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Aug 3, 2021 18 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Day 9 of #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip:

Ayvalık/Troy/Çanakkale/Dardanelles Strait

Waking tp to the view of the Agean sea and #Cunda was quite amazing - not to say pretty relaxing... We are going to Çanakkale!
Last night me and Chaim were walking in Ayvalık - a coffee shop owner noticing the Kipah on Chaim's head walks over:

- "Are you guys Jewish by any chance?" - "Of course!" we say.
- "Let's have coffee, its on me. Last year I got stuck in Israel for 8 months during the pandemic."
He was excited to see Jews walking on the streets of his hometown, and is planning on opening an identical coffee shop in Tel Aviv...

Leave a comment if you prefer the Sunset over Sunrise...

Back to Çanakkale...
The Mekor Hayim (Source of Life) synagogue of Çanakkale...
The Midraş of Çanakkale - in the Turkish Jewish tradition, the Cheder Sheni, or Small synagogue usually used during the weekdays, is called Midrash.

I assume because that is also where people gathered to study or listen to Derasha/Speech...
Mekor Hayim is currently used on the occasion that travelers like me and Chaim, or the occasional Kosher supervisor stops in to pray (we prayed Minha there) - ans during the once a year pilgrimage of former Çanakkalis from Istanbul...

However it is open every single day!
The synagogue is on the corner of Eski Havra Sokak (Old Synagogue Street) and across the Yaşar Yohay Sokak. Yaşar (Aşer) Yohay was a much loved Jewish citizen of Çanakkale...
Some more pictures of this meticulously kept Mekor Hayim synagogue of Çanakkale...
We also visited the old Jewish cemetery of #Çanakkale... Sad to see 😢
We couldn't just pass Çanakkale without visiting the #Troy Museum... And if you ever drive through, you must see it! - My grandfather was a Jeweler - but these exquisite hand work from thousands of years ago are unbelievable!
"This is Emperor Hadrian" I tell Chaim as soon as we see this sculpture... "because he is the only emperor with a beard!"...

Of course not counting the one we found last week in Ephesus...

But we are leaving this Trojan horse behind us and crossing the Dardanelles...
Crossing to Gelibolu or #Gallipoli and seeing the "Dor Yolcu" signage and you know you are entering hallowed grounds...
The Şehitler Abidesi, commemorating the fallen in the Gallipoli Campaign/Çanakkale Savaşı - between 17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916...
But wait for this...

Jews too fought at the Gallipoli Campaign... On both sides of the trenches...
The fallen Jews who fought for Turkey are mostly interred at the Acibadem Jewish cemetery (picture below from the net).
I figured that some of the Jews who fought for the Allied are buried right here, in Gelibolu...

It took us some time - but we were able to say a Jewish prayer for E. Judell who died right here, in #Anzac, at the young age of 24...
The post above about praying at #Anzac and at the Şehitler Abidesi - really underlined to my friend Hayati that "It is unbelievable how much Jewish history we have in this country"...

And where will we be tomorrow?

Laila Tov!

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More from @mchitrik

Dec 17, 2021
Aron Kodesh, or Holy Arc, is where the holy Torah is placed in a synagogue...

'Arcs of Turkey' - from synagogues of @tyahuditoplumu in the following thread.

Enjoy and Retweet!

Shabbat Shalom!

Starting with the oldest one, from Sardis, an 1800 year old Aron Kodesh:
Rabbi Izak Peres in front of the Aron Kodesh at the Tiferet Yisrael - Yenikoy Synagogue of Istanbul
Rabbi David Sevi in front of the Aron Kodesh at Bet Yisrael Şişli, İstanbul
Read 20 tweets
Dec 14, 2021
"Are there Ashkenazi Jews in Turkey?!"

I hear this question often after I introduce myself as the rabbi of Istanbul's Ashkenazi community - after all, Turkey is the bastion of Sefardi Jews!

So what's the story of the Ashkenazi community of Turkey? Thread 🧵👇
When Sefaradi Jews found refuge in the Ottoman Empire after the Spanish expulsion of 1492 and Portugal 1497 - and trickles of Anusim, former converts, in the centuries after - They were welcomed by the two local Jewish communities:

Romaniot and Ashkenazim.
Romaniot Jews are the Jews of the Roman Empire - who lived under Byzantine rule since antiquity. They spoke Greek and were often call Gregos by other Jews.

Ashkenazi Jews came from Central and Eastern Europe, after 1250. Yiddish speaking, sometimes called Ungaros, for Hungary.
Read 27 tweets
Oct 25, 2021
An interesting find in a heirloom book...

Thread 👇for #Judaica lovers...

This book, Responsa by Rabbi Yosef Colon, known as Maharik, (Sadiklov 1834) belonged to my Great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Nathan Gurary of Kremenchuk, Ukraine...
Confiscated in 1920' with his huge library when the communist regime nationalized his tobacco factory - it ended up in a flea market in Odessa, when his son in law, my Great-grandfather Rabbi Eliezer Karassik saw it en route to Istanbul...
My grandmother, Rivka Chitrik, told me that upon seeing the familiar name stamped on the books - her father dumped all their cloths, filling the suitcases with the books instead... As many as they could... Eventually the books came, via Istanbul, to their home in Tel Aviv...
Read 10 tweets
Sep 17, 2021
The Mikve (Ritual Immersion Bath) at Bet Yisrael synagogue in İstanbul

Thread👇
It is customary for men to immerse in a Mikve before Yom Kippur - for lack of time on the eve of Yom Kippur - here is a little bit about Mikve's of Turkey...

When we visited Kilis on the #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip at Mehmet and Büşra's house we were told about the Mikve in the Hamam:
The 500 year old Eski Hamam served all inhabitants of Kilis - including the Jewish population, who used the Mikva, located in a dedicated room, in specific hours of the day...

See here about our #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip visit to Kilis:
Read 13 tweets
Aug 9, 2021
Night 15 of #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip:

Adıyaman

I usually share a day post, but meeting with Metropolitan Gregorios Melki ÜREK of Adıyaman and conversing with him in Aramaic, deserves a special thread...
Metropolitan Gregorios looks over a small, dwindling community in the Adıyaman area - a community that is native to this region, as he explains "We are Arameans, we are from this region, so we speak, write and read in Aramaic. This is our home".
The Metropolitan and I walked around the streets of Adıyaman, he wearing his usual bright red clerical clothing, me wearing my Kipah, and it seems that everyone knows him "we love the people" he says, and they sure reciprocate in kind...
Read 8 tweets
Aug 9, 2021
Day 15 of #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip:

Kayseri

Did you know that Kayseri, aka Mazaka,
the capital of the Kingdom of Cappadocia, was in antiquity home to a very significant Jewish community?
The Talmud, discussing the laws of mourning over great tragedies, writes that King "Shavor Malka" killed in Mezget Kayseri 12 thousand Jews! But never the less, Shmuel, one of the great sages and confidant of Shapur did not mourn upon hearing the news!
The Talmud goes on to explain that it is because "they brought it upon themselves!" - it wasn't a real 'tragedy' - because somehow they deserved it...
Read 6 tweets

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