The Jewish Community in Modern and Contemporary Turkey

Abstract

Abstract 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 14,0001, 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.