The author, a Jewish person who identifies as a Zionist, recounts their experience visiting Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, which was attacked by terrorists in 1986 and again in 2003. The synagogue has since been heavily secured with steel barriers, surveillance cameras, and armed officers. The author notes that the local tour guide they spoke to expressed concern about increasing antisemitism in Turkey following a recent event on October 7, 2023. The article's focus is on the author's personal exploration of what it means for Jews to have a home, particularly given the history of Jewish communities in Istanbul dating back centuries.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-06,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Forty years ago, on Sept. 6, 1986, terrorists armed with machine guns and grenades stormed Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul during Shabbat morning prayers.
asserted
terrorists → arm → prayers
Twenty-two Jews were murdered in minutes.
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Jews → murder → minutes
The attack was attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization, and when the congregation rebuilt, it left the bullet marks in the marble beside the ark unrepaired.
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it → attribute → ark
They wanted everyone who prayed there to remember.
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who → want → ?
This summer, I stood outside those doors, though I could not get in.
uncertain
I → stand → doors
A minute’s walk away, the line outside Galata Tower stretched around the block.
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line → stretch → block
Tourists carried freshly squeezed orange juice while vendors pulled simit from ovens that had barely cooled since dawn.
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that → carry → dawn
Ferries crossed the Bosphorus below, stitching Europe and Asia together as they have for centuries.
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they → cross → centuries
Then the afternoon call to prayer rose from the city’s minarets.
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call → rise → minarets
Steel barriers, surveillance cameras, armed officers, and an armored police vehicle stood guard.
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barriers → stand → guard
When I asked whether I could go inside, the officer explained politely that visitors had to register weeks in advance, submit a passport, and undergo a background check.
uncertain
visitors → ask → check
As I stepped away, a woman who overheard me speaking Russian stopped me.
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me → step → me
“You won’t get in,” she said.
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she → get → ?
She was a tour guide, referring to the 2003 truck bombings of Neve Shalom and Beth Israel, the third time terrorists had struck the synagogue since 1986.
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terrorists → refer → 1986
She told me antisemitism had become more visible since Oct. 7, 2023, and she worried about Turkey’s hostile rhetoric toward Israel, but she refused to reduce millions of Turks to the words of their government.
“In the end,” she said, “most people just want a normal life.
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people → tell → life
I heard versions of that sentence throughout my two weeks in Turkey.
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I → hear → Turkey
I came to study a country.
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I → come → country
Instead, I found myself asking what it means for Jews to have a home.
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Jews → find → home
Five centuries ago, the Ottoman Empire took in Jews expelled from Spain.
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Empire → take → Spain
Ladino-filled marketplaces, synagogues, schools, and businesses became part of the fabric of Istanbul and Izmir.
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marketplaces → fill → Istanbul
Today, roughly 14,000 Jews remain in Turkey.
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Jews → remain → Turkey
Communities contract gradually: a family leaves, a school closes, a synagogue adds another security barrier.
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synagogue → contract → barrier
Eventually, what was once ordinary requires protection.
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was → require → protection
That history followed me.
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history → follow → me
I observed the Sabbath, hunted for kosher food, and explained Jewish practice to people who had never knowingly met an observant Jew.
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who → observe → Jew
But I am part of a people whose history is filled with places that were once home.
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that → fill → places
That tension was impossible to ignore.
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tension → ignore → ?
Those identities do not require me to see Turks as enemies or dismiss the hospitality I encountered.
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I → require → hospitality
Jewish life should not depend entirely on the goodwill of a host society, and yet, it increasingly does around the world.
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it → depend → world
The question is not whether Jews are allowed to remain.
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Jews → allow → ?
It is whether they can imagine remaining.
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they → imagine → ?
There is a difference between being tolerated and believing your grandchildren will still belong.
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grandchildren → be → ?
I left Turkey with conflicting emotions.
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I → leave → emotions
I met people who were generous and eager to share their culture, but I also saw how antisemitism can make Jewish life feel conditional.
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life → meet → culture
I can reject the idea that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks for every Turk, distinguish criticism of Israel from antisemitism, and still believe Jews deserve a place where our existence is not contingent on a majority’s acceptance.
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existence → reject → acceptance
Not the belief that Jews cannot live anywhere else, or that Israel is beyond criticism.
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Israel → live → criticism
It is the belief that after centuries of building lives in places that could cease to be home, the Jewish people should have a home of our own, where our safety and future are in our own hands.
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safety → build → hands
Travel did not make me less certain of my Zionism.
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me → make → Zionism
It made me understand it differently.
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me → make → it
The lesson of Jewish history is not that Jews can never belong anywhere else.
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Jews → belong → history
…and 3 more, not listed.
