Jewish Life in Twenty-First-Century Turkey: The Other Side of Tolerance

Introduction

This is a book about the tensions inherent in Turkish Jewish life at the turn of the twenty-first century. These tensions arise from a number of contradictions: Jews in Turkey publicly celebrate a long history of coexistence and tolerance in the region, yet live with ongoing security concerns bred by anti-Semitism and periodic attacks against members of the community and their institutions. Since the creation of the Turkish Republic nearly a century ago in 1923, Jews have enjoyed full citizenship in Turkey with all its rights and responsibilities, yet their patriotism and indigenousness are regularly questioned by Muslim Turks. Jews are privy to what I call “cosmopolitan knowledge” about different symbolic and cultural systems (Brink-Danan 2011). They have learned about difference by comparing their lives to the ways Jews outside of Turkey live and to the ways Jews have lived in the past, yet they perform and disavow this difference at different times and on different stages. In Turkey today, cosmopolitanism is both celebrated and reviled, and Jews regularly find themselves performing a patriotic role as citizens while also embodying cosmopolitan difference in order to represent themselves as the good minority. It is this final dynamic that commands the lion’s share of this study: How do Jews in Turkey manage the tensions between their cosmopolitanism and patriotism, between their difference as Jews and their sameness as Turkish citizens? What kind of cultural habits does this tension breed? An example of the tension between difference and sameness can be found in the way many Jewish families in Istanbul today follow the bibIntroduction 2 Jewish Life in 21st-Century Turkey lical command to mark their doorposts with a mezuzah, a small ritual object that contains a text from Deuteronomy emphasizing the unity of God, embedded in an injunction to outwardly signify this belief: Hear, O Israel,1 the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might. These words that I command you shall be upon your heart. Repeat them to your children, and talk about them when you sit in your home, and when you walk in the street; when you lie down, and when you rise up. Hold fast to them as a sign upon your hand, and let them be as reminders before your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your home and at your gates. Several years ago I attended an educational session preparing Jewish couples in Istanbul for marriage. These sessions, created to counter assimilation and a perceived decrease in knowledge about Jewish ritual practice, are mandatory for all couples marrying through the Turkish Rabbinate. At the meeting, each couple received a mezuzah complete with a parchment upon which this injunction was handwritten. In describing the gifts that the couples would take home, the session organizer focused on the central significance of the mezuzah by emphasizing its monetary and symbolic value. The hand-inscribed parchments, without which the mezuzah is not considered kosher (fit for use), are expensive and not produced in Turkey. The rabbi leading the session described the mezuzah’s symbolic role as protector of the Jewish home: Many of you have fancy electronic security systems in your apartment. Here is a low-tech security system made specifically for the Jewish home. It is a security system for a Jewish future and for a Jewish life. Every time you move to a new house, your children will watch you put the mezuzah up on the doorpost and learn of the importance you place on Jewish values and customs.2 A murmur then echoed throughout the auditorium. The audience became increasingly noisy until one woman raised her hand to ask the rabbi, “Are we supposed to put the mezuzah on the inside or outside of our homes? In my parents’ house it is on the inside. I’ve heard that the outside is the proper place.” Although Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law dictate that the mezuzah be visible to passers-by on the street, Introduction 3 many Turkish Jews refuse to outwardly signify their Judaism. By affixing the mezuzah behind the door, that is, by marking the inside of the doorframe, Turkish Jews fulfill the commandment without displaying difference in public. At the woman’s question, the rabbi paused and then attempted...