Newspaper Page Text
Academy’s Frankel
lays the groundwork
The following remarks were
prepared by Dr. Ephraim Frankel,
headmaster of the Hebrew Acad
emy, for delivery at Sunday’s
groundbreaking ceremony for the
new Academy building. Unfortu
nately, rain shortened the cere
mony before Dr. Frankel had the
opportunity to speak. We are
pleased to print his message here.
—Editor.
This afternoon we are not mere
spectators in the unfolding of his
tory. We are, in fact, the makers of
history. We have been blessed by
the Almighty to behold this day as
a day of dedication and commem
oration. For how many times in
one’s lifetime does a person have
the z’ehut privilege, the honor, to
witness and participate in a
groundbreaking ceremony—the first
step in the construction of a House
of Learning, a House of Worship,
and indeed a House of G-d.
Notwithstanding this moment of
joy and exultation 1 find it neces
sary to pose a question.
Clearly, the completion of a
major undertaking such as a school,
a synagogue, a recreation center or
a hospital, calls for wide celebra
tions. But why groundbreaking?
I ,ook about you and you see debris,
a left over chimney of a f ormer res
idence. The ground is strewn with
remnants of a house that once
stood here. And yet we are here to
Ephraim Frankel
participate in and celebrate a
groundbreaking event which ulti
mately will culminate in the estab
lishment of a new home for the
Hebrew Academy.
So, why now? Why not wait for
a more propitious time?
The Hebrew language, the sacred
language of the Bible, is rich in
nuances and variations. It certainly
is not at a loss for words. Yet, most
remarkably, two objects—so dis
crete and diverse—one inanimate
while the other is the essence of
vitality, are both derived from the
same root.
The human being—the soul—is
referred to in the Torah as Adam
while the soil is identified as
See Academy, page 25.
Neve Shalom
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, September 12, 1986 No. 37
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Istanbul shul massaci_
still under investigation
by Joseph Polakoff
TSl’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—Whether four
or five Arab terrorists—and not
only the pair who perished after
the massacre of 21 Jews Saturday
while at prayer in Istanbul’s Neve
Shalom Synagogue—is being in
vestigated by Turkish authorities
aided by nine Israeli intelligence
specialists.
A general official impression in
Turkey has been that two terrorists
did the killing and then destroyed
themselves with their own weapons.
However, Turkish sources in Istan
bul and in Washington said inves
tigators now are carefully tracking
down accounts by the Moslem
caretaker at the synagogue and
witnesses outside it who say that
they saw two men running from
the building after hearing “big
bangs”—their reference to the
machine-gun fire and the explo
sion of grenades.
Of the 21 Jewish victims, all
were Turkish citizens except for
two Iranians and an Israeli visiting
Istanbul. Two were cantors.
In the speculation on motivation
for the slaughter, Turkish and
American analysts here said they
feel that Turkey’s upgrading of
diplomatic relations with Israel and
its cooling of economic and politi
cal interests with Arab countries
could be the underlying basis for
the terrorism. In this analysis, the
synagogue was chosen by terrorists
for attack to signal the Turkish
government of their displeasure
while avoiding harm to non-Jewish
Turks who are mainly Moslems.
Meanwhile, strong official reac
tion has emerged in Istanbul,
Jerusalem and Washington against
terrorism in general and the mas
sacres in Istanbul and Karachi in
particular while Turkish authori
ties continue to seek the identity of
the two Arabs found dead in the
synagogue, their bodies mangled,
and their organizational associa
tions.
In Washington, the Reagan ad
ministration and the Congress have
moved swiftly to condemn the massa
cre’s perpetrators and to urge world
wide action against terrorism. Pre
sident Reagan sent letters to the
See Massacre, page 24.
Memories of a synagogue in Istanbul
Interior of the Neve Shalom Synagogue, built in 1949.
by Pamela Dorn
Neve Shalom Synagogue was in
the news this past weekend. It was
the site of another Middle Eastern
tragedy, where Arab terrorists
cold-bloodedly murdered Jews at
prayer. How could this happen,
especially in Turkey which is per
haps the only country in the Mid
dle East where Jews and Muslims
dwell in peace?
Turkey is a modern republic, a
mixture of East and West, and sec
ular in the orientation of its
government. Unlike other commu
nities in the world, the Jews of
Turkey have had a relatively privi
leged history. Throughout the Ot
toman period (circa 15th through
early 20th centuries, C.E.), Jews
among several non-Muslim groups
lived in a culturally plural society
where they participated in all levels
of social life (see Benjamin Braude
and Bernard Lewis: Christians and
Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The
Functioning of a Plural Society,
two volumes. New York: Holmes
and Meier Publishers, 1982).
The catastrophe of Sept. 6, 1986,
is without precedent in Turkish
history; it seems very clear that the
terrorists were not Turks. The Jews
in Turkey were never before singled
out and attacked in such a manner.
While there have been several anti
minority incidents in modern Tur
kish history (after the establish
ment of the Republic in the 1920s),
the brunt of these events was di
rected at Greeks or Armenians due
to political conflicts. Jews lost
property in the fray, and generally,
those responsible for these inci
dents were severely punished.
There is no native tradition of
anti-Semitism in Turkey. Whatever
anti-Semitic cartoons or pamphlets
appeared in the 1930s and 1940s
were of northern European influ
ence and origin. The Turkish Re
public gave refuge to German Jews
during World War II, many of
whom became Turkish citizens. Its
predecessor, the Ottoman govern
ment, had eagerly welcomed the
Spanish Jews exiled from Spain in
1492. These Sephardic Jews became
a dominant force in the cultural
and commercial life of the Empire.
Much later, at the end of the
Ottoman period in the early 1900s,
one of the last sultans, Abdul
Hamid II, gave refuge to Ashke
nazic Jews who were fleeing the
pograms of Russia. Throughout
Turkish history, Muslim and Jew
coexisted in a fairly harmonious
relationship.
So harmonious a relationship
that it is not impossible to encoun
ter Muslims praying at Neve Sha
lom! One day, this writer observed
two Muslim women, easily identi
fiable because of their scarves and
praying style (with palms held
upwards), praying at Neve Sha
lom. When asked about this phe
nomenon, the locals explained that
Muslims respect Neve Shalom as a
holy place, a Jewish holy place.
Avraham Galante, a chronicler
of Turkish Jewish history, men
tions that Jews sometimes prayed
in mosques, especially people who
resided in small towns or itinerant
merchants. Fifty years ago, mer
chants while on the road might not
have found a synagogue nearby, so
they utilized the cami (mosque).
Mutual respect for each others’
religion was also expressed at Neve
Shalom, when in the 1950s, a spe
cial Jewish choir, called maftarim,
performed on Shabbat afternoons
before the minha service. Famous
Turkish classical musicians, such
as Kani Karaca, and Muslim der
vishes from a nearby teke (Sufi
dervish lodge) in Galata often came
to hear prominent hazanim. In the
past, hahamim and hazanim were
sometimes the teachers of dervishes,
and vice versa, in the shared art of
Turkish music. While the texts are
in Hebrew, Jewish religious song
in Istanbul shares in the rich tradi
tion of Ottoman palace music called
sanat (art) or Klasik (classical)
Turkish music.
The events of this past Shabbat
touched me in a personal way, as 1
spent a lot of time at Neve Shalom
during my year and a half resi
dence for dissertation research
among the Jews of Turkey. 1 re
member the first time that I saw
Neve Shalom. It was dusk, about 6
p.m., on a January evening in
1982.
1 was in search of the synagogue
with two Turkish friends. People
don’t walk in Istanbul, they rush
down the street—it is sort of an
Eastern version of New York City!
We ran down a cobblestone street,
See Istanbul, page 24.