Hey! I just watched this amazing documentary you made and it really touched me.. my dad is from istanbul and i am absolutely fanatic about jewish history in Turkey and in the whole region... i wanted to ask you somethings.. how did you learn turkish? How did you manage to film all of this with peoples consent? Thank you so much for this beautiful piece of art!
@@lalelu2010100 So I'm a Turk from the Netherlands. And recently I stumbled on a video from the Portuguese - Israeli Jewish community in the Netherlands who had organized a zoom webinar with Turkish Jews from Turkey. It was incredibly interesting and also taught me a ton about the Jewish community in Turkey. How they function in daily life. How they feel, traditions, schooling, learning their religion and traditions, ties with Israel etc etc. Actually brought tears to me eyes hearing that they felt so safe in Turkey. In fact they claimed that Turkey had less "street anti semitism" than you'd come across in western Europe and was generally safer for Jews Only disappointment was some of the questions asked by the Dutch Jewish community members. So many interesting things they could ask and instead they asked about anti semitic conspiracy theories (likely without realising and also while seemingly believing they are true) asked questions like "How many secret dönme Jews are there". The idea of secret Jews who pretend to be Muslim or Christian (Dönme in Turkey, Marrano in Spain) etc is the type of stuff that anti semites have been pushing for ages. Despite the Turkish Jews talking about how at home and safe they felt the Dutch felt the need to ask questions almost implying it wasn't safe. Or they'd ask something and it the Turkish Jews weren't comfortable with it they'd immediately act like "Ah got it. Dangerous to talk about that *in a place like Turkey*". The reality is that Dönme and Marrano certainly existed. Converting publicly but practicing Judaism secretly etc etc Only today that makes no sense. They either assimilated or are proudly and openly Jewish. There is no benefit to hiding your Jewishness you're only robbing yourself or a very tight knit and supportive community. They even asked if it was true that Atatürk was actually Jewish. He wasn't but again this is a widespread conspiracy theory that anti semites and turcophobes push. When the Turkish Jews became visibly confused the Dutch side was like "ah get it wink wink, can't talk about it!" lol bruh. The Dutch Jewish community seems to think that Atatürk was a secret Dönme. Itamar Ben - Avı is the source of this. But it's obvious that he mistakenly believes he met Atatürk. And this in turn has been used by anti semites, Turcophobes, European far right and also radical Islamists who hate Atatürk and insist he was a "secret Jew who's goal was to wipe out Islam" or some nonsense. Ps Ben Avi claims he met a Turkish /Ottoman officer in a Hotel in Jerusalem in 1911. He talks about the piercing green eyes of this officer. How the officer told him he was Jewish. Even mentions his favorite drink. Later when he saw Atatürk in the news papers after the war of independence. He was convinced it was the same officer be met in Jerusalem. Even convinced that he was the one that inspired Atatürk to switch to the Latin alphabet. Problem is 1. Every child knows Atatürk has blue eyes 2. Atatürk was fighting the Italo Turkish war in 1911. Wasn't even near Jerusalem 3. Ben Avi got Ataturk'a famously favorite drink wrong (It's raki but he says something else) Anyway sorry for the rant. I would definitely recommend the video as it is a treasure trove of info on Turkish Jews
@@HusticeBoxer23 you are not speaking for every Turk , that is for sure . The Jewish community can make Türkiye their second home if they want to , or even their home , if they wanted this . They are most welcome .
