International Association of Jewish
Genealogical Societies - Cemetery Project
TURKEY
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
The "haham bashi," the Chief Rabbi
of Turkey can be reached at Chief Rabbinate of Turkey, Yemenici
Sokak 23 Beyoglu, Istanbul, Tel. 90 212 244 8794, Fax. 90 212 244
1980
Most Turkish Jews live in Istanbul, but communities exist in Izmir
(2,300) and about 100 Jews in Ankara, Bursa, and Adana.
For security reasons, synagogues in Turkey are not open to the
public. To enter a synagogue, please make arrangement for a tour
through the Haham Bashi's office listed above.
BOOKS:
-
- Besalel, Yusuf. Osmanli ve Turk Yahudileri. [Ottoman and
Turkish Jewry] Gozlem Press
- salom@turk.net , 1999.
ISBN 975-304-37-9. 320 pages, 16 pages of color photos), in
Turkish $20. "... a detailed study of the Ottoman and Turkish
Jewry. It starts from the fourth century BCE, but focuses on more
recent years. The author, Yusuf Besalel, has also written Unlu
Yahudiler ("Famous Jews") and Kronolojik Yahudi Tarihi
("Chronological Jewish History"--World Jewry, Israel and
Turkish-Israeli Relations)."
- Complete studies of the Jewish community in Istanbul in 20th
century.
THE CEMETERIES
WORLD WAR I BURIALS
- 4th Battn. Parade Ground Cemetery , Anzac
- Ari Burnu Cemetery , Anzac Cove
- Beach Cemetery , Anzac Cove
- Lone Pine Cemetery , Anzac Cove
- Shrapnel Valley Cemetery , Anzac Cove
- Skew Bridge Cemetery , Helles
- Twelve Trees Copse Cemetery , Helles
- Walker's Ridge Cemetery , Anzac Cove
WORLD WAR I MEMORIALS:
- Lone Pine (Austr. & N.Z.),
- Gallipoli
AKHISAR (also known as
Thyatira):
"In 1875 CE, on the initiative of
Rabbi Moise Franco, a plot was acquired and transformed into a
Jewish cemetery." Source:
http://www.sephardichouse.org/akhisar.html - no longer
available
See Also http://www.akhisar.com/english/tarih/jewish-s.htm
ANKARA :
The Samanpazari district's historic synagogue needs restoration.
ANZAC COVE: see World War I Burials
BALAT : see Istanbul
BERGAMA :
Almost nothing remains of the buildings of this important and
longstanding Jewish community.
BEYOGLU : see GALATA
BURSA :
Dating from Byzantine times, the Ottomans conquered Bursa in
1324. Sultan Orhan ordered that the Jews of Bursa could build a
synagogue, the Etz ha-Hayyim used for over 600 years. Since World
War II, the Jewish community shrunk to about 140. Only two
synagogues remain active. Five hundred year-old Gerush Synagogue
is a little northwest of the town center. An electrician's shop
called Simsek Elektrik, at 20A Altiparmak Caddesi, (tel.
21-54-90), has the key to the synagogue. (See Nesim Kuzu, owner
of the shop.) The airy and attractive synagogue has a circle of
pillars around the bema in the center of the room. The columns
support a dome. The Torahs came from Spain with Sephardic
immigrants about 500 years ago.
ÇANAKKALE :
A small Jewish community existed until around 1980s [?]. A few
building inscriptions and some signs of Jewish life remain.
EDIRNE :
The formerly very large and prosperous Jewish community has
dwindled to only a few families, who use one grand but aging
synagogue.
GALATA : also see Istanbul
GALLIPOLI :
The Australian Jewish Historical Society-Victoria Inc. has
records of Jewish soldiers buried in Australian and overseas
cemeteries maintained by the Australian War Graves Commission.
Further information may be obtained from the Honorary Secretary,
Mrs. Beverley Davis, P.O. Box 255, Camberwell, Victoria 3124.
Please include two international postage coupons.
HASKOY : see Istanbul
HELLES : see World War I Burials
ISTANBUL :
When the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, Sultan
Mehmet II encouraged immigration to repopulate, inviting the Jews
to live at Hasköy, on the east bank of the Golden Horn.
Sultan Beyazit II (1481-1512) invited Jews escaping the
Inquisition in Spain and Portugal to Istanbul where they mostly
settled near the Balat quarter, the west bank of the Golden Horn.
That Jewish community had existed since Byzantine times, as did a
Jewish settlement of villages along the western Bosphorus shore.
BALAT SECTION: On the southern shore of the Golden Horn,
Balat existed from Byzantine times on. After the expulsion from
Spain, this Jewish section increased. Today, this working-class
area has only two remaining, but important, synagogues: the
Ahrida (a.k.a. Okhrida) at 9 Vodina Caddesi (a.k.a.
Kürkçü Çesme Sokak) and the Yanbol at 16
Vodina Caddesi. Korin Hanim, "Madame Corinne," holds the keys to
Yanbol. The Jewish school and hospital are nearby. Macedonian
Jews founded these synagogues centuries ago.
GALATA SECTION: The area of Istanbul around the cylindrical,
conical-roofed Galata Tower on a steep hillside in Beyoglu called
GALATA has many Jewish sites. The bustling neighborhood between
Karaköoy on the Golden Horn and Beyoglu on the heights began
in Byzantine times when Galata was a walled city separate from
Constantinople, inhabited and ruled by the Genoese, with numerous
Jewish families. After 1453, the Jewish population in Galata
increased, particularly under Sultan Beyazit II. From then on
until a few decades ago, Galata was mostly Jewish. Today's Jewish
population, mostly living in other parts of the city now, still
attend Galata's synagogues such as Neve Shalom and Italian
synagogues and the Zülfaris Synagogue Museum as well as the
office of the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey, located at Yemenici
Abdüllatif Sokak No. 23.
- Star Over Istanbul Jewish Cemetery: "In 1992,
Sephardic Jews of Turkey celebrated 500 years of life in the
Ottoman-Turkish domain." Source and picture of the cemetery at:
http://www.steelnet.net/plaut/gallery-star_1.html - link no
longer available
HASKÖY SECTION: Vineyards and forests covered these gentle
slopes on the northeast shore of the Golden Horn in Byzantine
times. A royal preserve after the Ottoman conquest, centuries
later an imperial shipyard and arsenal were built on the shore.
Residential areas developed farther up the slope. This northeast
shore is now mainly shipbuilding. Hasköy, a district of this
shore, holds the Jewish Home for the Aged, the Kamondo mansion
(wealthy Jewish family), and a large Jewish cemetery housing the
Kamondo mausoleum, now a Turkish Navy headquarters. The
expressway, which skirts the center of the northern part of the
city, passes directly through the large Hasköy Jewish
Cemetery.
- Hasköy Cemetery: See Balat Quarter in the old
city on the southern shore of the Golden Horn where the historic
Jewish ghetto was located. Haskoy Cemetery, at the northern tip
of the Golden Horn, the oldest burial ground in European Turkey,
has tombstones from the 15th century.
http://spinoza.tau.ac.il/hci/dep/jhistory/mina2.htm
Book on Haskoy Cemetery.
"There are near 22,000 graves in this cemetery. Surnames Indexed
from the book: Haskoy Cemetery." no longer available
online
KUZGUNCUK SECTION: The Merkez Synagogue at 9 Icadiye Caddesi
(a.k.a. Beth Yaakov Synagogue.) On Icadiye Caddesi are Merkez and
the Virane synagogues, known as the Kal de Abaso ("Lower
Synagogue," the Merkez) and Kal de Ariva ("Upper Synagogue," the
Virane). The Virane Synagogue is at 8 Yakup Sokak. Farther east
is the still active Kuzguncuk Jewish Cemetery.
- Kuzguncuk Jewish Cemetery: On Icadiye Caddesi.
ORTAKÖY SECTION: Nineteenth century Ortaköy, a Bosporus
village, was the summer residence of wealthy Istanbul families.
Today, Ortaköy is a fashionable part of metropolitan
Istanbul. An orphanage existed here. Etz Ahayim Synagogue at 38
Muallim Naci Caddesi on the shore road was built in 1660 and
destroyed by fire October 1941. The marble ark survived and
remains in situ in the garden as a historic monument.
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/dkazez/fam/turk-bur/
Yukeskkaldirim Synagogue book with a list of burials associated
with the synagogue, from 1916 to 2001. In all, there are nearly
3000 entries. Book A Hundred Year Old Synagogue in
Yuksekkaldirim , by Erdal Frayman, Mose Grosman, and Robert
Schild (published in 2000). This book is available at the
JewishGen Mall. Source: Daniel Kazez
[June 2001].
IZMIR :
The community is smaller now than under the Ottoman Empire.
Once, nine synagogues existed along Havra Sokak (Synagogue
Street) in Izmir's bazaar. Today, three function. As in Istanbul,
the Jewish community was moved to more desirable residential
sections. Still, the heart of Izmir's Jewish life, "La Judiera,"
the bazaar area on the Street of Synagogues, had nine small
synagogues serving the Jewish merchants and artisans working
close by of which three are still used. Two are closed except on
Saturday: Kadosh Mizrahi Synagogue, 927 Sokak no. 73 and Shalom
(Aydin) Synagogue, 927 Sokak no. 38-C, through a short passage of
a shoe shop. lsancak now is home to most of Izmir's Jewish
population.
MANISA (MANNISA):
Former name: Magnasia. NE of Izmir at 38°36N 27°26E. "In
1900 a wall was built around the second cemetery that was until
then an open field. The third was acquired in the 1930s. The two
ancient cemeteries have since been destroyed." Source:
http://www.sephardichouse.org/akhisar.html - no longer
available
KARAKŌOY : see Galata, Istanbul
KUZGUNCUK : see Istanbul
ORTAKÖY : see Istanbul
SARDIS :
At Sardis (ancient capital of King Croesus) is an ancient
synagogue unearthed in 1970. Nearby 1,000 graves were cut in the
rock. [Source?]
SISLI :
Sisli, a prosperous residential and commercial district, has two
Jewish sites, the Sisli Beth Israel Synagogue and the Italian
Jewish Cemetery. Beth Israel Synagogue at Efe Sokak No. 4, a
modern building, is the center of today's Jewish community of
Istanbul in a desirable residential area.
The Italian Jewish Cemetery, marked by a monumental Baroque
gate above the roadway, has tombstones with inscription in
Italian, English, French, German, Russian, and Latin. (The
caretakers have the key.) Founded to serve about 400 Jewish
families, who arrived from the Crimea in 1854-55, Sultan
Abdülaziz transferred the site to the Italian Jewish
Association. The well-kept cemetery is still active.
- Italian Jewish Cemetery: Sisli (SHEESH-lee) is a
prosperous residential and commercial district 2.5-km north of
Taksim Square. Two Jewish sites are the Sisli Beth Israel
Synagogue and the Italian Jewish Cemetery.
http://www.infoexchange.com/JewishTk.html - link no linger available: "Take a taxi to Sisli
Meydani (Sisli Square), then continue northward a few hundred
meters (by taxi or on foot) along Abidei Hürriyet Caddesi to
the Italian Jewish Cemetery, marked by a monumental gate set
above the roadway on the east (right-hand) side. …Behind
the Baroque entrance to the Italian Jewish Cemetery are
tombstones engraved with names and epitaphs in Italian, English,
French, German, Russian and Latin. (If the gate is not open, look
for the caretaker.) Many famous Istanbullus of the nineteenth
century are buried here. The cemetery was founded originally to
serve 400 Jewish families who had emigrated from the Crimea to
Istanbul in 1854-55, but it was later dedicated to the use of the
Italian Jewish Association by order of Sultan Abdülaziz. The
cemetery is well kept by resident custodians, and is still used
for burials. It makes an interesting visit, and yields special
insight into the history of the city's Jewish community." from http://www.sephardicstudies.org/walking.html
: "Sisli (SHEESH-lee) is a prosperous residential and commercial
district 2-1/2 km north of Taksim Square. Two Jewish interest
sites, the Sisli Beth Israel Synagogue and the Italian Jewish
Cemetery, are worth visiting here." [September 2002].
All individuals involved in the creation of this project are volunteers.
The right to make one copy for personal use with full citation is hereby granted;
however, no profit is to be made from the use of this website's information.
No reply will be made to inquiries about specific burials. All information that we possess is on the website. We have no other information so please do not write requesting any on either burial sites or individual burials.
Revised Sunday, August 12, 2007 01:08:46