Karatas, Izmir
Encyclopedia
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, within the boundaries of the city's central metropolitan district of Konak. The neighborhood no longer has an official delimitation or status and exists as a notional zone (semt) that is admitted to stretch along the small cove of the same name (Karataş Cove (Koyu)) in the Gulf of İzmir
Gulf of Izmir
The Gulf of İzmir , formerly known as the Gulf of Smyrna, is a gulf on the Aegean Sea, with its inlet between the peninsula of Karaburun and the mainland area of Foça...
. Its area roughly corresponds to the officially delimited quarter (mahalle) named Turgut Reis
Turgut Reis
Turgut Reis was an Ottoman Admiral and privateer who also served as Bey of Algiers; Beylerbey of the Mediterranean; and first Bey, later Pasha, of Tripoli. Under his naval command the Ottoman Empire maritime was extended across North Africa...
. The inhabitants, among whom neighborhood pride is quite developed, also usually declare living in Karataş.
Karataş is historically the part of İzmir where the city's Jewish population was concentrated, particularly for middle- to richer classes. In Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
times, the poorest were usually either concentrated in Mezarlıkbaşı quarter or around Havra Sokağı (Synagogue Street), both of which are located in or around Kemeraltı
Kemeralti
Kemeraltı is a historical market district of İzmir, Turkey. It was originally formed around the street surrounding the shallow inner bay of the city, which was filled in due course during the 17th century, availing the bazaar to be extended to a wider area...
bazaar zone, or were scattered across the city. Karataş is still the area in İzmir where most members of the city's Jewish community continue to live.
History
Along with most Jews in TurkeyHistory of the Jews in Turkey
Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain were welcomed to the...
, İzmir's Jewish community is also overwhelmingly Sephardic
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
, notwithstanding a continuous Romaniote
Romaniotes
The Romaniotes or Romaniots are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's Greece and neighboring areas with large Greek populations for more than 2,000 years. Their languages were Yevanic, a Greek dialect, and Greek. They derived their name from the old name for the people...
Jewish existence in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
dating back to the antiquity, as well as small scale migrations by Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
into Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
lands (usually fleeing the persecutions in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
) at various times.
The constitution of an organized Jewish community in Ottoman İzmir has its roots in the eviction of Jews from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1492, although it is almost certain that there was not a direct and immediate migration from Spain to the city of İzmir self. It is indeed interesting to note that, while the records do indicate small settlements by Sephardim Jewish migrants in such inland cities as Manisa
Manisa
Manisa is a large city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province.Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of İzmir and by its fertile hinterland rich in...
, Akhisar
Akhisar
Akhisar is a county district and its town center in Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Western Turkey...
, Turgutlu
Turgutlu
Turgutlu is a very large town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. According to the 2009 census, population of the district is 140,753 of which 115930 live in the city of Turgutlu.The district covers an area of and the city lies at an elevation of...
and Tire, the current day metropolis of İzmir goes unmentioned in the 16th century context. The early 20th century Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
Jewish scholar, the virulent Turkish nationalist Avram Galante, who remains the principal reference for the Jewish history in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, explained the absence of Jews in pre-17th century İzmir by the frequent plagues and wars in this coastal city, as well as by the preference Jews themselves have shown for such tax haven
Tax haven
A tax haven is a state or a country or territory where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all while offering due process, good governance and a low corruption rate....
s of the time as Selânik and Manisa.
A Jewish presence in community in İzmir is attested in Ottoman provincial surveys (tahrir defter) as of 1605 and in provenance of Selanik. But the core Jewish population of the city grew rapidly and soon, to reach at an estimated 7,000 in 1631 and to 15,000 in 1675, around the time Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi, , was a Sephardic Rabbi and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement...
proclaimed himself as messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
and thus sowed the seeds of a deep and lasting crisis and scission within the community. Concentrated at first in today's Kemeraltı
Kemeralti
Kemeraltı is a historical market district of İzmir, Turkey. It was originally formed around the street surrounding the shallow inner bay of the city, which was filled in due course during the 17th century, availing the bazaar to be extended to a wider area...
bazaar area and pulsating along with the entire population of Ottoman İzmir, the more well-to-do Jewish residents of the city increasingly chose to live in the resort-like environment of Karataş as of 1865 when the area was officially opened for residential use.
The history of the Jewish community of İzmir was generally marked with stability despite the successive turmoils Turkey has been through. According to a 1856 British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
report presented to the Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
, they numbered as many as 17,000 in İzmir at the time, and owing to the comparative liberty and immunity from oppression they enjoyed, their numbers were rapidly increasing. The same report, which has much to say also to the disadvantage of the Turks (on those of İzmir particularly, whereas it is full of elogies on the entirely Turkish region of Aydın
Aydin
Aydın is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River at a commanding position for the region extending from the uplands of the valley down to the seacoast...
), placed the unmolested Jewish community, afflicted neither with the wounded pride of Greeks, with whom everything became a national question, nor with the Armenians' constantly shifting definition of self-interest, on a footing that was apart from the other two. According to Rolleston, the Smyrniot Jew was generally tall, almost always fair-haired, with light and frequently blue eyes, a straight nose and a white skin. But whatever insults the Greek received at the hand of the Turk, according to the report, were transmitted by him to the Jew, and at seasons of religious excitement, such as the Greek Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, it was unsafe for a Jew to be seen near the Greek quarter.
A number of blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
cases brought the Jewish community of İzmir under harassment from the Greeks of the city at different times till 1921, who were also direct rivals in various trades. Although a rarity in Ottoman lands, repeatedly denounced by the sultans starting with Süleyman the Magnificent, the most serious of blood libel related troubles took place during the three months between April and June 1872, as reported by Henri Nahum. Although the official investigation had revealed the accusations as totally baseless in the specific case of the disappeared Greek child, later found dead by drowning with his skull fractured after his death and the Greek culprits also discovered in time, the quarter of Karataş was attacked on an almost daily basis during the three months and about sixty Jewish shops and houses were burnt in Karataş and Kemeraltı
Kemeralti
Kemeraltı is a historical market district of İzmir, Turkey. It was originally formed around the street surrounding the shallow inner bay of the city, which was filled in due course during the 17th century, availing the bazaar to be extended to a wider area...
.
Main sights
Beth Israel, city's largest synagogue, and Karataş Hastanesi (also called as "Yahudi Hastanesi" [Jewish Hospital] by locals), which is owned and operated by a Jewish foundation, are still operating. Many old houses in Karataş are lost by fires and self-destruction. AsansörAsansör
Asansör is a historical building in İzmir's Karataş quarter, within the boundaries of the metropolitan district of Konak...
, literally "the elevator", built in 1907 by a businessman named Nesim Levi to allow people to climb the elevated part of the area that is separated by the coastal strait by a steep cliff, is one of the principal landmarks of Karataş, as well as for İzmir as a whole. The street where Asansör is situated is named Dario Moreno
Darío Moreno
Darío Moreno was a Turkish polyglot singer of Jewish origin, as well as an accomplished composer, lyricist and guitarist, who was born in Aydın, Turkey, in 1921, and who attained fame and made a remarkable career centered in France which also included films, during the fifties and the...
Street (Dario Moreno Sokağı), in memory of the singer-composer who had actually bought a house for his mother in that street and had lived there during the first phases of his fame.
See also
- Sabbatai ZeviSabbatai ZeviSabbatai Zevi, , was a Sephardic Rabbi and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement...
- Albert Jean Amateau
- Darío MorenoDarío MorenoDarío Moreno was a Turkish polyglot singer of Jewish origin, as well as an accomplished composer, lyricist and guitarist, who was born in Aydın, Turkey, in 1921, and who attained fame and made a remarkable career centered in France which also included films, during the fifties and the...
- Balat - İstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
's traditional Jewish quarter in the city's EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an part - KuzguncukKuzguncukKuzguncuk is a neighborhood in the Üsküdar district on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. The neighborhood is centered on a valley opening to the Bosphorus and is somewhat isolated from the main part of the city, being surrounded by nature preserves, cemeteries, and a military...
- IstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
's traditional Jewish quarter in the city's AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n part - Rhodes blood libelRhodes blood libelThe Rhodes blood libel was an 1840 event of blood libel against Jews, in which the Greek Orthodox community accused Jews on island of Rhodes of the ritual murder of a Christian boy who disappeared in February of that year....
case, February 1840