Turkey Jewish Heritage

The Jewish Community in Turkey has a long and rich history that stretches back some 2000 years to Roman times when Jews left Jerusalem and dispersed throughout the world.  The beginnings of the Jewish settlement  in Anatolia are believed to belong to the 3rd century BCE, when Jews from Babylonia and other countries were encouraged to settle in the city of Sardis  by the Seleucid King Antiochus III (223-187 BCE). The ancient synagogue ruins have been founded all over Turkey and mostly in Anatolia.

Did you ever heard that the Jewish community in Cappadocia is mentioned 15 times in the Talmud ? The word Sefarad, which today we use for Spain, is actually the name of the city Sardes… In Armenian Sardes is Sefarad. The earliest mention of a Jewish community is by the Prophet Amos approximately is year 500bc! He speaks about Jews from Jerusalem who went to live in Sardis.

The Jewish Communities called “Romaniot Jews” under the Roman rules continued to flourish under the Turkish Conquest. When the Ottomans captured the city of Bursa,the Jews welcomed them as saviors. Early in the 14^th century when the Ottomans had established their capital to Edirne,Jews from Europe including the Karaites Community,Hungarian,French,Venetian and Sicilian Jews who were expelled found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. When Mehmet II “Conqueror” took Constantinople, the Romaniot Community welcomed him with enthusiasm. At the period of Sultan Bayazid II, the Ottoman Empire was a safe haven for The Sepharad Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Around 250.000 jews came to settle in Ottoman lands.

After the foundation of the Modern Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923,The Turkish Jewish Rabbinate had minority rights according to the treaty of Lausanne but they renounced its statues on personal rights. The asked to be equal citizens according to the Turkish laws. The conditions during the single party period (1923-1945) were not favorable unfortunately as the Jews witnessed the capital taxe law,Thrace pogroms and were forced to be “example citizens of the modern republic”. Even though the Turkish Jews were not faced the Holocaust, the country’s ideological streams had repercussions on the Jewish Population.

The country’s rising Islamist movement has brought with it a growing trend of anti-Semitism and after all the crisis between Israel and Turkey, the Jewish Community suffered from rising anti-Semitism  and expressed their feelings to the current government.

While the community numbered about 150.000 in 1920’s,witnin all the reasons that we expressed above and also due to the Aliyah of 150 families approximately each year,there are actually 21.000 jews living in Turkey today. 18000 Jews are living in İstanbul (5200 in Asian Side),1500 Jews in İzmir and 120 Jews in Bursa. İt is believed that around 1000 jews are living in total in Antakya,İskenderun,Ankara and Adana.

The Ehal of the Old Etz Ahayim Synagogue & Old Jewish School in Ortaköy

The Synagogue of Sardis from 3th century

The expulsion from Spain

Jewish communities at the Ottoman Empire