Türkiye’s Jewish community, concentrated in Istanbul, observed the eighth day of Hanukkah on Sunday night at Bebek Park in the city. The community’s leaders, joined by local administrators, members of other minorities and diplomats stationed in Istanbul, attended the ceremony where they lit candles.
Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva, who had fallen ill earlier, joined the ceremony via videoconference and thanked participants for “sharing this splendid night (with the Jewish community)."
Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, co-leader of the Turkish Jewish community, said they were pleased to observe the night in Türkiye and lamented the fact that their Jewish brothers and sisters elsewhere were unable to mark it, “like those in Ukraine.”
“We wanted to set up a video link with Ukraine, with a place with a large Jewish community and asked a friend to light a candle there and read a message for Hanukkah. But he told us that he had to go to the community center to light the candle and he had none at home, “nor he did not have electricity ... But he could not go to the center either as the city he lived in was under bombardment,” he said.
Sunday was the last day of Hanukkah according to the Jewish calendar, during which the faithful observed the day by lighting all eight candles on the menorah.
Hanukkah is celebrated by Jews worldwide for eight days and nights and falls on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, which coincides with late November to late December on the secular calendar.
In Hebrew, Hanukkah means "dedication," as the holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem following the Jewish victory against the Seleucid monarchy in 165 B.C. Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional food, games and gifts.
Members of the Jewish community in Türkiye are mostly descendants of Sephardic Jews that took shelter in the Ottoman Empire after fleeing Spain centuries ago. Their numbers, mainly concentrated in Istanbul nowadays, dwindled due to a pogrom decades ago and migration to Israel. In 2015, the community publicly celebrated Hanukkah for the first time in decades in a ceremony held in Istanbul, where two synagogues were the target of terrorist attacks in 2003.
