Ela Cenudioğlu, a lawyer and mediator, comes from Antakya and remembers the Jewish community there.
As a native of Antakya, the city whose small Jewish community was demolished along with everything else, I have a specific story to tell. The earthquake took my uncle, who was the head of the Jewish community in Antakya, and aunt from me. Despite the deep sorrow and pain of losing them, we are all grateful that their bodies were found, brought to Istanbul and they were buried traditionally.
The earthquake destroyed Antakya, a city known as a peaceful home to adherents of three religions. I lost not just my aunt and uncle, but the apartment where I grew up, the streets I walked, the school I attended, our summer place, my synagogue. In other words, my past was now buried under the rubble.
The home I grew up in was a three-story family building called “Cenudi Apartmanı.” We had Christian and Muslim neighbors and everyone lived peacefully. “Ezan, Çan, Hazzan” was the city’s motto, referring to the Muslim call to prayer, Christian church bells, and the Jewish hazzan (cantor), conveying the solidarity of these three religions.
The Jewish community in Antakya was 2,500 years old. In the 1980s, when I was growing up, there were around 250 Jews living in the city. By 2014, the community had shrunk to just 14 people. The Antakya Synagogue served these few remaining members. A team from the Turkish Jewish community saved its 500-year-old Torah scrolls from the rubble.
My uncle was a visionary leader committed to this community. He did everything in his capacity to connect it with other communities. As a couple, my aunt and uncle always supported each other, hand in hand. I am grieving, yet I promise to do everything in my capacity to honor their memory.
The full text of Ela Cenudioğlu’s article may be read on Jewish Unpacked.
Published April 2023
