Turkey has an ancient, uninterrupted Jewish presence spanning millennia, with communities that once ranked among the largest and most influential in all of Jewish history. Read on for 11 facts about the rich past and current life of this historic community.
1. Some Say the First Jew Lived There
Many scholars believe that the Biblical city of Haran was within the borders of current-day Turkey. That means that Abraham and his grandson Jacob lived in Turkey, and that all four Matriarchs and eleven of the Twelve Tribes were born there!
2. Jews Have Lived There Since Byzantine Times—And Earlier
There have been established Jewish communities in what is now Turkey since antiquity, as attested to by the discovery of a 2000-year-old synagogue in Sardis. Throughout Byzantine rule (from the 4th to 14th centuries), the community was small, mostly consisting of Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews, and they suffered greatly from forced conversions to Christianity and other persecutions.
3. Ottoman Rule Ushered in a Golden Era
The 14th and 15th centuries saw the steady conquest of Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey) by the Ottoman Turks, culminating in the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The new rulers warmly invited Jews into their kingdom, allowing them to engage in commerce and trade and practice their religion freely. By the end of the 16th century, the Jewish community in Turkey had become the largest in the world, far surpassing even that of Eastern Europe. This golden age would last for several hundred years.
4. It Absorbed Spanish Refugees
In 1492, Spain expelled all Jews from its territory, forcing tens of thousands to find new homes. Drawn by the opportunities and welcoming atmosphere of Turkey, many of these Sephardic Jews settled there and soon became the dominant force in the community. The chief rabbi of Turkey, Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi, was very active in gathering funds to help the newcomers get on their feet.
Read: Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi
5. “Costa” Was the Center of Jewish Life
While Jews settled in cities throughout Turkey, the largest community was in Constantinople (now Istanbul), called “Costa” by the Jews. This influential community boasted synagogues, yeshivahs, and printing houses, and was led by great Torah scholars whose fame spread far and wide. As the capital of the Ottoman Empire, many wealthy Jewish merchants and bankers settled in the city, supporting Jewish organizations both locally and abroad.
6. They Were a Lifeline for the Holy Land
When Ottoman rule extended to the Land of Israel, many Sephardic Jews from Turkey took the opportunity to immigrate there, settling in Jerusalem, Hebron, and other ancient cities. Life in the Land of Israel was tough, and Jewish communities soon found themselves buried in debt to local creditors at crushing interest rates. It was the Jews of Turkey who came to the rescue. In the early 18th century, a central committee was established in Constantinople to collect the funds needed to pay off these debts and provide ongoing financial support. It is no exaggeration to say that without the Jews of Turkey, Jewish life in the Land of Israel would not have survived through the 18th and 19th centuries.
7. They Had a Complicated Relationship with Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi, the infamous false Messiah, was born and raised in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey, where he studied Torah under the great Rabbi Yosef Escapa. When his student claimed to be the Messiah and brazenly uttered G‑d’s ineffable name, Rabbi Escapa excommunicated him, and Sabbatai was forced to flee to the Land of Israel. Fifteen years later, however, he returned to Smyrna and was welcomed by a large segment of the community who were swept up with Messianic fervor. The excitement was short-lived: he soon converted to Islam, revealing his true colors once and for all.
Read: The Messianic Imposter
8. Many Great Rabbis Lived (or Got Stranded) There
Turkey was home to some of the most distinguished Torah scholars of all time. The chief rabbi carried the title Chacham Bashi—combining the Hebrew word for “wise man” with the Turkish word for “head”—and held considerable authority, empowered by the Sultan to judge and enforce the law among Jews throughout the empire.
Among the great rabbis who called Turkey home were Rabbi Yosef ibn Lev, Rabbi Chaim Benveniste, Rabbi Yosef Trani, and many more. Others passed through temporarily, like Rabbi Yosef Caro, who wrote much of his work Beit Yosef in Adrianople (Edirne). And some ended up there unexpectedly—including the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism, who spent Passover in Constantinople after a failed attempt to travel to the Holy Land.
9. Jews in the Sultan’s Court
Several Jews were appointed to prestigious positions in the Sultan’s court, using their influence to advocate for their fellow Jews. The most famous was Don Yosef Nasi, a close advisor and confidant of Sultan Selim II. Together with his mother-in-law, the legendary Dona Gracia Mendes, he supported Torah scholarship in Turkey and the Land of Israel, opened a Hebrew printing press, and sponsored the publication of many important works.
10. They Spoke—and Still Speak—Ladino
For centuries, the language of the Sephardic community—descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492—was Ladino, a unique version of Spanish peppered with Hebrew. Ladino served as the everyday tongue of Turkish Jews for generations, and it is still spoken today, particularly among the older generation. Much like its Ashkenazi counterpart, Yiddish, Ladino is a window into the religious, social, and economic life of the Jewish people in Turkey and other Sephardic lands.
11. The Jewish Community Today
After World War I, political upheaval and rising antisemitism led to a rise in emigration, lowering the numbers of Turkish Jewry. Many more left for Israel in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Even so, Turkey is still home to as many as 15,000 Jews, the vast majority living in Istanbul. The predominantly Sephardic community enjoys the full range of Jewish communal life—synagogues, a Jewish school, kosher meat, a mikvah, and more—and is one of the largest Jewish communities in any Muslim-majority country in the world today.
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