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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 1 —] c n f— r r > "T r~ o r~ c~ “r C Tr c c_ a > t 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.