9 minute read
The Wandering Jew
The Wandering Jew Istanbul, Turkey
By Hershel Lieber
The Blue Mosque
We had just finished conducting a successful fundraising tour on behalf of the Yeshiva of Kishinev. Everyone had already left, and Pesi and I remained overnight in Kishinev awaiting our flight back home on Monday, December 11, 2000. I made arrangements for our flight back home to include a one-day visit to Istanbul, Turkey. I originally did not tell Pesi about this layover, as I wanted to surprise her, but the secret leaked out before we boarded the plane. I also knew that she would be apprehensive about spending a day in a Muslim country, and I would have to resort to convincing her to make this stopover. In any case, we arrived in Istanbul at 10:30 AM, and we had a twenty-four-hour window to explore the city.
The former capital of the Roman/ Byzantine, Latin/Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, Constantinople was an imperial city for almost sixteen centuries. The city named after the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great was initially a center of Catholic Christianity and later the cradle of Orthodox Christianity. Eleven-hundred years later, the Ottoman dynasty replaced Byzantium. For the past one hundred years, Turkey was a secular republic, but in recent years, the trend has been towards more conservative Islamic ideology. In the 16th and 17th century, Istanbul became a very important Jewish center. The arrival of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal ushered in an era of great cultural and religious achievements for Judaism. Jews were relatively free to work in any profession they chose, and they excelled in commerce as well as in medical careers. Since the creation of the State of Israel and the subsequent rise of the right-wing party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, most Jews have left turkey, although there still are about 15,000 Jews living in Istanbul.
Enough of history. After arriving in Turkey, we quickly made it to our hotel, ate something, and went out to discover this great populous city which straddles two continents. Our first stop was at the Topkapi Palace, which was the seat of government for over three hundred years under the rulership of Ottoman sultans. Many buildings in this complex served as the private residences of the Sultan’s families. The compound, which includes many palaces and courtyards, is well over 150 acres. We took a two-hour walking tour that gave us a sampling of this stunning sprawling estate. The private family apartments were called the Harem and consisted of over four
At the entrance of the Topkapi Palace
Standing in Europe with the Bosporus and Asia in the rear
A stall in the Grand Bazaar
hundred rooms which served as the living quarters for the Sultan’s many wives and concubines. This tour was so informative and interesting that I could have easily continued for a few hours. But we had very little time for our itinerary.
Our next stop was the Blue Mosque. This architectural gem was constructed in the early 1600s and consists of five main domes, eight secondary domes, and eight minarets. The building is a mixture of both Byzantine and Islamic design. The interior has about twenty-thousand hand-painted ceramic tiles in sixty different tulips patterns. The lower stories are illuminated by two-hundred stained glass windows. To enter, we had to remove our shoes and hoped we would find them in the hundreds of cubicles near the entrance. The interior was crowded with worshipers as our visit coincided with the month of Ramadan.
When exiting, we were bombarded by dozens of peddlers and hawkers of merchandise to buy their wares. The most persistent one convinced us to accompany him to his shop nearby. He was selling rugs, and they were all beautiful. He gave us the royal treatment and served us apple tea, a very popular Turkish drink. It is made by steeping apple sections in boiling hot water. It took a while for him to concede that we were not customers, but he still was very hospitable to us. When we left his store, we passed a silver shop and saw an intricately decorated enclosed silver tube. We inquired what it was and were told that these tubes were originally used to send import-
With a vendor at the Grand Bazaar
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The rug salesman trying to make a sale World famous Turkish rugs
ant letters or documents among the wealthy. We were surprised that the price was less than two hundred dollars. We thought that this tube could make a perfect and unique besamim holder, so we immediately bought it. We also bought six small silk rugs (6”x 12”), which can be used as wall decorations. I remember that they were eight dollars each.
It was late afternoon already, and we still wanted to see more of the city. We ruled out going to the Hagia Sophia because it was originally a cathedral and retained many Christian symbols, though it later turned into a museum. Instead, we went to the Bosporus Strait, which divides the two sides of the city but connects Europe and Asia through bridges and ferries. There was one more place that we wanted to experience, and this was shopping at the Grand Bazaar. We had to put it off for a good hour between six and seven in the evening. Being that this was the month of Ramadan, all stores and stalls were closed as the faithful went home for dinner after fasting the entire day. We rushed back to the hotel to grab a bite of food from what we took along from Kishinev. By seven o’clock, we were back at the Grand Bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar carries that name because it is the oldest and largest covered bazaar in the world. There are over forty-thousand shops, and it attracts between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors every day. One can buy almost anything at the bazaar, but the most notable items are rugs and kilims, lamps and lanterns, ceramics, metal-ware, water pipes, jewelry, clothing accessories, spices, and Turkish sweet delights. It is a most exciting but overwhelming experience. We spent two hours strolling, window shopping, gawking at the displays on the stalls, and taking dozens of photos. Pesi was worried about speaking English in public, so I humored her by speaking German during our entire foray. She did buy two beautiful handbags after haggling the storekeeper down to a very good price.
When we finally exited and hailed a taxi, two drivers came si-
multaneously, and a major brawl broke out between them as to who was entitled to take us back to the hotel. The scuffle was just short of a serious fistfight. We finally arrived back, and I alone went downstairs immediately to take a Turkish steam bath, which was a great way to end this exhilarating day with an hour of divine relaxation.
The next morning, we were up at six o’clock. We had to leave the hotel by ten to make our flight back to New York. We had a great time the past day, but I felt I missed out connecting to anything related to Jewish life in Istanbul. When we were entering the city the day before, the taxi driver pointed out the Neve Shalom Synagogue, but we never went to see it. This was the shul which was attacked by Palestinian terrorists on Shabbos, September 6, 1986, which resulted in the death of twenty-two mispallelim r”l. The synagogue is generally open only on Shabbos and yom tov. I inquired at the hotel desk if there was a synagogue nearby where I can go for the morning prayers. The clerk told me about the Bet Israel Synagogue in
the Sisli section, which was not far from the hotel. The hotel ordered a taxi driver, who said he knew where this shul was, and we drove off. We were driving for forty-five minutes until he finally admitted that he did not have the faintest idea where the shul was located. I had him drive me back to the hotel so that I could still daven Shachris in the room. Needless to say, I did not pay him for the ride, but I nevertheless gave him something for the loss of his time.
I would have loved to have met some Turkish Jews, but I guess it was not meant to be. Looking back at this short escapade in Istanbul, we were glad that we made this stopover and truly appreciated the entire experience.
A small silk rug that we bought and framed
Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish
Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their
open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.
