Turkish Jews Research Articles

Examining factors influencing Turkish Jewish attitudes towards the Armenian genocide.

The most prominent issue influencing Turkish-Armenian relations is the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. However, there is a notable absence of empirical analyses regarding the perceptions of the genocide among the Turkish population. This study aims to fill this scholarly gap by exploring, for the first time, the perspectives of Turkish Jews. It analyses evidence collected from interviews conducted with 14 Turkish Jews, utilising Stanley Cohen's (2001) theoretical framework, which aids in delineating significant factors by a categorisation of types of acceptance and denial. The findings highlight a diversity of responses linked to political attitudes, which can be broadly categorised into Kayades and Avlaremoz mindsets. They also show that Turkish Jews' views on the Holocaust influence how they perceive the Armenian genocide. Additionally, the results indicate that Cohen's approach is useful in explaining non-denying responses. In conclusion, the study argues that Turkish Jews' perspectives appear to be strongly related to their stance towards the Turkish state and the Holocaust.

Influence of Turkey-Israel relations on Turkish Jews businesspeople

ABSTRACT Multidimensional relations have protected Turkey and Israel from the effects of political crises. The main question of this article is how Turkey-Israel relations impact Turkish Jews business representatives. Interviews with Turkish Jewish businesspeople, who are primarily influenced by the developments in foreign policy due to their international business volumes, answered the question of how Turkish Jews were influenced by foreign policy, and emphasised the importance of minorities in foreign policy issues. The article explores the role of minorities in foreign policy and sheds light on how ethnic minorities, who are viewed as secondary agents in foreign policy, are influenced by the Turkey-Israel relations.

The Infiltration of Necropolitics: the Case of Turkey’s Holocaust Narratives

Some memories are more actively cultivated than others, manifesting the obsessive and slippery theaters of contested histories. This may encourage us to explore the ways in which representations of the past are conveyed. While Holocaust awareness has grown globally, its presence in Turkish academia has been limited since the millennium. Recent studies predominantly frame how Turkey integrates the Holocaust within the settled narratives. However, public perception has been shaped by narratives of Turkish consulates saving numerous Turkish Jews from Nazi oppression. This prevalent life-saver theme has become a cornerstone in Holocaust Memory, strengthened by various publications and documentaries. This research mainly investigates Turkey’s restrictive border policy and rescuing activities concerning the Jewish migration during the Second World War and its present-day recollections in today’s Turkey. Through a detailed case analysis, the study contends that popular historical beliefs differ from the facts. Ultimately it reads these accounts in relation to necropolitics that dictates which memories are allowed to live and which are rendered, emphasizing how even in remembrance, a politics of life and death exists.

Repositioning Ethnicity and Transnationalism: Community Resilience Strategies among the Non-Migratory Segment of Turkish Jewry

The methods that communities exploit to cope with national hegemonies that dispossess and exclude them have attracted the interest of migration scholars who emphasize the development of transnational strategies as community-building vehicles. Some scholars focus on migrant communities, whereas other studies analyze the “stayers”—those who remain in the countries of origin—in their analyses of the impacts of transnational trends on these groups. Yet how such transnational dynamics influence the “stayers” among ethnonational communities whose members rapidly “repatriate” en masse to their perceived nation-state, such as the migration of Middle Eastern Jews to Israel in the era of regional decolonization and nationalization, remain understudied. This article focuses on the community of “stayers” among Turkish Jews, whose leaders sought methods to cope with the effects of rising nationalism on their community structure and the intensity of an emigration crisis that engulfed them due to the vacuum they faced after losing 40 percent of their members in 1948–1949 to Israel. We analyze Şalom, the most important newspaper that Turkish Jewry continued to publish well after 1948. To escape marginalization and to re-establish their base in Turkey, one of Şalom’s main strategies, we find, is conveying to its readership in Turkey the advantage of connecting and twinning the two national centers that had become the focal points of most of the community by 1950—the Turkish Republic and the State of Israel.

Rediscovering Turkish Jewish heritage: The Club as a teaching moment in Turkey

ABSTRACT Turkish Jewish culture is largely unknown within Turkey due to various reasons, including demographic and historical factors. Negative stereotypes about Jews in Turkish film and television have further contributed to this lack of understanding. The ground-breaking television series, The Club, produced for Netflix, showcases Turkish Jews as its main characters and highlights their Sephardic heritage. We believe that media plays an important role in educating the public and shaping perceptions. To explore this, we conducted thirty in-depth, semi-structured interviews using the snowball method to investigate the impact of the series on the audience’s knowledge of Turkish Jews. Our findings suggest that The Club has helped raise awareness about Turkish Jews, Sephardic culture, and Judaism among the research sample, as it presents a non-stereotypical portrayal of its Jewish characters.

A transnational millet in the Jewish state: A Judeo‐Spanish diaspora between Israel and Turkey, 1948–1958

AbstractBetween 1948 and 1956, 36,302 Jews migrated from Turkey to Israel, forming the largest Turkish diaspora hub at that time. Drawing on the nine newspapers published by Turkish Jews in Israel in their vernacular, Ladino (Judeo‐Spanish), this article sheds light on the complex nature of the migrants' transnational affinity to the Turkish Republic and on how it coexisted with their Jewish nationalism. In addition to situating this development within the broader context of post‐WWII Turkish transnationalism, we also delineate their unique historic status as ethnic Jewish communities or millet. Examining the post‐Ottoman era, we show how they leveraged their political, commercial and leisure‐related ties with Turkey—deemed more developed in those terms than Israel—to empower themselves as an ethnic community and to facilitate their integration into the Jewish state. In so doing, this study bridges some of the gaps in the analyses of Muslim and non‐Muslim migrations, and it suggests that we rethink the languages used to explore Turkish transnationalism as well as its geographical borders and underlying characteristics.

Genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Turkish Jews-demographic and clinical features.

The largest cluster of genetic Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease (CJD) exists in Libyan Jews carrying the E200K mutation in the PRNP gene. However, there is another cluster of genetic CJD with E200K mutation in families of Turkish-Jewish origin. In this retrospective study, we aim to describe the demographic and clinical features of this population of patients. The Israeli National CJD database was searched for demographic, clinical, imaging, and laboratory data of genetic CJD patients of Libyan and Turkish ancestry with the E200K mutation. The data of Libyan and Turkish patients were compared with notice similar or different demographic or clinical courses. Four hundred and twenty-three patients with CJD of Libyan (L) ancestry and 27 patients with CJD of Turkish (T) ancestry were identified. There were no significant differences in demographic and clinical data between the two populations (age of onset: T=62 ± 8.8, L=60 ± 9.7; age of death: T=63 ± 8.6, L=61 ± 9.7; and disease duration: T=7.8 ± 8.4 months, L=9.6 ± 13.6 months). Rapidly progressive dementia was the most common presentation in both groups, followed by pure cerebellar onset. The levels of tau protein in CSF did not differ between groups (T=1290 ± 397.6 pg/ml, L=1276 ± 594.2 pg/ml). MRI and EEG showed classical CJD features in most patients in both groups. The E200K mutation is the most common mutation among gCJD patients and was reported in different ethnical populations, suggesting several independent haplotypes of the mutation. The Turkish-Jew cluster, first described in this study, shares similar demographic and clinical features with the bigger cluster of Libyan-Jews CJD patients. E200K gCJD patients of Turkish ancestry share similar demographic and clinical features to patients of Libyan descent, suggesting a common origin of both populations.

The journal İnkılâp and the appeal of antisemitism in interwar Turkey

The article is a study of the reception of antisemitism, and its appeal among Turkish nationalists and state elites in the 1930s and 1940s. Based on a closed reading of the investigation of İnkılâp, the first antisemitic journal published in Turkey, by state bureaucrats in 1933, the article argues that antisemitism in the 1930s offered Turkish nationalist actors of competing convictions a tool to legitimize contending versions of Turkish nationalism, as well as a novel language to legitimize already existing antiminority practices explicitly against local Jews. Nationalist actors could thus discriminate against Turkish Jews without reference to religious difference. Finally, this study has detected an increased input of European post-First World War European antisemitism, especially the German post-Versailles conspiratorial ‘stab-in-the-back’ antisemitic theme and argues that this association had been facilitated by the increased relations between the Ottoman Empire/Turkey and Germany since the late nineteenth century.

Israel, Turkey, and the Turkish Jewish community in light of Operation Protective Edge

ABSTRACT This article examines developments within the Jewish community in Turkey during and after the Israeli operation in Gaza in 2014 and describes the political relations between Israel and Turkey and its impact on local Turkish Jews. It depicts Operation Protective Edge as one of the peaks of antisemitism in Turkey and considers the question of whether antisemitism in Turkey is related to Turkish-Israeli relations. This study contributes to the scholarship on the perception of Jews in Turkey in light of Turkish-Israeli relations. The paper begins by introducing minority discourse, and then describes the historical background of Turkish-Israeli relations, the perception of Jews, and the effects of the Protective Edge on the Jewish community in particular and on Israeli-Turkish relations in general during that period. Subsequently, the main findings are presented.

Choosing second citizenship in troubled times: the Jewish minority in Turkey

ABSTRACTThis article explores the motivations behind the applications for Portuguese citizenship by Turkish Jews since 2015. Based on a qualitative research, the findings highlight that obtaining a second passport does not yet equate emigration. Rather, it constitutes an insurance policy aimed at alleviating growing ontological insecurity, stemming partly from their secular and westernized lifestyle and from their Jewish identity, which are endangered by perceived de-secularisation, growing anti-Semitism and authoritarian trends in Turkey.

A monument for Turkish hospitality: the staging of Ahrida Synagogue

The year 1992 was celebrated as the 500th anniversary of the Sephardi Jewish migration to Ottoman lands. The celebration campaign was led by Turkish Jews, and included a wide range of publications, events and activities in Turkey and abroad. Most discourses and practices included in the campaign aimed at showcasing the history of Turkish-Jewish affinity and solidarity, and thereby renewing the image of Turkish Jews. Among a large number of celebratory activities, the restoration of Ahrida Synagogue in the Balat quarter of Istanbul was particularly important. This building, although presumed to have been in existence before the Sephardic migration, was intended to be a lasting ‘symbol’ of the 500th anniversary of this event. This paper traces the history of how an historic synagogue became a stage where a minority group’s identity and memory were re-moulded and displayed. It critically analyses several discourses and practices that surrounded Ahrida Synagogue around 1992, and discusses how they contributed to the construction of a new Turkish-Jewish history. The restoration, accompanied by political performances, made Ahrida Synagogue a star of Istanbul's Jewish heritage, and a tourist attraction. Yet, by associating it with an official history, it also placed a division between the synagogue and its veteran community.

Mixing Musics: Turkish Jewry and the Urban Landscape of a Sacred Song

Mixing Musics: Turkish Jewry and the Urban Landscape of a Sacred Song

Fear in Istanbul, Relief in Prague

Fear in Istanbul, Relief in Prague

Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust

Preface Introduction: historical background Part I. Turkey during the National Socialist Era (1933-45): 1. Turkey's foreign policy 2. Nationalistic and repressive domestic policy - the regime of the Milli Sef 3. The Jews in Turkey, 1933-45 4. Turkey - a country for exiles? 5. Turkey as a transit country on the way to Palestine Part II. Turkish Jews and the Holocaust: 6. The bureaucracy of genocide and the role of the foreign office 7. The fate of Turkish Jews in Germany and Austria 8. France 9. Belgium and the Netherlands 10. Italy 11. Southeastern Europe and the Aegean Islands 12. The exchange of Turkish Jews from concentration camps 13. Summary: rescue denied Epilogue.

High Incidence of Benign Brain Meningiomas among Iranian-born Jews in Israel may be Linked to both Hereditary and Environmental Factors

Following research demonstrating an increased risk for meningiomas in the Jewish population of Shiraz (Iran) we conducted a cohort analysis of meningiomas among Jews originating in Iran and residing in Israel. We use the population-based registry data of the Israeli National Cancer Registry (INCR) for the main analysis. All benign meningioma cases diagnosed in Israel from January 2000 to the end of 2009 were included. Patients that were born in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece were used for the analysis, whereby we calculated adjusted incidence rates per 100,000 people and computed standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) comparing the Iranian-born to each of the three other groups. Iranian-born Jews had statistically significant higher meningioma rates rates compared to other Jews originating in Balkan states: 1.46 fold compared to Turkish Jews and 1.86 fold compared to the Bulgaria-Greece group. There was a small increase in risk for the Iranian born group compared to those who were born in Iraq (1.06, not significant). Higher rates of meningiomas were seen in Jews originating in Iran that are living in Israel as compared to rates in neighboring countries of origin. These differences can be in part attributed to early life environmental exposures in Iran but probably in larger amount are due to genetic and hereditary factors in a closed community like the Iranian Jews. Some support for this conclusion was also found in other published research.

Turk and Jew in Berlin: The First Turkish Migration to Germany and the Shoah

AbstractIn this paper I critically examine the conflation of Turk with Muslim, explore the Turkish experience of Nazism, and examine Turkey's relation to the darkest era of German history. Whereas many assume that Turks in Germany cannot share in the Jewish past, and that for them the genocide of the Jews is merely a borrowed memory, I show how intertwined the history of Turkey and Germany, Turkish and German anti-Semitism, and Turks and Jews are. Bringing together the histories of individual Turkish citizens who were Jewish or Dönme (descendants of Jews) in Nazi Berlin with the history of Jews in Turkey, I argue the categories “Turkish” and “Jewish” were converging identities in the Third Reich. Untangling them was a matter of life and death. I compare the fates of three neighbors in Berlin: Isaak Behar, a Turkish Jew stripped of his citizenship by his own government and condemned to Auschwitz; Fazli Taylan, a Turkish citizen and Dönme, whom the Turkish government exerted great efforts to save; and Eric Auerbach, a German Jew granted refuge in Turkey. I ask what is at stake for Germany and Turkey in remembering the narrative of the very few German Jews saved by Turkey, but in forgetting the fates of the far more numerous Turkish Jews in Nazi-era Berlin. I conclude with a discussion of the political effects today of occluding Turkish Jewishness by failing to remember the relationship between the first Turkish migration to Germany and the Shoah.

Reflections on the Davos Crisis in the Turkish Press and the Views of Opinion Leaders of the Turkish Jews on the Crisis

Cooperation between Israel and Turkey has always been important for both states. In line with the historical process, although relations between the two countries have fluctuated from time to time, they have always been maintained at a certain level. An incident that caused tension in relations between the two countries occurred in Davos on January 29, 2009 causing global repercussions. This study analyzes the Davos incident within the context of Atatürk's national policy, and is based on an analysis of the relevant news in the Turkish media, as well as on interviews of the opinion leaders of the Turkish Jews. The analysis aims to evaluate reflections in Israel and Turkey on the 2009 Davos meeting, within the context of Atatürk's national policy and in relation to the views of the opinion leaders. As a result of the analysis of four newspapers with different publication policies, it was determined that conservative newspapers commented that the Davos meeting had been positive for Turkey. On the other hand, a newspaper with a leftist world view reported the news with exactly the opposite comments. In the interviews, opinion leaders evaluated the Turkish prime minister's words as serving to factionalize Turkish Jews, by giving them a feeling of insecurity, and to mobilize radical factions in the society.

Names That Show Time: Turkish Jews as “Strangers” and the Semiotics of Reclassification

ABSTRACT In this article, I discuss the anthropological value of focusing on ontological processes in which seemingly local, native, or indigenous people are reclassified as foreigners. Building on theories of language and time, I show, through the ethnographic example of Jewish naming in Istanbul, how names come to signify foreignness. I also explore naming as a process through which the subjects of reclassification themselves understand present‐day ontologies as historically informed and context dependent. By studying moments of categorical reassignment, I detail the social semiotic processes that drive the classification of signs as indices of belonging or exclusion. Anthropologists increasingly study military, juridical, and economic ontologies that reorder, relocate, and restrict human (and nonhuman) groups. I illuminate a quieter space, that of naming, through which classifications are made and undone.

Righteous Among the Nations Award: A Second Nomination Brief for Turkish Diplomats Who Saved Turkish Jews Living in France During World War II

Turkish diplomats saved Turkish Jews living in France from certain death during World War II. The acts of heroism and decency of the Turkish diplomats were assumed to have been given guidance by their government in Ankara. The totality of recent findings of contemporaneous documents from various US government archives confirms that the intervention in behalf of French Jews with Turkish origins was not the policy of the Government of Turkey at all but the determined undertaking of members of the Turkish diplomatic corps in France acting independently against the extant policy of Turkey’s government. Their actions risked the wrath and ire of their own government as well as those of Germany and Vichy France. This paper juxtaposes the life-saving role of Hiram Harry Bingham IV an American diplomat who served as a Vice-Consul in Marseille, France, during World War II, against the individual and collective deeds in this regard of the Turkish legation in France.

A Call for Change: On Verification of a Candidate’s Merit for Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations Award

Turkish diplomats saved Turkish Jews living in France from certain death during World War II. The totality of recent findings of contemporaneous documents from various US government archives confirm that the intervention in behalf of French Jews with Turkish origins was not the policy of the Government of Turkey at all but the determined undertaking of members of the Turkish diplomatic corps in France. They acted independently against the extant policy of Turkey’s government. Their actions risked the wrath and ire of their own government as well as those of Germany and Vichy France. Their careers and often their lives were at risk and their diplomatic peers representing western countries offered no support. Most of these diplomats individually and collectively deserve to be given Yad Vashem’s Righteous Gentile Award. Those who make the determination have in the past demanded first hand survivor testimony attesting to specific life-saving acts. Although they have been shown as “proof of the pudding,” the fact that comparatively few of France’s Jewish community having Turkish origins were deported and died in Eastern Europe’s concentration camps and crematoria – 3.5% versus 22% for all of France, the decision makers are still bound by the traditional rules to determine the merit of each case. However, because the pool of witnesses who could testify to having been saved by a Turkish diplomat in France has been significantly reduced by the passage of time, to serve fairness and justice the method of deciding on a candidate’s merit must be reviewed and revised. This paper offers decision makers an alternative (not mutually exclusive) methodology which is based on the systems approach.