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Edirne, Turkey
Traveling across the Ottoman Empire, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu took note of the Jewish community in Edirne. It is documented in her letters that in 1716 and 1717, Jews prospered economically, politically, and socially, and enjoyed peaceful suzerainty. [1] In the northwest most region of Turkey, Edirne may attribute much of its history to its location. Many events brought both Sephardim and Ashkenazim to this region, such as the Alhambra Decree in 1492, and German Rabbi Isaac Sarfati encouraging Western European Jews to settle in Ottoman lands in the fifteenth century. [2] By the second half of the seventeenth century, five thousand Jews lived in Edirne. Closer to the borders of Romania and Bulgaria than to the city of Istanbul, the region is historically known as Thrace.
Description
Modern Era of the Jewish Community
Adrianople, Edirne’s historical name given by Roman Emperor Hadrian, was captured by the Bulgarian army in March of 1913, and created an outflow of refugees to Istanbul or any neighboring haven. [3] Following the conclusion of the wars in June of the same year by the Ottomans, the city served a temporary settlement for Jews fleeing the Balkans in search of their next and new homes. Edirne’s once contracted surfaces expanded to twenty-eight thousand Jews in this moment, the city’s greatest count of the community’s population. [4] From this point the population continued to decline with rising nationalism in Turkey, and still more, with the establishment of Israel.
Alliance Israélite Universalle
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community fell into poverty. The Alliance Israélite Universalle was founded in 1860 by French-Jewish elite whom believed Jewish integration into “modern civilization” might only be granted by obtaining political rights simultaneously with moral and social regeneration. [5] Focused on modernizing, educating, and westernizing Jewish communities around the Mediterranean basin, the AIC opened a school for boys in the city in 1867, and later a school for girls in 1870. From this time until the turn of the century, the AIC apprenticeship system produced highly-trained Jewish artisans which helped to alleviate issues of depravity and aligns with the school’s focus on vocational training as vital in community productivity. The schools closed in 1923 following disputes between the director of the Alliance girls’ school and ministers of education.
The Büyük Synagogue (Great Synagogue)
Fires raptured the city three times in its history, each occurring in 1801, 1885, and the most devastating in 1905. This final conflagration destroyed over a thousand homes and much of the architectural identity of the Jewish community, including twelve of the city’s synagogues, and majority of the Jewish quarter. [6] The devastation touched the Büyük Synagogue, a single and grande structure devoted in 1907 and supervised by French architect France Depré. Its style is in the same vein of the Viennese synagogue, Leopoldstädter Tempel, and reflects the Moorish Revival design with three façades and varying sizes of windows lining the walls. The Büyük Synagogue is the largest in Turkey, and the third largest in Europe. It remained so until 1983, and five years later extremists forcefully entered and ransacked the building. [7] The collapsed roof, hollow window panels, and missing walls painfully displayed the dwindling Jewish population, which in 1995 totalled three persons. Unobserved of general upkeep or preservation, in 2008, the mayor of Edirne, Mustafa Büyük announced plans of restoration, and the work was completed by 2015. [8] The structure is public-access-restricted. It rests behind a barred fence, restored in its former glory yet unavailable to experience. [8]
Edirne, Turkey
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
Notes
[1] Aksel Erbahar, “Edirne (Adrianople)”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010).
[2] D. Gershon Lewental, “Ṣarfati, Isaac”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010).
[3] Erbahar, “Edirne (Adrianople)”.
[4] Jewish Virtual Library, “Edirne,” A Project of AICE, (1998-2018).
[5] Aron Rodrigue, “Alliance Israélite Universelle Network”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010).
[6] Erbahar, “Edirne (Adrianople)”.
[7] Erbahar, “Edirne (Adrianople)”.
[8] Turkish Archeological News, “Grand Synagogue of Edirne,” http://turkisharchaeonews.net/object/grand-synagogue-edirne (2017).
Bibliography
Erbahar, Aksel, “Edirne (Adrianople)”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010), Consulted online July 16, 2018.
Jewish Virtual Library, “Edirne,” A Project of AICE, (1998-2018), Consulted online July 18th, 2018.
Leerwental, D. Gershon, “Ṣarfati, Isaac”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010), Consulted online July 16, 2018.
Rodrigue, Aron, “Alliance Israélite Universelle Network”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. (2010), Consulted online July 16, 2018.
Turkish Archeological News, “Grand Synagogue of Edirne,” http://turkisharchaeonews.net/object/grand-synagogue-edirne (2017), Consulted online July 18th, 2018.
Mentioned in table in Histoire des Juifs d’Anatolie by Abraham Galante, Istanbul 1937, Vol. 2, compiled by Mathilde Tagger. Available at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ybhp07irxid9x2/Jewish%20Communities%20in%20Turkey%2C%201937.pdf?dl=0
Write up prepared by Michelle Abraamian (July 2018)