[ad_1]
IZMIR, Turkey (JTA) — Because the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague has been a preferred vacationer vacation spot for each Jewish vacationers and others keen on Jewish historical past. The Nazis left lots of metropolis’s synagogues and Jewish websites comparatively intact, meaning to showcase them because the remnants of an extinct tradition — and that enables the Czech capital to supply an unusual look into the pre-war infrastructure of Ashkenazi Europe.
May Izmir, Turkey’s third largest metropolis, turn into a Sephardic counterpart, when it comes to historical past and tourism? That’s the objective for Nesim Bencoya, director of the Izmir Jewish Heritage undertaking.
Town, as soon as identified in Greek as Smyrna, has had a Jewish presence since antiquity, with early church paperwork mentioning Jews way back to the second century AD. Like elsewhere within the Ottoman Empire, although, its group grew exponentially with the inflow of Sephardic Jews who got here after their expulsion from Spain.
At its peak, the town was house to round 30,000 Jews and was the hometown of Jewish artists, writers and rabbis — from the esteemed Pallache and Algazii rabbinical households, to the musician Dario Marino, to the famously false messiah, Shabbetai Zevi, whose childhood house nonetheless stands in Izmir at present.
At this time, fewer than 1,300 stay. The institution of the state of Israel, coupled with a century of financial and political upheaval, led to the immigration of the vast majority of Turkish Jewry.
“From the seventeenth century, Izmir was a middle for Sephardic Jewry,” Bencoya informed the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “We are able to’t recreate that, however we can’t overlook that both.”
Izmir is positioned on Turkey’s Aegean coast. (David I. Klein)
Celebrating within the former Jewish quarter
Bencoya, who’s in his late 60s, was born in Izmir however spent most of his grownup life in Israel, the place he led the Haifa Cinematheque, however he returned to Izmir 13 years in the past to helm the heritage undertaking, which has labored to spotlight the the tradition and historical past of Izmir’s Jewish group.
Over 9 days in December that included the week of Hanukkah, hundreds attended the annual Sephardic tradition pageant that he has organized since 2018. The pageant included concert events of Jewish and Ladino music, conventional meals tastings, lectures on Izmir’s Jewish group, and — because it coincided with Hanukkah and likewise a Shabbat — each a menorah lighting ceremony and havdalah ceremony have been carried out with explanations from Izmir’s main cantor, Nesim Beruchiel.
This yr’s pageant marked a turning level: it was the primary by which organizers have been in a position to showcase a number of of the centuries-old synagogues that the undertaking — with funding from the European Union and the native municipality — has been restoring.
The synagogues, most of that are clustered round a road nonetheless referred to as Havra Sokak (havra being the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew phrase chevra, or congregation) signify a novel piece of cultural heritage.
Nesim Bencoya speaks from his workplace subsequent to the restored Sinyora Synagogue in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
As soon as upon a time, the road was the center of the Jewish quarter or “Juderia,” however at present it’s proper in the midst of Izmir’s Kemeralti Bazaar, a bustling market district stretching over 150 acres the place virtually something might be purchased and bought. On Havra Sokak, the retailers hock recent fruits, and hopefully brisker fish. One road to the south one can discover all method of leather-based items; one to the north has markets for gold, silver and different valuable metals; one to the west has espresso outlets. In between all of them are different outlets promoting every thing from crafts to tchotchkes to kitchenware to underwear.
A number of mosques and a handful of church buildings dot the world, however the synagogues revive a novel character of the district that had been all however misplaced.
“The synagogues right here have been constructed below the sunshine of Spain. However in Spain at present, there are solely two main historic synagogues, Toledo and Cordoba, and they’re huge ones. You don’t have smaller ones. Right here now we have six on one block, constructed with the reminiscence of what was there by those that left Spain,” Bencoya mentioned.
These synagogues have been house to main occasions in Jewish historical past — akin to when Shabbetei Zvi broke into Izmir’s Portuguese Synagogue one Sabbath morning, drove out his opponents and declared himself the messiah (he cultivated a big following however was later imprisoned and compelled to transform to Islam). The synagogue, identified in Turkish as Portekez, was amongst these restored by the undertaking.
At this time, solely two of Izmir’s synagogues are in common use by its Jewish group, however the others that have been restored are actually out there as exhibition and occasion areas.
Educating non-Jews
Internet hosting the pageant inside Izmir’s distinctive synagogues has a further goal, for the reason that overwhelming majority of the attendees weren’t Jewish.
“Most people who come to the pageant have by no means been to a synagogue, perhaps a small proportion of them have met a Jew as soon as of their lives,” Bencoya mentioned.
That’s significantly necessary in a rustic the place antisemitic beliefs are removed from unusual. In a 2015 research by the Anti-Defamation League, 71% of respondents from Turkey consider in some antisemitic stereotypes.
The pageant included concert events of Jewish and Ladino music, conventional meals tastings and lectures on Izmir’s Jewish group.(David I. Klein)
“This pageant will not be for Jewish individuals to know us, however for non-Jews,” Bencoya mentioned. Now, “A whole lot of Turkish Muslim individuals have come to see us, to hearken to our holidays and style what we do.”
Kayra Ergen, a local of Izmir who attended a Ladino live performance and menorah lighting occasion on the finish of the pageant, informed JTA that till a yr in the past, he had no concept how Jewish Izmir as soon as was.
“I do know that Anatolia is a multicultural land, and likewise Turkey is, however this faith, by which I imply Jewish individuals, left this place a very long time in the past due to many dangerous occasions. Nevertheless it’s good to recollect these individuals, and their roots in Izmir,” Ergen mentioned. “That is so unhappy and lame to say out loud, however I didn’t learn about this — that solely 70 years in the past, 60% of this space right here in Konak [the district around Kemeralti] was Jewish. At this time I consider only one,300 stay. This isn’t good. However we should do no matter we will and this pageant is an effective instance of displaying the love between cultures.”
“I believe it’s good that we’re respecting one another in right here,” mentioned Zeynep Uslu, one other native of Izmir. “A number of totally different cultures and loads of totally different individuals. It’s good that we’re collectively right here celebrating one thing so particular.”
Izmir’s historical past as a house for minorities has not been all rosy. On the finish of the Ottoman interval, the town was round half Greek, a tenth Jewish and a tenth Armenian, whereas the rest have been Turkish Muslims and an assortment of foreigners. Within the Greco-Turkish battle of 1919-1922 — remembered in Turkey because the Turkish Warfare of Independence — the Greek and Armenian quarters of Izmir have been burned to the bottom after the Turkish military retook the town from the Greek forces, killing tens of hundreds. A mass exodus of the survivors adopted, however the Jewish and Muslim parts of the town have been largely unhurt.
Izmir will not be the one metropolis in Turkey which has seen its synagogues restored lately. Notable tasks are being accomplished in Edirne, a metropolis on the Turkish western border close to Bulgaria, and Kilis, on its southeastern border close to Syria. Not like Izmir, although, no Jews stay in both of these cities at present, and plenty of have accused the undertaking of being a software for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authorities to assuage accusations of antisemitism, with out truly coping with residing Jews.
Shedding Ladino and a ‘quiet’ mindset
Bencoya lamented that he’s among the many final era for whom Ladino — the Judeo-Spanish language historically spoken by Sephardic Jews, however solely spoken by tens of hundreds at present — was no less than part of his childhood.
“Whenever you lose language, it’s not solely technical, it’s not solely vocabulary, it’s a complete world and a mind-set,” Bencoya mentioned.
The undertaking is difficult a neighborhood Jewish mentality as effectively. Minority teams in Izmir, particularly Jews, “have for a very long time most popular to not be seen, to not be felt,” in keeping with Bencoya.
That mindset has been codified within the Turkish Jewish group’s collective psyche within the type of a Ladino phrase, “kayedes,” which suggests one thing alongside the traces of “shhh,” “be quiet,” or “preserve your head down.”
“That is the precise reverse that I need to do with this pageant — to be felt, to boost consciousness of my being,” Bencoya mentioned.
The Bikur Holim Synagogue is likely one of the few nonetheless functioning in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
A technique of doing that, he added, was having the pageant discuss with the group’s identification “as Yahudi and never Musevi!” Each are Turkish phrases that discuss with Jews: the previous having the identical root because the English phrase Jew — the Hebrew phrase Yehuda or Judea — whereas the latter means “follower of Moses.”
“Yahudi, Musevi, Ibrani [meaning Hebrew, in Turkish] — all of them imply the identical factor, however in Turkey, they are saying Musevi as a result of it sounds nicer,” Bencoya mentioned. “To Yahudi there are loads of adverse superlatives — soiled Yahudi, filthy Yahudi, and this and that. So I insist on saying that I’m Yahudi, as a result of individuals have loads of pre-judgements concerning the identify Yahudi. So if in case you have prejudgements about me, let’s open them and discuss them.”
“I’m not so romantic that I can eradicate all antisemitism, but when I can eradicate a few of the prejudgements, then I can dwell a bit of extra at peace,” he added.
Thus far, he feels the pageant is a profitable first step.
“The non-Jewish group of Izmir is fascinated,” Bencoya mentioned. “When you look on Fb and Instagram, they’re speaking about it, they’re preventing over tickets, which promote out virtually instantly.”
Now, he’s solely questioning how subsequent yr he’ll be capable of match extra individuals into the small and aged synagogues.
“For Turkey, [the festival] is essential as a result of Turkey might be among the many enlightened nations of the world, solely by being conscious of the variations between teams of individuals, akin to Jews, Christians, others, and Muslims,” he mentioned.
[ad_2]
Source link
