Turkish Jews and their Diasporas

Turkish Jews and their Diasporas. Entanglements and Separations, 2022

This book introduces the reader to the past and present of Jewish life in Turkey and to Turkish Jewish diaspora communities in Israel, Europe, Latin America and the United States. It surveys the history of Jews in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, examining the survival of Jewish communities during the dissolution of the empire and their emigration to America, Europe, and Israel. In the cases discussed, members of these communities often sought and seek close connections with Turkey, even if those ‘ties that bind’ are rarely reciprocated by Turkish governments. Contributors also explore Turkish Jewishness today, as it is lived in Israel and Turkey, and as found in ‘places of memory’ in many cities in Turkey, where Jews no longer exist today.

K. Öktem, İ. K. Yosmaoǧlu (eds.), Turkish Jews and their Diasporas, Entanglement and Separations, Palgrave, 2022

Between 25,000 and 30,000 Turkish Jews were living in Europe during the interwar period. In several European countries, Turkish Jews constituted the first generation of “Turkish immigrants.” They established Turkish-Jewish communities, charities, religious and cultural organizations, publications in their new countries of residence, and were present in the local economy and cultural life. Their history is an important chapter in the broader history of Turkey and Turkey’s Jews. Although most of the Jews who left Turkey in the interwar years would never return, many emigrants continued to feel attached to their home country and maintained a positive image of Turkey. However, these sentiments often were not mirrored by the state, especially during World War II and the Holocaust. While facing Nazi persecution, Turkish Jews depended on the protection of their home country. Instead, many of them experienced rejection and abandonment. For the Turkish Jews, this was a profound disappointment. By drawing on contemporary publications, letters, testimonies, and memoirs by Turkish Jews in Europe, this chapter seeks to retrace the Turkish Jewish diaspora’s relationship with and expectations for Turkey.

Middle Eastern Studies, 2024

The main aim of this article is to discuss the Turkishness debates in the first decade of the Turkish Republic through the Jewish community which was recognized as a minority group in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). Conventional wisdom about interwar Turkish nationalism suggests that there was an inclusive civic nationalism-often described as Kemalist nationalism-as well as an extreme and exclusionary ethnic nationalism that specifically targeted non-Muslims. According to this view, the paths of these two nationalisms did not cross, but there was often a tension between the two. This study aims to reveal the entangled existence of these two nationalisms. The Turkishness as an identity category which was ambiguously constructed by this entangled existence of civic and ethnic nationalisms made the arbitrary practices of inclusion and exclusion, especially towards the groups whose belonging was questioned possible. By deliberately leaving this category as ambiguous as possible, the Republican elite of the era was able to construct a situational mechanism of acceptance and rejection for inclusion in Turkishness. The idea that it would be possible to be included in Turkishness, created by civic nationalism-or formulated as Kemalist nationalism-especially among groups willing to be included, kept the hopes alive for groups with a very fragile status, especially the Jewish community during the interwar period. By examining the status of the Jewish community in the Turkish Republic in the first decade of the Republic, this article seeks to put forth how this intended ambiguity of Turkishness operated. The way the inclusion or exclusion to Turkishness took place for the Jews of Turkey from the establishment of the Turkish Republic to the Thrace Incidents of 1934, the Event when the alienation of the Jewish community from Turkishness became certain will demonstrate the ambivalent character of Turkishness. The novelty that this article presents to the literature is to consider how the pragmatic use of this dualist approach to nationalism by the Republican elite left the definition of Turkishness ambiguous and how this ambiguity helped the Republican regime to overcome the minority regulations of the Lausanne Treaty. The situation of the Jewish community in the first decade of the Republic has the power to represent the way this ambiguity of Turkishness operated for the purpose of exclusion. For this purpose, first of all, the 'civic nationalism' and 'ethnic nationalism' dualism will be investigated and how this dualism affected the studies of Turkish nationalism will be put forth. Later the development of Turkish nationalism will be briefly focused on. There will be a discussion of how an ambiguity about formation of Turkishness was intended by the Republican ruling elite in the first decade of the Republic. Thanks to the pragmatic usage of this ambiguity, situational inclusion and exclusion of various groups to Turkishness became possible. Finally, the focus will be on the inclusion and exclusion story of the Jews of Turkey in the first decade of the Republic, one of the groups most affected by this uncertainty.

Oxford University Press, 2024

Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Turkish Jews have negotiated a political and public space shaped by the largely unfulfilled promise of equal citizenship and the everyday experience of being members of an unwelcome minority. Today, the Jewish community in Turkey numbers around 14,000 , with over ninety-five percent living in Istanbul. Throughout the history of the Republic, discriminatory pressures in state and society have been prevalent, even as the Jewish community has been shrinking dramatically. This chapter provides an overview of the Jewish community in modern and contemporary Turkey. It starts with the history of the origins and life of the Jewish population in Anatolia during the Ottoman period before detailing the significant sociopolitical changes that shaped the fate of the Jewish minority and the state’s treatment of the community during the Turkish Republican period. Despite the dwindling and aging population, the Jewish community found a growing prominence in cultural heritage projects aimed at preserving minority cultures. Academic research on the Turkish Jewish community and ongoing cultural heritage projects highlights the transfer of Turkey’s local Jewish cultural memory to future generations. Studies on Turkish Jews help increase awareness about their multicultural heritage, mutual empathy, cultural diversity, and cultural identity while promoting values of democracy, respect, tolerance, and antidiscrimination. Keywords: Turkish Jews, Izmir, Istanbul, academic research, multicultural heritage, cultural diversity, cultural identity, minority cultures

Empire and the Republic of Turkey from the early 20th century to the present to compare how affinities and differences in political outlook have affected their relationship. It has been stated at times in academia, by politicians, and members of the press that the Armenian and Jewish Diasporas have had similar historical experiences mostly through hardships. Despite that being the case, this article will show that throughout their experiences as non-Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey Armenians and Jews have never developed any coordinated collaboration; instead, they have pursued perceived respective ethnic interests, largely influenced by historical memory and geopolitics. At the same time, the Young Turks and later the Turkish state engaged in policies, especially toward non-Muslim minorities, that have been described as contradictory, ambivalent, or both in nature, influenced by changing perceptions of citizenship and identity as well as geopolitics.

Giuseppe Motta (ed.), Dall'Antigiudaismo all'Antisemitismo. Saggi sulla questione ebraica fra XIX e XX secolo [From anti-judaism to anti-semitism Essays on the Jewish questionin XIX-XX centuries], Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2016

This paper provides a critical insight in the uncommon history of the Turkish Jews in the Republican age: called to be testimonials of Turkish tolerance, they have been experiencing more troubles than in Ottoman age and look skeptical and uncertain about the possibility of real integration.

ELIAMEP, 2013

Jews of Turkey: Migration, Culture and Memory, 2019

for sharing his tiıne and valuable conversations during our tea breaks in Nezir's teahouse at Mardin. And, I wish to thank to Duııaz Yılmaz, Kadri Toncer, Cafer Gözel and the late Sebriyö Sökeko for guiding ıne to Jewish sites in Cizre. Besides tlıat, l am Vely grateful to the Center for Islamic Sfudies, isAira ıibrary, for providing the researchers a coınfortable study environment and for their kind and helpful staff. Finally, my thanks to my family, who continue to tolerate my absence and encourage me throughout my research. My mother never stopped supporting and believing in me. Special thanks to my brother and fi-iend Muhammed Nurullah Şanlı. Any effors o[ omissions I have made are, of course, my own.