TURKEY

Hate speech marked wall by İstanbul synagogue

Hate speech was recently spray painted on a wall outside the İstipol Synagogue in İstanbul´s Balat neighborhood; the synagogue opened for a prayer service for the first time in 65 years earlier this month.
Hate speech marked wall by İstanbul synagogue

The writing on a brick wall just outside the place of worship read “Terrorist Israel, there is Allah [God]!” The writing has since been painted over.

The Jewish house of worship opened for a one-time Tefilah, a prayer performed three times a day, on Jan. 8.

İvo Molinas, the editor-in-chief of the Jewish community's weekly newspaper Şalom, expressed his frustration over the ongoing anti-semitic rhetoric that appears in Turkey as well as of people's linking the local Turkish-Jewish community to Israel.

“I don't know what to think, other than that people insist on connecting us to Israel. Of course there are some connections between our community and Israel; members of our community have family that live there and might have emotional connections but we have nothing to do with their political policies,” Molinas explained in a phone interview to Today's Zaman.

“Writing anti-Israel speech on the wall [outside] of a synagogue is an act of anti-semitism. There is widespread anti-semitism voiced in Turkey and it gets in the way of celebrating the richness of cultural diversity in this country,” he added.

Balat is historically a Jewish neighborhood in İstanbul. There are nine synagogues in the area but only two of them are currently active. Today, certain areas of the neighborhood are covered with spray-painted Turkish nationalist symbols, such as wolves and three crescents.

This anti-semitic rhetoric represents the opposition and strikes against the strides the local Jewish community has made in Turkey with its increasing visibility and celebrations of its identity.

In March 2015, Europe's second largest synagogue, the Great Synagogue, was reopened in Turkey's northwestern Edirne province following restoration. In December, İstanbul's Beşiktaş Municipality also held a milestone of an event with the first public celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in the history of the Republic of Turkey by lighting a large menorah in Ortaköy Square.

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