Sephardic Heritage Tour to Turkey - 2005

Eight members of Sephardic Bikur Holim and three Jews from the greater Seattle area took part in a Sephardic Heritage tour that visited Turkey for almost two weeks. The SBH members are Zalie Cordova Lester, Lilly DeJaen, Isaac and Elisa Azose, Albert S. and Jean Maimon and Esther and Eugene Normand. The three non-Sephardic Seattleite tour participants were John Friedmann, Michael Krasik and his wife, Nancy Geiger. The tour was arranged through Asia Minor Tours of Florida and the connection with Asia Minor was made through John Ufuk Gokcen, the Turkish Consul in Seattle who is known to several SBH members.

The tour included stops at cities and towns in Turkey with special meaning to the SBH members. Thus we visited Bursa, Tekirdag and Marmara. Bursa is the birthplace of the mother of Isaac Azose and of the father of Albert Maimon and Esther Normand. These Maimon family ancestors, as well as the fathers of Lilly DeJaen and Zalie Lester, all spent a good number of years in the city of Tekirdag. In addition, the mother of Lilly DeJaen grew up in the town of Marmara on the island of Marmara in the Sea of Marmara, so we stopped at Marmara too.

We spent more than a week in Istanbul and visited other parts of Turkey too, some with Jewish connections and others linked to the prominent civilizations that occupied what is now Turkey in previous centuries, such as the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and the Turkish Republic. This section of the article reviews the Jewish highlights of what we saw in Istanbul, in both text and pictures.

The tour was made practical and extremely enjoyable due to the invaluable assistance and detailed knowledge provided by our tour guide, Izak Eskinazi, and through the helpful arrangements made by the tour company in conjunction with Lina Filiba, the Executive Director of the Jewish community of Istanbul. Lina had been in Seattle about two years ago and so several of the SBH members on the tour had forged friendly ties with her (her husband is a cousin of SBH member Ike Bensussen). One part of the arrangements was the kosher dinners that were brought in to our four-star Istanbul hotel (Richmond in the Beyoglu district) from the kitchen of the Jewish old age home in the Haskoy district.

Haham Bashi, Rabbi Izak Haleva, who may be related to the SBH Haleva family Double click the image for a full size photo

Rabbi Eliezer Papo speaking (in Ladino) after the showing of the film "El Ultimo Sephardi (The Last Sephardi)" that is about him. This film was shown earlier this year at the Seattle Jewish Film Fesitival Double click the image for a full size photo

On Friday, after a beautiful boat trip along the Bosporous, we ate lunch at the Carne kosher restaurant and visited the Etz Haim synagogue across the street from it. Rabbi Naftali Haleva, son of the Haham Bashi, is the rabbi of this kehilla. The next Friday many members of the group were interviewed in our hotel by Tamara Pur, a reporter for Shalom, the Jewish newspaper of Istanbul, who will be writing an article about our group's visit and the Turkish Sephardic community in Seattle.

The eleven members of the Sephardic Heritage tour, eight from SBH and three from the greater Seattle Jewish community continued their tour outside of Istanbul. They visited sites of Jewish interest on both the Asian side (Anatolia) and the European side (Roumeli).

Bursa - Ship-shaped Tevah (platform on which the Torah is read) of one of the old synagogues of Bursa. This is the same shape as the Tevah of the more well-known 500-year old Achrida Sephardic synagogue in Istanbul Double click the image for a full size photo		Bursa - Municipal sign acknowledging that this street was the site of the original Jewish district in Bursa Double click the image for a full size photo

The first stop upon leaving Istanbul was Bursa, about 100 miles southeast of Istanbul. Bursa was the birthplace of the mother of Isaac Azose and of the father of Albert Maimon and Esther Normand. The entire trip was made in a 25-passenger bus which was equipped with a refrigerator containing bottled water, but it did have to stop for restrooms. A total of 13 people were in the bus, the 11 from Seattle, tour guide, Izak Eskinazi and a Turkish driver. In order to get to Bursa within a reasonable driving time, we had to take a ferry for a 30-minute trip.

We arrived in Bursa in the middle of the afternoon and stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the Kulture Park, where many in the group ate their kosher meals. These were brought from the US in boxes (made by La'Briute) and consisted of hot entrees that required 14 minutes to heat up in the self-contained box. We were able to visit the places of general interest (the Green Mosque, mausoleum of a sultan), but Izak could not reach the caretaker of the Jewish cemetery. Izak was able to make arrangements for the group to visit the cemetery early the next morning. The sons of Al and Jeanne Maimon had been to the cemetery 13 years earlier and had recorded where the gravestones of Yaakov and Kadun Maimon, grandparents of Rabbi Maimon were located. We found other Maimon and Franco gravestones that are likely part of the Maimon family.

From Bursa we drove to Izmir, the second largest city in Turkey with the only other active Jewish community.

Izmir - Shachrit at the Shar Hashamayim synagogue where three of the SBH men pryed with the minyan of local Sephardic Jews Double click the image for a full size photo

Izmir- Al Maimon speaking with his email correspondent, Daniel Levy of Izmir, in Izmir hotel Double click the image for a full size photo

The old Jewish section had been near the central bazaar and we visited a few of the synagogues in this area. We also encountered a Jewish couple named Jerusalmi who operate a small shop within the bazaar; they got our attention by shouting "Shalom Alehem". Nearby was a dilapidated house that is alleged to have been used by the infamous Sabbetai Zevi. Al Maimon had been communicating through a Sephardic online email group with a man from Izmir named Daniel Levy Two days Daniel Levy joined us at our hotel later that evening and gave us directions to the synagogue that was near our hotel, Sha'ar HaShamayim, and filled us in on other items of local Jewish interest. Isaac Azose, Al Maimon and Eugene Normnd went to Sha'ar for Shachrit the next morning.

Izmir - The elevator was built by the Sephardic Jew, Nessin Levy. about 100 years ago to assist residents living at the top of the hill in getting down to the lower level Double click the image for a full size photo

Our contact on Marmara was Mustafa Erbil, who Ralph Maimon had met on his trip to Marmara, and Mustafa had contacted the mayor of Marmara. The mayor was unavailable, but his brother Mehmet filled in for him and met us at the dock. As we were about to enter a restaurant along the sea for tea, Lilly and Jeanne Maimon admired the hand-made vest worn by an elderly Moslem woman, Saime Aslan, standing in her nephew's boutique that was next door. Lilly mentioned a few names to Saime, Policar, Calvo, etc., and she immediately responded in Turkish. The nephew, the mayor's brother and few others who spoke English quickly gathered around to translate so the two women could communicate. The group now consisted of about 12 people and we adjourned to the restaurant to have their specialty, "island tea". A helpful participant was Selmin Erguden, a young woman who works for an organization that promotes business and culture for the island, and in addition, a phone call was made to Mustafa Erbil, who had been up in the hills guiding some tourists.

Our bus then took us to another part of the city, the Karatas section, that is still inhabited by Jews. A very interesting structure in this neighborhood is the Asansoer (elevator) that had been built by a Jew, Nissim Levy, about a hundred years ago. He did this to assist people like himself who lived in houses at the top the hill (maybe 200 ft above) to get to the lower level where the Beth Israel synagogue is located. The same elevator structure functions today, but with electrical motors and modern cars. When we visited the synagogue, we noticed that the caretaker, Nissim Franco, bore a striking resemblance to one of the very helpful Jack-of-all-tradesman who used to help out at SBH, Uncle Isaac Adatto.

We then proceeded on to the cemetery, which combines an older and newer cemetery. Here we found the stone for Rabbi Yosef Escapa died 1662) the rabbi who didn't allow Sabbetai Zevi to return to his city of birth, and also the famous 19th century Rabbi, R. Haim Palacci. Daniel Levy told us the story about the pool of water at the cemetery's entrance way which only began flowing after R. Palacci's remains were transferred to this cemetery, emulating the pool that had flowed at his burial site in a previous cemetery.

Sardis - Portion of the oldest he oldest synagogue in Turkey, which dates back to the 4th Century C.E. Double click the image for a full size photo

From Izmir the bus took us to Sardis (ancient capitol of the kingdom of Lydia), the site of the oldest synagogue in Turkey. It is an archeological site dating to Roman times, but Jews have not lived in this region (~80 miles from Izmir) since about the fifth century. Much of the money for the archaeological work was donated by American Jewish individuals and philanthropies. The stone ruins indicated that the synagogue held several hundred people when it was functioning. From Sardis we rode to Kusadasi, a beautiful city on the Aegean Sea, and stayed in the Kismet Hotel which is owned by the family of the late Humeyra Ozbas, the granddaughter of the last sultan of Turkey. From there we visited the ancient site of Ephesus, and then returned from the Asian part of the country to Istanbul via Turkish Air.

Our last two stops were the Island of Marmara and the city of Tekirdag, both being the mother cities of most of the founding families of SBH. We had the names of non-Jewish contact people in both cities who helped us in locating the sites that have meaning to the Jewish families that had lived in those cities. To get to Marmara we drove by bus on the European side to Tekirdag, about a 2 hour trip, where we would stay in the Hotel Rodosto (when SBH founders came to Seattle almost a hundred years ago, many called their city by this Greek name). We originally were scheduled to travel the 70 miles across the Sea of Marmara to the island of Marmara in the boat of the hotel owner, but the sea was judged to be too choppy so arrangements were made to take a large, private ferry. Only 6 of the group made the trip, Lilly DeJaen, whose mother was born on Marmara, the Maimons, the Normands and Zalie Lester.

Marmara - Lilly DeJaen with 80-year old Saime Aslan, a Moslem woman who always lived on Marmara and remembers where the Jews used to live Double click the image for a full size photo

Our contact on Marmara was Mustafa Erbil, who Ralph Maimon had met on his trip to Marmara, and Mustafa had contacted the mayor of Marmara. The mayor was unavailable, but his brother Mehmet filled in for him and met us at the dock. As we were about to enter a restaurant along the sea for tea, Lilly and Jeanne Maimon admired the hand-made vest worn by an elderly Moslem woman, Saime Aslan, standing in her nephew's boutique that was next door. Lilly mentioned a few names to Saime, Policar, Calvo, etc., and she immediately responded in Turkish. The nephew, the mayor's brother and few others who spoke English quickly gathered around to translate so the two women could communicate. The group now consisted of about 12 people and we adjourned to the restaurant to have their specialty, "island tea". A helpful participant was Selmin Erguden, a young woman who works for an organization that promotes business and culture for the island, and in addition, a phone call was made to Mustafa Erbil, who had been up in the hills guiding some tourists.

After tea, Saime led a procession of 12 people on foot through the streets of Marmara, indicating all of the houses that had once been owned by Jews. One of the Jewish heroes was Mordohai Policar, a grandfather, brother and uncle to many Policars who settled in Seattle and was revered as a hero by the Turks on the island. Two other men were Aronachi Eskinazi and his son David both of whom operated boats were therefore given the nickname "Capitan". Saime showed us where the synagogue had been, where formerly Jewish homes are still occupied and the park where some of the Jewish tombstones had been placed. Even though it is a very small town, this tour took close to 2 hours but all six Seattle people were very excited throughout the visit.

Tekirdag - Site of the former Meldar (school building); After the old synagogue was taken over by the government in the 1930s to build a new highway, the sinagogue was transferred to the Meldar. After all the Jews left the city, the building became decrepit and eventually collapsed Double click the image for a full size photo

Tekirdag - Esther Normand in front of a house that used to to be owend by Jews Double click the image for a full size photo

The next morning was our tour of Tekirdag. In this case our local contact was Mehmet Servez, who had been located by our cousin Joel Benoliel in June. We picked up Mehmet in our bus and he led the driver through this much larger city. We saw where the original synagogue (kahal) had been, the school (meldar) building to which the synagogue had transferred after the municipality took over the kahal to build a highway along the sea. Jews had lived in Tekirdag until at least the 1960-70s so memories here were fresher. Some from Seattle had visited Tekirdag 10-20 years ago when the meldar building was still standing, with the aron kodesh (now in the Zulferis Museum in Istanbul) still intact. By 2005 this building is decrepit and had collapsed.

We stopped at the Turkish bath house which was in the heart of the Jewish neighborhood and which the old timers used to reminisce about in Seattle. The view from this part of the city was beautiful and reminded us of Seattle, although we were much closer to the sea, about five blocks away, than we are to Puget Sound. Mehmet took us to the Jewish cemetery which was quite disappointing because without any Jews in the city no one is taking care of it. It is therefore overgrown with weeds. Three of the party spent about a half hour trying to photograph some of the tombstones that were visible, but it is a large area (roughly half the size of the Sephardic Brotherhood cemetery) and we could make limited progress. We drove back to Istanbul for a lovely Shabbat and returned the next day to Seattle.