European Day of Jewish Culture is Ready to Meet Istanbul Once Again

In the framework of the European Day of Jewish Culture themed 'Dialogue' in 2021, organized both online and face-to-face, the participants had the chance to get to know the Jewish cultures and traditions via various activities such as conferences, exhibitions, documentaries, and concerts. This year, the European Day of Jewish Culture, with its entertaining and impressive activities will be presenting the realities of a community from its history to music, from its traditional language to culinary culture.

On this particular day that aspires to construct an intercultural bridge with the Jews that have been living in the lands of Turkey which stands to be one of the few centers of the world with a rich cultural background, it is possible to witness a Jewish wedding, to discover the unknown traditions in this context, listen to hymns in the synagogue atmosphere, to observe the Jewish culinary culture where the reflections of the sweet and sour memories of years of migration can be tasted, to learn the unknown facts in the fields of the historical process, culture, and heritage of the Turkish Jews, from expert academicians.

The president and curator of the Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews Nisya Işman Allovi, in her statement about this particular day that has been celebrated in Turkey with many activities since 2001 said: "We are very happy that we will be organizing our events that we had to do online due to the pandemic, once again face to face. Jews have been living on these lands since the 4th century BC. Judaism is a very old, ancient religion and culture. However, it still has many unknown or misunderstood elements. So, we are organizing these activities every year, in order to overcome these prejudices and to introduce this community with its culture, cuisine, music, and traditions, and we are hoping to welcome all."

The details of the program will be announced soon. The European Day of Jewish Culture, with its team of volunteers, is expecting anyone who wishes to get to know the Jews living on this land better along with their cultures and traditions. For more information and to register please visit the Quincentennial Foundation Museum of the Turkish Jews website.