Housed in the ornate 19th-century Zullfaris synagogue near the Galata Bridge, this museum was established in 2001 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire. Its modest but extremely well-intentioned collection comprises photographs, papers and objects that document the mostly harmonious coexistence between Jews and the Muslim majority in this country.
The history of the Jews in Turkey is as long as it is fascinating. When Mehmet II conquered the city in 1453, he recognised the last Byzantine chief rabbi, Moshe Kapsali, as the chief rabbi of İstanbul and said 'The God has presented me with many lands and ordered me to take care of the dynasty of his servants Abraham and Jacob…Who, among you, with the consent of God, would like to settle in İstanbul, live in peace in the shade of the figs and vineyards, trade freely and own property?' Alas, this enlightened state didn't last through the centuries, and Jewish Turks were made to feel considerably less welcome when racially motivated 'wealth taxes' were introduced in 1942 and violence against Jews and other minorities was unleashed in 1955, prompting many families to flee the country. More recently, Islamist terrorists have bombed synagogues on a number of occasions. Despite these recent events, the museum chooses to focus on the positive rather than the negative.
Approximately 23,000 Jews currently live in Turkey, with most residing in Istanbul. Sephardic Jews make up around 96% of this number, while the rest are primarily Ashkenazic. Today there are a total of 16 synagogues in Istanbul, all of which are Sephardic except for one. For a list of these see www.jewish-europe.net/turkey/en/synagogue.
