First-Ever Public Menorah-Lighting Ceremony Held in Muslim-Majority Turkey
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by Algemeiner Staff
Sunday night’s Hanukkah celebration in Istanbul. Photo: Courtesy.
It may be the only public menorah-lighting ceremony ever held in the Muslim world, and on Sunday night, hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul’s waterside Ortakoy neighborhood for an eighth-day-of-Hanukkah celebration.
Musicians played Hanukkah songs, people sang and the head of Turkey’s modest Jewish community of about 17,000 was represented.
The event was led by Turkish Jewish Community President Isaac Ibrahmizadeh, and was attended by the US and Spanish consuls general, as well as Turkish officials at the deputy level, a source in the Turkish Jewish community told The Algemeiner on Monday.
“The Jewish Community in Istanbul was very joyful and proud. Seeing and experiencing something like this was beyond their dreams,” said the source. “Lots of peace messages, words of understanding and respect among each other.”
