HISTORY OF SYNAGOGUES OF İZMİR
Jews of İzmir and Their Sanctuary Buildings
The date of arrival of the Jews to Anatolia dates back to times before Christ. When Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem, he treated Jews very well and sent many to İzmir of the day. We can understand that in the Roman period there were some Jews living in İzmir. According to scholar and historian Avram Galante, in the second and third centuries there was a Jewish synagogue in İzmir. During the Byzantine period, the influence of the Jews had declined in time, but they survived in İzmir, although they had to leave the city sometimes. According to Avram Galante they built the synagogue of Etz Hayim (Tree of Life) and carried out their rituals there. There was no well-organized Jewish community in Izmir until 1605, because the Jews lived in Izmir as a minor society until that time, for example when even ten people were required to start Minyan (prayer), they could not come together, they got help from the Jewish communities in Tire and Manisa to complete the number. Since 1605, the use of İzmir port as an exportation port in the foreign trade of the Ottoman Empire gained importance; The Jews increasingly migrated to İzmir; to the neighbourhoods Havra (Synagogue) Street, Keçeciler, Karataş. They started to establish Jewish neighborhoods around Quarantine and Agora, while very few Jews lived in Karşıyaka and Bornova districts, Pınarbaşı and Mesire Village were used as areas where Jews took refuge in cases of epidemic diseases. Jews, who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire named their synagogues according to their migration type to the Ottoman Empire. Those who migrated to Izmir with their own wishes and will from Central Europe gave their synagogues names like “Kendi Gelenler” (With their own will), while those exiled from the Iberian Peninsula gave names such as Gerush (exiled) or Sephardic (Spain). Ongoing immigration turned Izmir into a golden age for the Jewish community in 17th century. Jews living in Istanbul and Thessaloniki also migrated to İzmir and were divided into ten separate groups in İzmir. Those who migrated from Thessaloniki to İzmir at that time worshiped in the synagogues of Etz Hayim, Shalom, Foresteros; immigrants from Portugal and Spain worshiped in the synagogues Pinto, Bakiş Portugal. When Eskapa became president of the Jews in 1648, these differences of opinion were eliminated and all Jews were gathered under the same roof. After the immigrations, the Jewish population increased gradually; with the introduction of the Yeşivalar (religious school) and synagogues in 1631, İzmir became a cultural center like Istanbul and Thessaloniki which published books for the East. In 1900, the number of synagogues in İzmir reached fifteen. In addition, twenty residences, such as the Meseri House and the Mizrahi House, were transformed into residential-synagogue with specific permits.
The Jews who migrated to İzmir first settled in the vicinity of Havra Street, lkiçeşmelik and Agora and built their sanctuary structures in these regions. They lived in the neighborhoods which they built around the synagogues and engaged in trade. After the 19th century, with the development of trade and the fact that they began to interact more easily with the society, only few of the growing population of Jewish communities continued to live in the Frank neighborhood. They moved from İkiçeşmelik and Keçeciler to their rich houses around Karantina, Karataş and Göztepe and started to establish Jewish Neighborhoods here and they built new synagogues with different architectural features than the previous ones. However, a small number of Jews scattered around Alsancak, Karsiyaka and Bornova and there they established small-scale Jewish neighborhoods with synagogues. Kal Kadoş Synagogue was built to serve the small Jewish community in Karşıyaka Alaybey, Algranti and Levi Synagogues for Bornova community and Beit Israel, the largest synagogue of İzmir was built to serve Karataş and its vicinity at the beginning of the 20th century. The new architectural style developed during this period caused some changes in the planning scale in some of the synagogues around Kemeraltı, which were previously built as Sephardic synagogues. It is known that in the 19th century there were around 20,000 Jews in Izmir. After the immigrations to Israel after the 1950s, this number has gradually decreased. Today, the number of Jews living in Izmir is around 2000. In 1908 there were 17 synagogues belonging to Jewish community, but after these migrations, their congregation population decreased and many of the synagogues lost their functions.