The Ladino Community in Turkey Part 2 (read the post below first)

The Ladino, or Sephardic, community in Turkey also developed a unique language that still exists today. Ladino primarily had 15th century Castilian Spanish as its base, but also borrowed words from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and even French. The current Ladino language has two basic dialects which reflect the regions the Jews fled to after the expulsion from Spain. “Oriental” Ladino was spoken primarily by Ladinos in Turkey, while “Western” Ladino, emerged from Jews who escaped to Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania. Many Ladinos fled to South America as well.

You can hear a one-minute sample of Ladino here. While I don’t know which version of Ladino this is, the Spanish roots are really clear. Try listening–it’s fascinating!

During the Nazi regime, most Ladino speaking communities in Europe were destroyed. Turkey, however, maintained a neutral stance during the war, and was therefore able to accept many Jews fleeing from Nazi occupied countries, as well as protect the community protected by her neutral walls. Shortly after Israel gained independence in 1948, thousands of Ladino Jews fled to Israel, and as a result, Israel now has the greatest population Ladinos, somewhere around 200,000 who still speak or understand a very limited and basic version of the original language.

In Turkey, the Ladino population is now around 20,000 to 22,000, with the majority still in Istanbul and the rest in the touristic (and more Western) cities of Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Antakya, and Bursa. For the most part, Ladino Jews speak in Turkish, and the Shalom newspaper primarily prints in Turkish, but one page is printed in Ladino, and a monthly supplement in Ladino as well.

There are now eighteen active synagogues in Turkey. The photograph in this blog is of the Neve Shalom Synagogue, in Istanbul, Turkey. The caption next to the photograph states, “Entry to the synagogue is always through the rear where elaborate security measures are in place (e.g., three sets of steel doors).” This reflects the awful reality that several Jewish sites have been targeted by Arab terrorists, including three on this synagogue in 1986, 1992, and 2003, with over 35 fatalities.

The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews in Istanbul works to preserve the history and heritage of the Judeo-Spanish community in Turkey. The official website of the Museum can be found at http://www.muze500.com. You can also visit that website for a more extensive history of the Ladino community.

There’s so much more to go into–I really barely scratched the surface here. But I have so many friends and family members with Jewish heritage, that I thought this would be a really rich topic to delve into. Please let me know if I made any historical mistakes that I need to correct, but more than anything, I am so happy to share a really special part of Turkish and Jewish history.

The Ladino Community in Turkey Part 1

One question about Turkey came from a friend who wondered about the Ladino community here in Turkey (and no, that’s not a misspelling), which, in her words, was a “vibrant and culturally rich Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire” and then in Turkey, when it became an independent nation in 1922. My friend wondered about the state of the Ladinos in Turkey today.

What a great question! I hadn’t known about the Ladinos actually, but after a little research through the Ladino museum in Turkey (and one in the U.S.) and several websites, here’s what I found. First though, a little background about this historically fascinating community.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks–under Mehmet the Conquerer, a beloved Sultan in Turkish history–conquered Istanbul. Sultan Mehmet the II, as he was also known, helped liberate the oppressed Jews living under the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Roman Empire), which primarily practiced pagan Catholicism and later Eastern Orthodoxism. Mehmet’s inclusive call to the Jews encouraged them to “…dwell in the best of the land, each beneath his vine and fig tree, with silver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle.” This wholehearted acceptance of Jews in Turkey during a time when so many were turned away, demonstrates the Ottoman Empire’s legendary inclusiveness towards all people, regardless of race, religion, or background.

In order to understand how the Ladino community established itself in Turkey, we have to pull away from Turkey for a moment and turn our gaze to Spain. In 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand issued two important edicts. Americans are quite familiar with one of them–the order to Christopher Columbus to put an expedition together and head off in search of the Indies. But another important edict was issued as well: The entire Jewish community–over 200,000 people–was expelled from Spain as part of the Spanish Inquisition.

During this horrifying exodus, the most fortunate Spanish Jews, also known as Sephardim, escaped to Turkey, where they were embraced by the reigning sultan, Sultan Bayezid II, with open arms. “How can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king,” he was quoted as saying, “the same Ferdinand who impoverished his own land and enriched ours?”

It was an adept observation. Many of these Jewish citzens were doctors, lawyers, scholars, and diplomats, and they truly added so much to the economic, intellectual, and cultural richness of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire, in turn, was much kinder than the Byzantine Empire had been. Ladino communities were allowed to have their own laws, schools, and other independent freedoms. The Ladino Jews also created the Ottoman Empire’s first printing press in 1493, in what was then Constantinople. In 1843, Ladinos began publishing a well known newspaper titled Shalom that is still in circulation today.

Photographs taken from here and here. The first is a remnant of the oldest synagogue in Turkey, dating back to the 4th century C.E. (A.D.). The second is of Sultan Bayazid II.

Sources:
The Sephardic Studies Website
The Istanbul Ladino Center
The Jewish Virtual Library
Time Magazine