Jews in Turkey keep their heads down

Jews in Turkey feel intimidated and insecure following the Gaza flotilla incident, Nicole Sobecki writes in the Global Post. Despite official assurances that the community will be protected, some Turks may direct their anger towards Israel against Turkish Jews:

ISTANBUL, Turkey — At the end of a narrow alley, in a neighborhood dominated by hardware stores, a white sign marked “Museum” in simple block letters indicates that you have found the Jewish Museum of Turkey.

The sign is mounted on a small booth housing an armed guard.

Although the museum stresses the 500 years of tolerance and harmony between Turks and Jews — many of the Jews of Istanbul were exiles from the 1492 expulsion from Spain and Portugal — the reality for this community of less than 25,000 is far less confident.

Islamic terror has struck in recent years. Istanbul’s Neve Shalom synagogue — which in Hebrew means "oasis of peace" — faced a 1986 attack by gunmen who killed 22 worshippers during a Sabbath service. In 2003, car bombs ripped through the Bet Israel synagogue and Neve Shalom, killing 27 and wounding hundreds — mostly Turkish Muslims.

A 2008 Pew survey on European attitudes toward Jews and Muslims found that 76 percent of Turks had a negative view of Jews, up from 49 percent in 2004. A study on hate speech in Turkey’s national press by the Hrant Dink Foundation this past fall found that Jews were the third-most targeted group, falling just behind Kurds and Armenians.

Then there was the recent deadly raids of the Gaza flotilla by Israeli commandos. As city squares across Turkey filled with irate activists protesting Israel's attack on the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara, Turkey’s Jews quietly shut their doors and kept their heads down.

“That hostile atmosphere is of great concern to us, because wrongly, but inevitably, some Turks will link Turkish Jews with Israel and may direct their anger at the community,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

While many Turks do draw a line between condemning Israel’s actions and placing Jews on the firing line, for some that distinction is increasingly becoming blurred.

“They are intimidated, their future is uncertain, they are insecure,” said Arnold Reisman, the author of "Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk's Vision."

He continued: "I certainly would not want to live that way."

In Istanbul alone, security has been stepped up at 20 different locations, including synagogues and the Israeli consulate.

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Locals pass by anti-Israel graffiti in the Istanbul neighborhood of Galata. As city squares across Turkey filled with irate activists protesting Israel's recent attack on the Mavi Marmara, Turkey’s Jews quietly shut their doors and kept their heads down. (Nichole Sobecki/GlobalPost)