History of Jews in Turkey

The Biblical Era

Known today that the ancient Israelites imported honey bees from Anatolia - the Asian part of modern Turkey. A group of Israeli archaeologists discovered about 30 intact beehives made from straw and unburnt clay, as well as evidence that there were several hundred of them on the site of the joint Israeli- Canaanite city ​​of Tel Rehov. According to some reports, these bees were imported from the regions of modern Turkey, since they were much easier to handle than Israeli bees - which were extremely aggressive.

Roman and Byzantine era

According to Jewish writings, Noah's Ark reached the land on top of Mount Ararat , located in Eastern Anatolia - not far from the modern borders of Turkey, Armenia and Iran . Joseph Flavius , a Jewish historian of the 1st century, notes the Jewish origin of many cities in Asia Minor, although most of its sources raise questions. The New Testament contains numerous references to Jewish settlements in Anatolia: in particular, the Epistle to the Galatians was sent to residents of one of the districts of Anatolia, where the Jewish population was once located.

Based on archaeological evidence, it can be argued that from the 4th century BC there was a Jewish community in Asia Minor - especially in the city of Sardis . Subsequent empires - Roman and Byzantine - included significant Greek-speaking Jewish communities in their Anatolian possessions, which seemed to be relatively well integrated and enjoyed some legal immunity. The size of the Jewish community was not greatly affected by the attempts of a number of Byzantine emperors (primarily Justinian ) to forcibly convert the Jews of Anatolia to Christianity - the success of these attempts was more than limited. And today, historians continue to study the details of the status of Jews in Asia Minor under Byzantine rule. Despite some evidence of individual acts of hostility on the part of the Byzantine peoples and authorities, in general, there was no systematic persecution of Jews as a group in Byzantium, especially compared with the pogroms , killings and mass expulsions that took place in Western Europe at the same time.

Ottoman era

The status of Jews in the Ottoman Empire often depended on the specific attitude of a particular sultan towards them. For example, Murad III ordered that the attitude towards all non-Muslims should be aimed at their "humility and humiliation" - they were forbidden to "live near mosques or tall buildings", to have slaves in their possession. Other Ottoman rulers were more tolerant.

The first major event in the Jewish history of Turkey occurred after the Empire gained control of Constantinople . After the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II, he found the city in a state of disorder. After numerous sieges, devastating conquests by the Crusader Catholics (1204) and epidemics of “ black death ”, the city looked a little like the capital of its heyday. Since Mehmed wanted the city to become his new capital, he ordered that it be restored: and in order to revive Constantinople, he ordered that Muslims, Christians and Jews from all over the empire be resettled in the new capital. Within a few months, most of the Jews of the empire were concentrated in Constantinople, where they made up 10% of the population. But at the same time, the forced resettlement was perceived by the Jews themselves as a “ link ” or deportation .

The number of local Jews was soon reinforced by small groups of Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1453. In 1492, Sultan Bayazid II sent Kemal Reis to save the Sephardic Jews of Spain from the Spanish Inquisition , giving them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire.

The largest influx of Jews into Asia Minor and the Ottoman Empire, in general, occurred during the reign of Bayezid II (1481-1512): after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, Portugal, southern Italy and Sicily. The Sultan officially invited the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal, and they began to arrive in the empire in significant numbers.

The Jews met the various economic needs of the empire: in those years, the Turks were mostly not interested in commercial enterprises and, accordingly, left commercial activities to members of religious minorities. Moreover, the Ottomans did not trust the Christians whose countries they had recently conquered - so naturally their preference was for members of the Jewish community. Sephardic Jews were allowed to settle in the wealthy cities of the empire: especially in the European provinces and on the Mediterranean coast.

• Museum of Turkish Jews

• Avigdor Levy. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire. - New Jersey, 1994.
• J. Hacker. Ottoman policies towards the Jews and Jewish attitudes towards Ottomans during the Fifteenth Century // Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. - New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1982. - ISBN 9780841905191 .

• Turkey - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia