Turkish Jews in Contemporary Turkey: Daily Life Practices in Public, Private and Political Sphere

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

Abstract

Turkish Jews in Contemporary Turkey: Daily Life Practices in Public, Private and Political Sphere In this session I will try to touch upon and summarize how Turkish Jews construct their Turkish/Jewish identity in public, political and private spheres as a Jewish and minority in a country where Muslim Turks constitute the majority and also the identity strategies they perform in this regard. The point ı will try to emphasize is that the Turkish Jewish community, which is trying to survive with a dwindling population, is not homogeneous in itself. Depending on the social class, age cohort, gender identity and political ideology of the members of the Jewish community, their relationality with both the wider society and their own community is multilayered. How they define being Jewish is the most important element of this equation.
This talk will focus on Turkish Jews identity strategies they perform in public, private and political spheres and the dynamics behind this construction, while taking into consideration how they define themselves as a Jewish minority in a country where Muslim Turks constitute the majority. Insights obtained from in-depth interviews and oral histories conducted with Turkish Jews residing in Istanbul since 2014 will be elaborated through intersectionality approach. The discussion will be guided by the sentences extracted from the years of fieldwork.

Author

• özgür kaymak, MEF University