews

* Ishak Alaton, co-founder of Alarko Holding
* Aaron Alfandari, writer
* Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, Sephardic rabbi
* Isak Andic, is a Spanish billionaire businessman
* Seyla Benhabib, political theorist[112]
* Can Bonomo, musician from İzmir who represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan
* Abraham Salomon Camondo, Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist; patriarch of the Camondo family
* Elijah Capsali, first Hakham Bashi (Turkish: Chief Rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire
* Moses Capsali, Hakham Bashi
* Isaac Carasso, Ottoman Jewish entrepreneur and businessman
* Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter
* Menahem Egozi, talmudist
* Üzeyir Garih, co-founder of Alarko Holding
* Fernando Gerassi, Turkish artist
* Françoise Giroud, politician
* Umut Güzelses, Turkish-Israeli football player
* Ishak Haleva, current Hakham Bashi of Turkey
* Israel Hanukoglu, biochemist
* Barzillai ben Baruch Jabez, talmudist
* Victoria Kamhi, pianist[113]
* Emanuel Karasu, Salonica-born Ottoman statesman
* Tchéky Karyo, French actor and musician; born in Istanbul, father is Turkish-Jewish
* Hila Klein, Israeli-American YouTuber; mother is of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Morris Levy, music industry executive
* Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, American politician
* Linet, Turkish-Israeli singer
* Alejandro Mayorkas, American politician
* Leandra Medine, author and blogger; father, Mois Medine, is of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Elijah Mizrachi, Hakham Bashi[114]
* Darío Moreno, İzmir-born musician[115]
* Chaim Nahum, Hakham Bashi[114]
* Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi
* Joseph Nasi, Portuguese Ottoman trader and the first non-Muslim to be appointed to the rank of Sanjak-bey (governor)
* Abraham Palacci, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Joseph Palacci, rabbi of İzmir
* Rahamim Nissim Palacci, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Haim Palachi, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Emin Pasha, physician, naturalist, and governor
* Mosè Piccio, lexicographer
* Haim Saban, Israeli-American TV producer; mother was of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Berry Sakharof, Israeli rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer
* Silvio Santos, media tycoon and television host
* Rotem Sela, Israeli actress best known for starring in the Israeli television series Beauty and the Baker (2013–2021).
* Izak Senbahar, American real estate developer
* Lenore Skenazy, activist and founder of the Free-Range kids movement
* Joseph Taitazak, Spanish-born Ottoman rabbi and Kabbalist
* Sabbatai Zevi, Sephardic rabbi and Kabbalist
* Jaklin Kornfilt, theoretical linguist

## See also

[edit]

* Judaism portal
* Turkey portal

* Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
* Bukharan Jews
* Crimean Karaites
* Jewish diaspora
* Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino
* Karaim language
* Khazars
* Krymchak language
* Krymchaks (Crimea)
* List of synagogues in Turkey
* Mountain Jews
* Pallache family
* Religious minorities in Turkey
* Şalom
* Subbotniks
* Turkish Jews in Israel
* Urfalim
* Yevanic language

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Israel Central Bureau of Statistics - Estimated numbers of Turkish born Jews in Israel Archived 14 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Hebrew)
2. ^ Rabbi Menachem Levine (4 December 2022). "History of the Jews of Turkey". Aish Torah.
3. ^ "https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/tr". World Jewish Congress. 20 July 2024. `{{cite web}}`: External link in ``|title=`` (help)
4. ^ "Turkey Virtual Jewish History Tour - Jewish Virtual Library". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
5. ^ "Why Jews in Terror-stricken Turkey Aren't Fleeing to Israel Yet". Haaretz. Haaretz.com. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
6. ^ Jewish Population by country 2021
7. ^ a b "Antiochia Arabic". Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. 30 May 2011. doi:10.1163/1570-6699_eall_eall_com_0018.
8. ^ a b "Kurdistan". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
9. ^ a b Yildirim, Onur (October 2010). "Anatolia". In Stillman, Norman A. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Brill Reference Online.
10. ^ Shaw, Stanford J. (27 July 2016). The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Springer Publishing. p. 40\. ISBN 9781349122356.
11. ^ Levy, Avigdor (1992). The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire. Darwin Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9780878500888.
12. ^ "תורכיה". יד יצחק בן־צבי (in Hebrew). Retrieved 10 June 2024.
13. ^ a b Kaya, Nurcan (24 November 2015). "Teaching in and Studying Minority Languages in Turkey: A Brief Overview of Current Issues and Minority Schools". European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online. 12 (1): 315–338. doi:10.1163/9789004306134_013. ISSN 2211-6117. "Turkey is a nation–state built on remnants of the Ottoman Empire where non-Muslim minorities were guaranteed the right to set up educational institutions; however, since its establishment, it has officially recognised only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities and guaranteed them the right to manage educational institutions as enshrined in the Treaty of Lausanne. [...] Private language teaching courses teach 'traditionally used languages', elective language courses have been introduced in public schools and universities are allowed to teach minority languages."
14. ^ a b Toktas, Sule (2006b). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European Quarterly. 40: 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. "Turkey signed the Covenant on 15 August 2000 and ratified it on 23 September 2003. However, Turkey put a reservation on Article 27 of the Covenant which limited the scope of the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion or to use their own language. This reservation provides that this right will be implemented and applied in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Turkish Constitution and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews."
15. ^ a b Phillips, Thomas James (16 December 2020). "The (In-)Validity of Turkey's Reservation to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. 27 (1): 66–93. doi:10.1163/15718115-02701001. ISSN 1385-4879. S2CID 201398995. "The fact that Turkish constitutional law takes an even more restrictive approach to minority rights than required under the Treaty of Lausanne was recognised by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Turkey. The CERD noted that "the treaty of Lausanne does not explicitly prohibit the recognition of other groups as minorities" and that Turkey should consider recognising the minority status of other groups, such as Kurds. 50 In practice, this means that Turkey grants minority rights to "Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority communities while denying their possible impact for unrecognized minority groups (e.g. Kurds, Alevis, Arabs, Syriacs, Protestants, Roma etc.)"."
16. ^ a b Bayır, Derya (2013). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 88–89, 203–204. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4.
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24. ^ Jacobs, Joseph; Schloessinger, Max (1906). "GALATIA". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Gale. p. 548. Retrieved 12 May 2024. "A better proof may be had from some inscriptions found in Galatia relating to Jews ("C. I. G." No. 4129; "Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique," vii. 1883; comp. "R. E. J." x. 77). R. Akiba, who is said to have been a great traveler, speaks of "Galia", which is generally identified with "Galatia" (R. H. 26a)... The chief proof, however, of the existence of Jews in Galatia is the fact that St. Paul sent thither a general epistle known as the "Epistle to the Galatians.""
25. ^ G. Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State
26. ^ For a sample of views, see J. Starr The Jews in the Byzantine Empire, 641–1204; S. Bowman, The Jews of Byzantium;, R. Jenkins Byzantium; Averil Cameron, "Byzantines and Jews: Recent Work on Early Byzantium", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20
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34. ^ J. Hacker, Ottoman policies towards the Jews and Jewish attitudes towards Ottomans during the Fifteenth Century in "Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire", New York (1982)
35. ^ a b "Letter of Rabbi Isaac Zarfati". turkishjews.com. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
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38. ^ a b H. Inalcik; The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600, Phoenix Press, (2001)
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57. ^ Baer 2020, p. 202.
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## Bibliography

[edit]

* Baer, Marc D. (2020). Sultanic Saviors and Tolerant Turks: Writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-04542-3.
* Toktas, Sule (2006), "Turkey's Jews and Their Immigration to Israel" (PDF), Middle Eastern Studies, 42 (3): 505–519, doi:10.1080/00263200500521479, S2CID 55379633
* "Turkish Writer Exposes Persecution of Jews in Turkey". Harut Sassounian. Asberaz. 19 April 2017.

## External sources

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of the Jews in Turkey.

* Levine, Rabbi Menachem, The History of the Jews of Turkey, Aish.com

* "Hayalet Evler: Türk-Yahudi Mimarisinden Örnekler", Beyaz Arif Akbas, Ekim 2012, YGY, ISBN 978-1480206502
* In particular on the history of Istanbul Jewry after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, see M. Rosen, Studies in the History of Istanbul Jewry, 1453–1923 (Diaspora, 2), Turnhout, 2015
* An-Ottoman-Odyssey-A-Rabbi-Rediscovers-Turkeys-Jews-Past-and-Present 16 August 2021 Chabad.com

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