The Ladino Community in Turkey Part 2 (read the post below first)

The Ladino, or Sephardic, community in Turkey also developed a unique language that still exists today. Ladino primarily had 15th century Castilian Spanish as its base, but also borrowed words from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and even French. The current Ladino language has two basic dialects which reflect the regions the Jews fled to after the expulsion from Spain. "Oriental" Ladino was spoken primarily by Ladinos in Turkey, while "Western" Ladino, emerged from Jews who escaped to Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania. Many Ladinos fled to South America as well.

You can hear a one-minute sample of Ladino here. While I don't know which version of Ladino this is, the Spanish roots are really clear. Try listening--it's fascinating!

During the Nazi regime, most Ladino speaking communities in Europe were destroyed. Turkey, however, maintained a neutral stance during the war, and was therefore able to accept many Jews fleeing from Nazi occupied countries, as well as protect the community protected by her neutral walls. Shortly after Israel gained independence in 1948, thousands of Ladino Jews fled to Israel, and as a result, Israel now has the greatest population Ladinos, somewhere around 200,000 who still speak or understand a very limited and basic version of the original language.

In Turkey, the Ladino population is now around 20,000 to 22,000, with the majority still in Istanbul and the rest in the touristic (and more Western) cities of Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Antakya, and Bursa. For the most part, Ladino Jews speak in Turkish, and the Shalom newspaper primarily prints in Turkish, but one page is printed in Ladino, and a monthly supplement in Ladino as well.

There are now eighteen active synagogues in Turkey. The photograph in this blog is of the Neve Shalom Synagogue, in Istanbul, Turkey. The caption next to the photograph states, "Entry to the synagogue is always through the rear where elaborate security measures are in place (e.g., three sets of steel doors)." This reflects the awful reality that several Jewish sites have been targeted by Arab terrorists, including three on this synagogue in 1986, 1992, and 2003, with over 35 fatalities.

The Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews in Istanbul works to preserve the history and heritage of the Judeo-Spanish community in Turkey. The official website of the Museum can be found at http://www.muze500.com. You can also visit that website for a more extensive history of the Ladino community.

There's so much more to go into--I really barely scratched the surface here. But I have so many friends and family members with Jewish heritage, that I thought this would be a really rich topic to delve into. Please let me know if I made any historical mistakes that I need to correct, but more than anything, I am so happy to share a really special part of Turkish and Jewish history.