Jewish Memories of Modern Istanbul: Between Longing and Belonging

• In Event: Jewish Perspectives on the Republic of Turkey: Past and Present

Abstract

Today, Turkey’s Jewish community is diminishing. Ironically, its cultural presence and visibility are significantly raised. Jewish identity, associated with bygone cosmopolitanism, has become a major cultural capital, increasingly recycled as part of heritage industry. The prolific memory work, ranging from exhibitions to novels and a considerable number of memoirs, reinscribe lost lifestyles in the political, economic, and cultural fabric of the country document the city and its lifestyles, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. Curiously, contemporary narratives on Jewish Istanbul are retrospective, but not necessarily nostalgic: they portray the city of mutually enriching, if at times conflicting, coexistence. They highlight the experiences associated with the minority position, ranging from exclusion to alienation, which ultimately led to the drastic changes in the makeup of the city and to departure of so many of its Jews. They also adjoin the contrasting experiences associated with the minority position, ranging from longing and belonging.

Author

• Esra Almas, Bilkent Universitesi