1986 Neve Shalom Victims Commemorated... Our Pain is Still the Same

Translation by Janet MITRANI

On September 6^th, 1986 Saturday morning, at 9:17, Neve Shalom Synagogue experienced a relentless terror attack. The terrorists who raided the synagogue, fired with machine guns at the people who were praying their Shabbat prayers. In the attack which lasted for just a few minutes, 22 Jews lost their lives. 

In the 33^rd anniversary of the brutal massacre that turned the Shabbat prayer into a bloodshed, a commemoration ceremony was organized in Ulus Ashkenazi Cemetery in memory of Aşer Ergün, Avram Eskenazi, Bensiyon Levi, Binyamin Ereskenazi, Daniel Daryo Baruh, Davit Behar, Eliyezer Hara, Ibrahim Ergün, Isak Barokas, Isak Gerşon, Jozef Alhalel, Leon Levi Musaoğlu, Mirza Ağajan Babazadeh, Moiz Levi, Dr. Moiz Şaul, Rafael Rafi Nassimha, Robert Israel Özfins, Salamon Ancel, Salamon Şalom Çitone, Sefanya Şenkal, Yako Matalon and Yuda Leon Atalay, who lost their lives that day. 

In addition to families and close friends of the people who lost their lives in the attack, Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva, Turkish Jewish Community co-president Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, Israeli Consulate Representative Ehud Moshe Eitam, members of Beit-Din, community directors and members of the Jewish community attended the commemoration ceremony organized in the Ashkenazi Cemetery on Monday September 2^nd.

The ceremony started with the lighting of candles in memory of the lives lost, after Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva’s prayer. 

Advisor to Turkey Rabbinate Foundation, Beri Koronyo, who was only 13 years old during the 1986 terror attack, talked about how this attack affected him and his generation: 

“Somebody was saying that terrorists entered Neve Shalom. Our house was in deep sorrow. We had lost 22 lives; our pain was inexplicable. The photos I saw in the newspapers the day after, the images on TV, was in my mind for years. I remember worrying about my parents who went to the funeral, whether they would come back or not. I can say this clearly; not what I learned, not what I heard from my family, not my preparations for being Bar-Mitzvah, not the holiday festivities... The event that made me feel I am Jewish was the 1986 Neve Shalom terror attack.” 

After the prayers, members of Beit Din cited, the cenotaph, that was built in 1999 for the people who had lost their lives in terror attacks, was visited.