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Thursday tru Sunday, October 13 tru 16, 2005 - Izmir Here We Come, Miscalculating the Date of Yom-Kippur, Changing our Plan in Search of the Jewish Community of Izmir, Trying to Convince the Guards to let us Through to the Synagogue, "Hitromemut Hanefesh" at the synagogue, Dreaming of Neil Diamond Singing Kol Nidrei, Seljuk Here We Come


October 13

It is Ramazan month here.

Boom, boom, boom, what time is it? It is 3:45 am. Drums, and more drums and it is so loud, the person who is drumming must love his job, waking up the whole town. He is also screaming, “wake up, people, wake up”. It is time to eat before sunrise, it is Ramazan month. (In Turkey Ramadan is pronounced Ramazan). And the town wakes up and I hear people talking in the house, and cars and motorcycles are running. And the drums wake up the roosters, who wonder who is waking up so early and start the day before they do, and the roosters wake up the dogs and the morning choir goes on and we try to go back to sleep.

Miscalculating the date of Yom-Kippur.

We celebrated Erev Rosh Hashana in the company of young Israelis in Olimpus, where we stayed at a tree-house-camp. They had wine, apples and honey, pomegranates and white bread. It was on the third day of October. Now everyone knows that there are ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, so if Erev Rosh Hashana was on the third of October, than Erev Yom Kippur will be on the thirteen of October. Right?
Wrong!!!

I was so sure of the date, I did not even bother to check my little calendar.
In the morning I said to Benny “Tonight is Kol Nidrei.”

And I am thinking of my kids, Rabbi Dan and my friends at Mishkon.
Benny said: “Are you sure it is tonight?”
And I replied, “Sure, remember Erev Rosh Hashanah was on the third.”
There was nobody else in Pamukkale with whom we could consult…

Changing our plan in search of the Jewish Community of Izmir

The plan for today is to go on to Seljuk and explore the wonder of Ephesus. We find out that there is a train from Pamukkale to Seljuk. We also find out that the same train continues on to Izmir…. And in Izmir there is a Jewish Community…and maybe we can make it on time for Yom Kippur.

A quick check in Google: “Izmir Jewish Synagogue”. And we write down the following information:
Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue, 1390 Sokak Esrefpasa Cadesi, Alsancak.
Beth Israel Synagogue, 265 Mithatpasha Cadesi, Karatas.

There is only one train that leaves at 8:55 am and we must hurry. We are at the train station. Were shall we go? Seljuk or Izmir. Izmir, here we go!!!

Our first experience traveling by train in Turkey. It is just OK, nothing like the bus. The buses are owned by private companies, the train is run by the government. It is very cheap and there is a discount for seniors and we qualified…

We passed many cotton fields, and more cotton and some corn fields and after five hours we arrived at Izmir. A nice Turkish woman gave me a large pomegranate before she left the train.

We quickly checked into Otel, shower, getting map at the Tourist Police office and we are on our way to find Shaar Hashamayim, about 2 km walk.

Benny, the navigator, finds his way everywhere and we find Esrefpasa street and we are at the 1390 block. We look around; we see nice apartment buildings but nothing that looks like a synagogue.

At the end of the street we see four policemen and some cones for blocking the traffic. Benny said, “It must be here”.
He asked the Turkish policeman, “synagogue?”
And the Turkish man answered with a perfect pronunciation: “Shaar Hashamayim”? And he gestured us to follow him. An iron gate and a young man in front of the building.
“Yes”
“Passports”
Passports? We left them it in the hotel.
“Identifications”
We do not have any.
And then he called someone on the phone, and started asking us all sorts of questions:
Where do you come from?
How long do you stay in Izmir?
How do you know about this place?
When did you come to Turkey?
Do you know anybody here?
Does anyone here know you?
Did you go to Israel?
And he repeated our answers in Turkish into the phone in a loud irritated voice.

By now there was a small crowd of people going into the synagogue, all try to intervene in our behalf apologizing that the young man cannot let us in without proper identification. And the young man continued talking over the phone, pleading on our behalf to someone on the other side of the line.

“They are from Israel but they live in California she teaches Hebrew, they came special to Izmir for the Holiday”…. And whatever else he was saying.

And the young man is getting frustrated with the person on the line.

And I cannot control the tears in my eyes. “Benny, please go back to the hotel to get our passports”. But it was two km away, by the time he came back the service would be over. And the nice young man who was pleading our case said, “No, don’t go, wait, wait, five minutes.” And the gate opened, and we are let in.

We are at home.

And inside we hear the community singing, only to realized that we were one day off, and instead of coming to Kol Nidrei, we came on time for Neila.

I do not think that I have the vocabulary to express how I felt. Thinking about it fills my heart with warmth. It was hitromemut hanefesh. I was with my people. I felt so thankful for the opportunity to be there, so proud to be part of a nation that make home wherever it dwells in the world. So proud to be part of a tradition that keeps growing on me and give me new experiences as I learn more.

Benny stayed down with the men, I went up to Ezrat Nashim, where few curious women were talking to me. The men section was full of men; upstairs we were about thirty women and some kids. Many of the women were wearing pants and some kids in jeans.

The place is beautiful, with wooden bima and Aron Kodesh, wooden panels with Jewish star at the center in the ceiling, decorative wooden menorah on the walls, lots of gold paintings on the wood, five large heavy chandeliers and stained glass windows. The prayers were in Ladino and Hebrew. The prayers were led by three older men, one of them is the cantor. All the voices were tired after a day of fasting. Toward the end of the Neila, all the men lined up to go to the Aron Kodesh, they were all shaking hands with each other, touching the torah scrolls. At the end, there was the sound of the shofar. People were greeting each other, kissing and the women hurried home before the end of the prayers.

Benny noticed that the men kept their talit bags in plastic shopping bags and remove the Kipa before they stepped out to the street.

The next day, walking through the Bazaar, we were stopped by someone who recognized us from the synagogue, Yehiel Levi, he owns a jewelry shop in the bazaar. “Can I offer you tea?”, No thanks, we want to go to the other Jewish synagogue.

Yehiel told us that his family came to Izmir 500 years ago from Espania. His wife was born in Izmir, immigrated to Israel with her parents, and after meeting Yehiel followed him back to Izmir. They are very happy in Izmir. Good relationship with neighbors. The kids go to Turkish schools, there are no Jewish schools.

We later met his brother is law, Shmuel, who now lives in Israel and came to spend the holidays with his sister. Shmuel grandparents were born in Kushadasi. The whole town was Jewish.

We are on our way to explore the other Jewish Synagogue, Beth Israel, which is in Karatas, a neighborhood that until 40 years ago was all Jewish. Today only five Jews remained in this part of town.

We met the Shamash of Beth Israel, Nissim Franco who can speak some Hebrew. We met the cantor of Shaar Hashamayim, Moshe Malki, who has two daughters and grandkids and all live in Izmir. He told us that there are few more synagogues in the bazaar that are closed most of the time and are opened only for few days in a year.

We met Yehiel Levi who owns Raya Jewelry in the bazaar and we met his brother in law, Shmuel who gave us a tour of Jewish Izmir and the background of the community.

The Jews came to Turkey from Espania (Spain) after the expulsion of 1492. They came originally to Aydin, Kushadai and later to Izmir. After WWI, there were 250,000 Jews here. About 100,000 left for South America, mostly to Cuba and Uruguay. Until 40 years ago, there were 25,000 Jews in Izmir, 15 Synagogues, and 50 midrashim and a very active Jewish Community. Many of them left after the six-day war. About 15,000 went to Israel and the others left to Europe, Canada and the US. Today, there are 2250 Jews left in Izmir. Two synagogues and no school. Beth Israel is located in Karatas, which was a Jewish neighborhood, with few synagogues and 2 schools. The Jews moved to the more affluent area of Alsancak, where they built the new synagogue, Shaar Hashamayim.

Shmuel took us to a tour of Jewish Izmir: here was my school, Talmud Torah, here lived the doctor, here my uncle and here the Duanis family, in this building there were three Jewish families. This whole street of the bazaar was occupied by Jewish jewelry shops. His father had a fabric store in the bazaar.

He told us that the beach used to be right next to the houses, but later the city claimed the ocean, filled it with dirt and built a road alongside the beach. Here was the pier and here was a coffee shop. Most of the Jewish homes were replaced by apartment buildings.

Shmuel pointed to a street that was named after a very famous Jewish singer, who later moved to France and asked to be buried in Izmir.

It is Friday today, and both synagogues were building a sukkah. Tonight we will come to Friday night service at Beth Israel. Service starts at 6:30 PM.

There were four men on the bima taking turns leading the service. Thirteen men in the audience and I sat a few rows behind them. The inside of the synagogue is beautiful with lots of wooden decorations. The two pieces of the bima and the aron hakodesh were made of massive mahogany by the most famous masters of the period. It has a beautiful large chandelier. We were told that the plan was to build a full dome on top, however due to lack of funds, the ceiling has now only a small dome at its center.

The service was all in Hebrew. Reading every word in the siddur. Most reading was familiar, all the melodies were different. The Yigdal prayer had an extra line at the end, something which related to the thirteen principles. The announcements at the end were in Turkish.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at an Internet caf? to sent our weekly Shabbat Shalom to our kids.

That night I was dreaming of Neil Diamond singing Kol Nidrei.

Sunday, October 16

Today is recuperating day. We are reading, writing our journal, laundry and walking around town. Tomorrow we will start exploring the wonders of Ephesus.

We are at Kiwi Pension, or as it is called by the locals, Alison Place. It is owned by an English woman, Alison and her Turkish husband. She came to Seljuk 21 years ago and fell in love with the place. They have three blond-blue eyes adorable kids. They also have a carpet shop, a restaurant and a mandarin orchard with a large swimming pool. She is beautiful and very pleasant and we enjoyed a long conversation with her today after breakfast. We can use the kitchen here. Benny went shopping while I am writing and we are going to have a special dinner tonight.

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