A DESERTED JEWISH CEMETERY OF AKHİSAR

In the town of Akhisar, a Western Anatolian town, there lie some tombstones with inscriptions in Hebrew on them. It is clear that the place was once a Jewish cemetery. The place no longer looks like a cemetery for it is not only surrounded with buildings, but the land is ploughed for cultivation. Lately the cemetery had been taken into an enclosure and the tombstones have been aligned at certain intervals and the field has been patched with grass. The tombs can no longer be identified. There are twenty-six tombstones lying on the ground here and there. The number of tombstones is not enough so as to claim whether more than one person is buried in one tomb or to draw out family ties. In any case I observed that the field is big enough to encompass twenty-six tombstones. They all belong to the Ottoman period dating from 1884 to 1918. Today there is no longer a Jewish community in this town. The Jews in almost none of the Anatolian towns have been in majority and therefore it is difficult to say whether they ever had a lack of space for burial ground.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

jewish, cemetery, akhisar

A DESERTED JEWISH CEMETERY OF AKHİSAR

Keywords:

jewish, cemetery, akhisar,

PDF

___

Akhisar Musevi Mezarlığı (Musevi Mezarlığı ve Havra) https://www.google.com.tr/search?q=akhisar+yahudi+mezarlığı http://thyateirakazisi.com/akhisar-mezarliklari/ accessed on 24.10.2016.
Aktürk, Engin (2012): Osmanli Döneminde Anadolu ve Trakya Topraklarinda Yahudi Cemaati Tarafindan Kurulan Tarım Okulları ve Akhisar Or Yehuda Tarım Okulu Örneğinin Mimari İncelemesi, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, MA thesis.
Aktürk, Engin & Büşra Aktürk (2014): “Structural and Material Analysis of Old Jewish School Buildings and Developing Conservation Recommendations: A Case Study on Akhisar Or Yehuda Agriculture School,” Internatıional Civil Engineering & Architecture Symposium for Academicians (ICESA 2014).
Arslan, Hammet (2014): “Tarihsel Süreçte Izmir Yahudi Cemaatinin Sosyo-Kültürel ve Ekonomik Durumu,” in Milel ve Nihal - İnanç, Kültür ve Mitoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi vol.11 nu. 1 Ocak – Haziran.
Behar, Moshe and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite (2012): Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Identity, Politics and Culture (1893-1958), Brandeis University Press, Wlthem- Massachutes.
Bora, Siren (1995): İzmir Yahudileri Tarihi (1908-1923), Gözlem Gazetecilik Basım ve Yayın A.Ş., Istanbul.
Cuinet, V. (1892): La Turquie d’Asie, Paris.
Emecen, Feridun (1989): XVI. Asırda Manisa Kazası, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara.
Emecen, Feridun (1997): Unutulmuş Bir Cemaat: Manisa Yahudileri, İstanbul, Eren Yay.
Erdemir, Halil (2009): Manisa Yahudileri ve Dünyaya Açılmalarına Giriş, Manisa: Celal Bayar University publication.
Franco, M. (1897): Essai sur l’histoire des Israeìlites de l’Empire ottoman depuis les origines jusqu’a nos jours, Paris: Librairie A. Durlacher.
Hazan, Gizel Ender (n.d.): Hazan Genealogy: Aaron de Yosef Hazan (İzmir 1600-2000).
Heaton, E. W. (1969): The Old Testament Prophets, Edinburgh.
Klein-Franke, A (2005): “Tombstones bearing Hebrew inscriptions in Aden”, Arabian archaeology epigraphy: 16: 161– 182.
Lanqueur, Hans-Peter (1996): "Cemeteries in Orient and Occident" in Cimetiéres et Traditions Funéraires dans la Mondes Isþamique, vol. II, Turkish Historical Society (TTK) Ankara, pp. 3-4.
Marienberg, Eyvatar (2003): ‘A Mystery on the Tombstones: “Women’s Commandments” in Early Modern Ashkenazi Culture’ in Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal, winter, vol. 3, nu. 2, pp. 1-18.
Polonovski, Max (2010): “Jewish Graves in Europe: public commemoration or ritual space?” Museum International, No. 245–246 (Vol. 62, No. 1–2, 2010) a UNESCO Published by UNESCO Publishing and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Rozen, Minna (1992): “A Survey of Jewish Cemeteries in Western Turkey”, The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 83, No. 1/2 (Jul. - Oct.,), pp. 71-125.
Rozen, Minna (2002): A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul. The Formative Years, 1453-1566. The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage 26. Leiden: Brill, XV, 414 pp., 1 map. 139.- /US$ 188. - (cloth). See the review by Marc Baer, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 463-465.
Rozen, Minna (2005): “Jews and Greeks Remember Their Past: The Political Career of Tzevi Koretz”, Jewish Social Studies, New Series, Vol. 12, No. 1 (autumn), pp. 111-166.
Rozen, Minna (ed.) (1996-1997): Days of the Crescent: Chapters in the History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire, edited by Minna Rozen. 412 pages, illustrations, bibliography. Tel Aviv: Department of the Study of the Jewry of Salonika and Greece, Institute of the Study of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv University.
Tanyu, Hikmet (1976): Tarih Boyunca Türkler ve Yahudiler, Yağmur Yay., Istanbul.
The New English Bible, Oxford University Press 1970.