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...