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Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
@mchitrik
Aug 9, 2021 • 8 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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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...
"One should always feel free to express his religion and who he is anywhere he goes" he says "because freedom is not a human gift. It was given to us from our Creator".
It was a lovely evening with the Metropolitan, we drank tea, ate fruits, said Lehayim, spoke about what divides us and about what unites us - concern for continuity of our respective communities chief amongst them...
"Seyidne" he is called by everyone in the neighborhood, mostly Syrian war refugees who settled close to his home. "Have always been respected here by everyone, even though we are so beey few here" he tells me as he explains the meaning behind the Mount Nemrut marble replicas...
"May the Eternal protect you and we are sending peace and greetings to the Hebrews, the Jews, our brothers" he says in Aramaic before we part...
For me, to witness Aramaic as spoken language, to argue about the roots of specific words and expressions and singing Chad Gadya Dezabin Abba, with someone who actually understands the words was an unforgettable experience!

Leilio Nicho Boeina Loch! Good night in #Aramaic!

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More from @mchitrik

Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
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
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
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
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
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
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
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
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
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
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik Profile picture
Aug 8, 2021
Day 14 of #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip:

Cappadocia...

Did you know that the Jews of #Cappadocia have an ever lasting impression on every Jewish home celebrating #Shabbat?

Rosh Hodesh Tov 😂

(enjoy the beautiful scenery while you read...) Image
You see, some Jewish communities of Anatolia left their mark etched in stone. Some left significant buildings, cemeteries, books (we will talk about that too), but some were so significant that the Talmudic scholars have enhanced Jewish law to accommodate their specific needs! Image
After the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70 CE, the great rabbis gathered in the city of Yavne, and collaborated in adopting Jewish law to a new situation, Judaism without a central Temple... Image
Read 17 tweets

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