The Jews of Istanbul

The history of the Jewish community of Istanbul has traces back to the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. As the Sephardic (Spanish) Jews were forced to flee their homes in Spain in order to avoid forced conversion or even death, they needed somewhere with more safe to take their families.  They found that safety in Istanbul, where the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II granted them refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan saw the great benefit of 

having the great knowledge, of science and business, that the Jewish community would bring with them. This support caused the Jewish population of Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire to grow to over 500,000.
Turkey also became a home for Ashkenazic Jews who were fleeing Russia during the 1800 and 1900's. As with previous leaders, Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, also welcomed famous scientists who were under threat in Germany and Austria to the Nazi regime, to find safety in Istanbul.
That once great community of a half of a million is today just a small piece of what it was.  In the early 1940's a wealth tax was put on the people. Even though it was intended for the wealthy Turks, it had severe effects upon the Jewish population. Many people estimate that between 25-35K Jews were forced to flee the country when they became unable to pay their debts. Later the Istanbul pogrom of September 1955 against the Greek, Jewish and Armenian communities caused another 10,000 Jews to flee the country.
Today, the population is about 25,000, with most Turkish Jews living in Istanbul. Even though the numbers are smaller there are still more than 25 synagogues throughout the country. 

Ahrida Synagogue (Tripadvisor.com)

One of these, the Ahrida Synagogue, was built in 1453, before the Muslim conquest, and still is in use today.
For those interested in researching the Jewish family from Istanbul, one of the best ways to start is at the Sephardicgen website. Compiled by Dr. Jeffrey Malka, this site is a must for anyone researching Sephardic roots. Below is just a part of the sources he has for research in Istanbul.

The Jews of Tire, Turkey

Tire, is a town in Izmir province, which is located in the western part of the Anatolian Peninsula, on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea. With its climate, location and large seaport it has long been an important city, dating back at least 5,000 years.  
The Jewish community in the area is also long established, dating back to sometime in the early 1400's when 2 Ottoman sultans invited the Jews who had been persecuted in Spain and Portugal to settle in the Ottoman cities. The community truly became a melting pot as not only did the Jews come from Spain and Portugal, but also  Greece, and in the 17th century, places such as Italy and Holland. It was in the early 1600's, when the Jewish people truly

insme.org

became a community and built their first synagogue. In 1609, Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Dayan, arrived from Istanbul, becoming the first Rabbi of Izmir.
Even with the long history of this area, this post is not about that, but is about the incredible work being done to document the Jews who lived in Tire.
Under the leadership of Murat Sanus, the people of Tire will never be forgotten.  His website, www.jewsoftire.com, is a wonderful example of a project that brings family history to life.

The site is very friendly to  researchers and includes incredible amounts of information. In addition to the records we are familiar with this project includes a treasure trove of pictures documenting the families of Tire. In addition to the website, a book of the community, Jewish Citizens Lived in Tire,  has been published and they are hopefully of producing a film about Tire. I would encourage everyone to search through the databases and see what an incredible resource this is. 

Thanks to everyone involved, they will never be forgotten.

The Early Jewish People of Oregon

The very first Jews to arrive in the Oregon Territory, Jacob Goldsmith and Lewis May, arrived in 1849, 10 years before Oregon became a state. Both men were German born Ashkenazic Jews who being merchants opened a general Store in the city of Portland. The timing of these men was perfect, as over the next few years many mining camps developed along Jackson's Creek, as miners made their way from San Francisco in search of the gold which had been discovered.

While the gold first brought miners to Oregon, they were quickly followed by Jewish merchants who established stores supplying mining equipment, food and all dry goods to the people. These merchants were able to take advantage of family connections and brought all types of materials into their stores. They also expanded their base of influence and sent other members of the community into other cities of Oregon. Places such as Albany, Eugene and The Dalles soon had Jewish communities established by these new merchants.
These first German born Jews were quickly followed by Jews from Russia, Turkey and the Isle of Rhodes. However, the greater amount of new immigrants came from the Russian empire in the 1890's. They made their homes in Portland, where the community already was established with the things they needed such as synagogues and Kosher food. The Sephardic Jews established their own synagogue in Portland in 1910 and it still exists today. The last big wave of immigrants into Oregon did not happen until the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980's. Today, the Jewish community is established statewide with congregations in well over 30 different cities. The Jewish Population of Oregon is today somewhere over 40,000 people.
Recently, FamilySearch has added a new database which could help people search for their ancestors who were in Oregon. The collection, Oregon Deaths, 1877-1952 includes over 114,000 images containing the vital records of much of the early Jewish community. As I usually do, I performed a basic search using the surname Cohen. The results that came back showed 227 entries contained in the records. Below, is the death certificate I found by doing a search for Ruben Cohen who I knew died in 1942. It is a very standard certificate and I was also able to find the name of his father (Dave) and spouse (Sophia).

While the death certificate is exactly what we would expect to find, the collection also has a few surprises. In the search of the surname Cohen, the record of Fred Cohen was included, however not with a death date, only a birth date. That would not be the way one would usually find someone on a death index. Following the link to his name, I found that the record for him was not a death certificate, but was a Registration of Birth for him. The record (shown below) is dated 23 Jul 1946 and appears to be the record of Fred Cohen having his birth recorded almost 55 years after his birth.

The beautiful thing about this record for a genealogist is how he has documented the important information about his parents. We now know his father was George Cohen, born in Posen on 18 Feb 1840, and his mother was Mary Lewis, who was born in Abursuitz, Germany on 17 May 1854. This is wonderful information and just reinforces that no matter how much the index provides it is always a great idea to look at the original record.

The Jews of Peru

The Jewish history of Peru is not as easy to document as other countries in South America. As with the other countries there were probably Jews in Peru as early as the first part of the 16th century with the arrival of Columbus in the New World. Others fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal would also find their way to places such as Peru, but still in fear kept their Jewish blood a secret. The need to keep their Jewish heritage secret began to change at the end of the 18th century. 

Between the end of the 1700's and the middle of the 1800's, South America began to undergo a change of attitude. They began to be more accepting of the Jewish people and their way of life. This allowed those Jews who were still in hiding to come out of hiding. This they did, and established La Sociedad de Beneficencia, the Jewish community that still exists today. At the time this community was formed there were very few Jews left and those that were left either married out of the faith or continued to practice in secret.
The second wave of immigrants to Peru began to strengthen the Jewish community. These Jews who were mostly merchants, came in the 1870's from many locations throughout Central Europe. Some of these made their money then left to return to Europe.
The third group to come to Peru where also merchants, only this time they came from their homes in North Africa. When they arrived in the late 1800's they became a part of the community but still established their own Synagogues and schools. They like the previous group had many who just wanted to make money then return home, which they did. It wasn't until right before and after World War I, that the immigrants who arrived did so with the intent of staying. These Jews, who were for the most part from places like Syria and Turkey, left to escape countries that were being torn apart by war. Their desire was not to get rich but rather to be safe. They established small communities all over Peru.
After World War II, most of the Jewish community moved backed into Lima, where they built an Ashkenazic synagogue and two Sephardi synagogues. The population of the community reached over 5,000 people by the 1970's. At that time, a new government was elected which brought many restrictions upon all the people of Peru. Many took the opportunity to leave at that time. However, those that stayed continued to have success in their businesses and in government service.

The Jews of Columbia

Like many countries, the first Jews to arrive in Columbia came from Spain. These Jews, who arrived in the 1500's practiced Christianity but were really "Secret Jews" having been forced to convert during the Inquisition. In the year 1636, many of these secret Jews were caught and massacred. This massacre led the rest of the community to eventually fade away, and Columbia was left without a Jewish presence.
Beginning in the late 1700's Jews who openly practiced started arriving from the Caribbean countries of Jamaica and Curacao, two countries with long established Jewish communities.

Later the government made it legal to be a practicing Jew and even granted the Jewish community a plot of land for a cemetery.
Even with the arrivals from the Caribbean countries the Jewish community was not very large. That did not change until the beginning of the 20th century. After the end of World War I, Jews came in large numbers from all over Europe. First were the Sephardic Jews who came from places such as Greece, North Africa, Syria and Turkey. Right behind them were the Ashkenazic Jews from all over Eastern Europe. By the time of World War II, the Jewish population was a little under 7000 people. Most of the Jews were centered in Bogota but there were also smaller groups in Cali, Barranquilla, and Medellin. The Askenazic and Sephardic communities are about equal in size.
As with the earliest Jews in Columbia, today most are involved as merchants and businessmen. The number of Jews in Columbia has declined because of violence toward the community. Today the population is closer to 4000.

The Jews of Turkey

Recently, I posted about the records of Michigan, Detroit Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of Detroit, 1906-1954, available at www.familysearch.org.  In those records, well over 400 list themselves as being Jewish and having been born in Turkey. In addition, when one searches the records of border crossings into the United States from Canada and Mexico, there are also a good amount of people who come from Turkey.
The fact that Turkey had such an influence should not be surprising, as the Jewish history of Turkey is very long. As far back as biblical times, the people of Turkey were trading partners with the Israelites. During the time of the expulsion the Sultan Bayazid II of the Ottoman Empire offered refuge to the the Sephardic Jews being driven out of Spain and Portugal,  where they would be free from persecution. In fact, over hundreds of years before the expulsion, Jews fleeing many countries found refuge in the land. Some of them included;

• Early 1300's. Karaites from Europe.
• 1370's. Jews expelled from Hungary.
• 1390's. Jews expelled from France by Charles VI.
• 1400's. Sicilian Jews who were expelled.
• 1530's. Jews from Italy arrived

  For hundreds of year after the expulsion, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire were able to flourish, perhaps like they had never flourished before. The majority of the Jews lived in four major cities, Istanbul, Izmir, Safed and Salonica. By 1500, there were more than 1,500 Jewish households in the city of Istanbul and by the middle of the 1500's that number was more than 7500. The Jews became prominent in medicine, politics, business, arts and literature. In fact the Jews established the first printing press in the Ottoman Empire in 1493.
 The country of Turkey became an independent state in 1923, and have been able to maintain its history of neutrality and of being a refuge for those that need help. During World War II, Turkey became a safe haven for those fleeing the Nazis. Today the Jewish population of Turkey, which is over 90% Sephardic, numbers about 20-25,000. The majority are in Istanbul, but smaller communities are in places such as Izmir.
The Knowles Collection - Jews of Africa and the Orient is now beginning to add some records from Turkey. The records of Altindag Jewish Cemetery in the city of Izmir, are now being entered. These incredible records, thousands of them will soon be available.

California, San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893-1953

When looking for our ancestors in the United States, one of the first places we search are the passenger lists of arrivals. While many people first check ports such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston or New Orleans, there are other less researched ports.
One of these ports is San Francisco, which has just had over 900,000 of its images added to www.familysearch.org. The collection, California, San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893-1953, contains some incredible information for researchers.
Using information I already knew,  I searched for Abraham Cohen, who was born in Constantinople, Turkey in 1870. He and his wife and 3 children arrived in San Francisco in the late 1920's. That information quickly led me to the Abraham Cohen I was looking for. The image below is the basic information provided at FamilySearch.

After verifying that this was the person I wanted, I was then able to look at the original passenger list by clicking on the view Image button on the lower right side. That image, shown below, gives great information on the family, and shows that they left Shanghai, China on 10 July 1929.

This collection is very easy to use and as always with FamilySearch is free of charge.

Centropa.org

One of the benefits of being able to research Jewish families from all over the world is finding great new websites. I have just recently been using a wonderful site for those whose families came from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. That site is Centropa.org.

Through interviews with elderly Jews, Centropa is building collections that will be treasures for many families. By adding photos to the oral histories, they are truly becoming a "Jewish Witness to a European Century" as their websites states.

Centropa.org is very easy to navigate. Simply click on the link in Red, that says, An Interactive Database of Jewish History. By doing so the page below will appear.

By clicking on whichever country you choose, a brief history will appear and you will the be able to search for those records. I clicked on Poland and the following appeared.

The resources available here for families are incredible, and I believe will only get better. Take sometime and get to know the website, even if you don't have family in these locations, remembering those who gave so much, can only help us know ourselves.

The House of Battat of Baghdad, Iraq

To study the House of Battat, is to study the history of Babylonian Jews. They both share a long, rich history. In his work titled "A Genealogy of the House of Battat (FHL Film #1031332 item 1), Ezra M. Battat, documents this incredible family. The Battat family first took a surname in 1750 when Reuben Ezekial Battat and his sons began to use the name. As Mr Battat writes "Among the possessions of Reuben Battat was a farm in whose midst was a pond in which he raised ducks and geese- "bat" in Arabic"
Even though the members of the family are based in Iraq, they are spread over many countries including Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Burma and the United States. Amongst the notables members of the family are:

• Reuben Ezekiel Battat (1750-1855). Born and died in Baghdad, he was a prosperous landowner and merchant. His son;
• Abdallah Reuben Ezekiel Battat (1770-1820). Born in Baghdad, he was hanged by the Ottomans in about 1820. A banker, he was hanged for "economic sabotage against the Sultan". His grandson;
• Mozes Ezra Reuben Bassat (1840-1919). Born in Baghdad and died in Basra. He was an importer of pearls, amber and corals. He was head of the Great Synagogue of Baghdad which he helped build.

This book is a great source for anyone wanting to know more about their own family from this time. The history of this family is truly inspirational. The records of this family have been added to The Knowles Collection- Jews of Africa and the Orient database.