Israel Matzav

Long overdue: Young Jews leaving Turkey

A reminder as this post goes up that I will be spending the Sabbath in New Jersey, God willing (once I land - this post is being scheduled while I'm airborne), and therefore posting will continue until the Sabbath starts there to the extent that I have time.

In a move that is long overdue, young Jews have finally started to leave Turkey due to anti-Semitism.

Nesim Güvenis, the deputy chair of the Association of Turkish Jews in Israel, told the Hurriyet Daily News that political tensions between the two countries and rising anti-Semitism have contributed to an increase in the number of young people moving abroad.

Güvenis made aliya in the early 1980s, along with tens of thousands of other Turkish Jews, primarily because of his children, he told the newspaper.

“They didn’t want to go to university where leftists or other groups were putting pressure on them to take sides at school,” he said.

A rise in anti-Semitism related to national tensions between Ankara and Jerusalem has led the current exodus, he said, declining to give exact figures.

“Look at the environment in Turkey at the moment. We are uncomfortable with being ‘othered’... I am more Turkish than many, but we couldn’t make them believe it,” Güvenis told Hurriyet.

It's about time they woke up.

Labels: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish anti-Semitism, Turkish Jewry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:19 PM