Jewish Museum of Turkey

The Jewish Museum of Turkey is a cultural center of the 500th Foundation year ( 500th Yıl Vakfi ) was established to inform the society about the traditions and history of Turkish Jewry. It was inaugurated on 25 November 2001. The Foundation was founded in 1989 by 113 Turkish citizens, both Jews and Muslims, on the occasion of the five-hundred- year anniversary of the arrival of the Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire. The idea for a museum was raised by Naim Güleryüz who is curator of the museum. The Foundation was funded by the prominent Jewish Kamhi family.

The building

The museum building, which was formerly known as Zülfaris Synagogue, has been restored and transformed. The synagogue existed in 1671, and its foundation walls suggest an earlier building from the colonial era of the Republic of Genoa. It was mentioned in the written sources as " Holy Sinavi ( Synagogue) in Galata " or " Kal KADOS Galata " and called " Zülfaris " what is " Zülf - ü Arus " derived according to more recent theory from the Persian word, which means " the edge of a bridge "means. The present building was probably built in the early 19th century.

Timeline

Museum Design

The Jewish Museum of Turkey comprises departments of the intermingling cultures of the Jewish and Muslim Turks and ethnographic reports, which reflect the traditions of Turkish Jews, as well as historical accounts of the Jewish odyssey from Spain to Turkey.

The entrance to the building leads through an iron gate into a courtyard, in which metal sculptures by Nadia Arditti are. The " Statue of the Rising Fire" is reminiscent of the Turkish Jews who fought in the struggle for the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, in Dalmatia, in the Caucasus, in Palestine, in Triponitanien, the Dardanelles, in Korea and the Turkish War of Independence.

The octagonal main hall at the information desks of the entrance floor deals with the Zülfaris Synagogue, the institution of the Chacham Bashi, the everyday life of people living in Istanbul and Anatolia Jews as well as with artifacts in the form of letters, cards, tallit and firmans ( Empire decrees ). A copy of the Lausanne Treaty shown that recognizes the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic and the Turkish Jews conceded their minority rights. The ark on the same floor contains two Torah scrolls. Another area shows Jewish academics who fled during the Second World War and the Holocaust from Europe to Turkey and Turkish diplomats who helped Jews during the Holocaust - some of them were honored as Righteous Among the Nations.

The gallery, which once served as a prayer section for women contains some drawings that depict the daily life of the Jewish community. The ground floor is organized chronologically as ethnographic section - with photographs and sculptures by birth, circumcision, weddings, clothes, jewels of Jews etc.