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A Year after Attack, Istanbul Synagogue Reopens

By Nese Mesutoglu

Almost one year after it was closed due to terrorist bombings, Istanbul’s main synagogue Neve Shalom was reopened, with an official ceremony held on Monday. Turkey’s Jewish community celebrated the event with hymns and calls from the traditional ceremonial Shofar (ram’s horn).Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a message for the occasion, declaring that the terrorist attacks would harm neither Turkey’s national unity nor its spirit of religious pluralism. “These attacks, humiliating to humanity and creating deep sorrow for the whole country, won’t damage unity and brotherhood in Turkey,” the prime minister said. “Different religions and different cultures will live in peace at the Istanbul, cradle of civilizations. I am facilitating the reopening of the synagogue, following repairs undertaken after the attacks. On this occasion I would like to pay tribute to those people who lost their lives in the attack of 15 November [2003].”

At the ceremony, Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva stated that “…in every part of the world and in every cultural setting… houses of worship have been spared acts of violence… the few exceptions are rare acts (and) have always been condemned, sometimes by justice, sometimes by history, but always by the collective conscience. That this remains so is of the utmost importance for the future of mankind.”

Minister of Culture and Tourism Erkan Mumcu, Istanbul governor Muammer Güler, Mayor of Istanbul Kadir Topbaş, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, diplomats from Israel, the US and European countries, as well as other Muslim and Christian religious leaders attended the ceremony.

Neve Shalom, located in the Istanbul neighborhood of Beyoglu, and the Beth synagogue in Sisli were the targets of twin car bombings on November 15, 2003, in which 24 people were killed and more than 400 injured. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.

With a population of around 20,000 Jews, Turkey has a larger Jewish minority than any other Muslim country. In the 15^th century, the Ottoman Empire opened its doors to Spanish Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.

The author is a journalist with the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah.