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After Normalization Deal, What Now for Israeli-Turkish Relations?

“If you ask any Jewish person in Turkey for three things they wouldn’t want to lose in their lives, they will say: family, money and good Turkish-Israeli relations,” says Ivo Molinas, who for the past 12 years has served as editor-in- chief of Salom – a 75-year-old Jewish weekly newspaper based in Istanbul. “Good relations make life easier for Jewish people than the bad eras,” he adds.  Turkish-Israeli relations have been tumultuous in recent decades and Molinas is one of thousands of Turkish Jews hoping last month’s resumption of full diplomatic ties between the two countries is a sign of better things to come. “Turkey’s approximately 15,000 Jews never want relations with Israel to go bad because Turkey is their home country and Israel is the country their heart is attached to,” he says. And with Ankara and Jerusalem now aiming to maintain better ties, Molinas hopes his team of approximately 100 writers – all of whom write for Salom on a voluntary basis – can educate the broader n...

Turkey's Jews Are Coming Out of the Shadows

Our courage to hold a public Hanukkah ceremony for the first time in history this week stemmed not from a transformation in Turkish society, but from a shift within our community. This past year has been exceptional for Turkish Jewry. On January 27, Holocaust victims were commemorated in an official service in the heart of Turkey, Ankara. Although the speaker of parliament chose to use this forum as an opportunity to paint the Palestinian issue as the center of all the Middle East's problems, we were nonetheless happy to be part of an official commemoration. Then, on February 24, Struma victims were commemorated for the first time at an official ceremony. After 73 years, senior officials joined Turkey's Jewish community at a ceremony commemorating 768 Jewish refugees who perished in 1942 as the vessel was isolated and doomed to its fate in the Black Sea. The inauguration of the Edirne Great Synagogue on March 26 was an historic day for us, too. For the first time in my l...