AN ENLIGTENING SUNDAY AT A 116- YEAR OLD SYNAGOGUE

On Sunday, February 22^nd, Kadikoy Hemdat Israel Synagogue hosted a very pleasant breakfast-chat with Sunay Akin.   

At the enlightening chat, poet, writer, journalist, stage actor, researcher and founder of Istanbul Toy Museum Sunay Akin explained to the guests the unknown facts of the city, we live in. During the one and a half hour chat, while Sunay Akin made the guests laugh he also led them to think. The pleasant chat was even more rejoiced with another well known man of letters, Mario Levi’s surprise attendance at the event.

It was an extraordinary event not only because a well-known personality such as Sunay Akin was the guest of honor at this breakfast-chat, but also for the fact that Kadikoy Hemdat Israel Synagogue hosted such an event for the first time, ever. We should all thank the Board of the Synagogue and especially Leader of Kadikoy Jewish Community Eli Arditti for making such a bold decision to open the synagogue on a Sunday for a cultural event.

A SYNAGOGUE IN THE NAME OF SULTAN ABDULHAMİD

The neighborhood, whose history goes back 130 years, was flooded with people after the Great Kuzguncuk fire on August 7^th, 1872. We know that in the year 1890, there were around two hundred (Jewish) families living in this neighborhood who practiced their religion at a house they rented. When Haydarpasa Jews embraced the idea to build a synagogue, the authorities applied for approval from Sultan Abdulhamid II. After the Sultan’s approval, the synagogue was built with the help of people, young, old, poor, or rich living in the neighborhood. Those people carried stones and other construction materials from the barges that docked at Haydarpasa pier. Baroness Clara de Hirsch made the greatest financial contribution. The big chandelier hanging down from the center of the ceiling at the synagogue was donated by a jeweler, Aron Deleon. The chandelier used to hang at Deleon’s house at Moda. The same chandelier hangs at the ceiling of Dolmabahce Palace, today. On the gate of the synagogue, there is an inscription “MY HOUSE IS A HOUSE OF PRAYER. IT WELCOMES ALL NATIONALITIES. OPEN THE DOOR OF RIGHTOUSNESS FOR ME AND I SHALL COME AND PRAY TO GOD, THERE.”  The synagogue was named Hemdat Israel. The name was dedicated to Sultan Abdulhamid II who enacted a special permit to build the synagogue. Hamid translates as Hemdat in Hebrew language. In Anri Niyego’s book titled “Our century at Haydarpasa”, it is said that there was a small prayer room (mescid) for Muslims next to rabbi’s room and for a period of time, the Muslims and Jews prayed under the same roof. Another important information passed down from previous generations is that German Emperor Wilhelm II and Baron Rothschild came to Yeldegirmeni neighborhood and visited the synagogue.      

Sunay Akin also shared an interesting story about Jews. He explained, “After Ataturk passed away, his body in a coffin was moved from Istanbul to Ankara by a motorcade. People were very sad. There was sorrow, everywhere. When the motorcade was passing through Karakoy, a click sound was heard. Then another, and another...Click, click, click... You know what; buttons were raining down from the sky. Buttons rained down on Ataturk’s flag draped coffin. Colorful buttons! It’s raining buttons.  Click, click. It’s raining buttons. Everyone looked up to the sky! There were Turkish Jewish citizens on that street, looking down at the motorcade from their stores’ windows. And our Jewish brothers, the Jewish citizens of our country said farewell to this beautiful person, their leader by ripping off their shirts’ buttons. This was a ritual that was part of traditional Jewish mourning...” 

During the chat, Sunay Akin constantly teased his writer friend Mario Levi and said at one point, “Mario, come on. Let’s found a political party, you and I. To point out the lack of attention and care for the past." 

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