This is an article from the April 18, 1924 edition of the Chicago Jewish newspaper, The Sentinel, reporting the closure of all non-Turkish schools, including the Alliance Israelite Francaise. The article mentions that a “note” of criticism was submitted by European governments to the government of Kemal Pasha, the leader of the Turkish Nationalist Party, also known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk endeavoured to build a modern, secular republic. In order to achieve this, he launched political, economic, and cultural reforms. The closure of so-called non-Turkish schools was one of the results of Atatürk’s secularist and nationalist policies in the new Republic of Turkey. The closure affected various religious groups including the Jewish community, which was thus prevented from giving their children a Jewish education. The school mentioned in the article is the Alliance Israelite Francaise, a French-Jewish chain of schools that existed in many places in the Jewish world.
The closure of schools, in particular the Christian schools, prompted a written protest from the Allied governments. The article seems critical of the Allied governments’ mild response which objected less to the closures themselves and more to the inconvenience incurred.
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Jews in Turkey – The story of Jewish settlement in Turkey began in the fifth century BCE, and mentions of Turkish Jewish communities can be found in the writings of the first-century CE Jewish historian, Josephus. Archaeological evidence from the ancient city of Sardis shows that Jews lived there from the fourth century. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the situation of the Jewish community depended on the particular Sultan who was in power. The Jewish community during the Ottoman times comprised Romaniote Jews, the community from the Eastern Mediterranean, a Karaite community. In the fifteenth century, Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati, a leader of the Turkish Jewish community, wrote a letter to European Jewry, urging them to move to Turkey as it better to live among Muslims than Christians. The next wave of Jews to arrive in Turkey were Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492. The Muslims in Turkey were interested in the skills that the Jews brought, especially in the areas of commerce and printing, and treated them with tolerance. The increase in size, prosperity, and influence enjoyed by the Jewish community during the years 1300–1600 saw a decline in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as Greek influence grew. By the beginning of the twentieth century, almost 200,000 Jews lived in the Ottoman Empire. With the end of the Empire and the beginning of the nationalist, secular state of Turkey, the Jewish population of Turkey declined. During World War II, Turkey remained neutral and many Jews escaping Nazi Germany traveled through Turkey on their way to other countries. Some Turkish diplomats, working independently, saved Jews during the Holocaust. With the creation of the State of Israel, many Turkish Jews immigrated to Israel. Turkey recognized Israel in 1949, making it one of the first countries to do so, and by 1951 nearly 40% of the Turkish Jewish community had moved to Israel. In 2012, 17,400 Jews lived in Turkey, almost entirely Sephardi and most living in Istanbul. In recent years, the situation of the community has declined, and the Neve Shalom Synagogue of Istanbul has suffered three terrorist attacks. These changes are due, in particular, to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the deterioration of the diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey. There are 26 active synagogues in Istanbul today, a Jewish museum, an elementary and secondary school, various social organisations, and a Jewish newspaper.
Alliance Israelite Francaise Schools – These were Jewish schools established by the Alliance Israelite Universelle, an organisation founded by the French-Jewish statesman Adolphe Crémieux. The organisation is also known as Kiach (כי"ח), an acronym of the quote "כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה" – “all Jews are responsible for each other”). The Alliance wished to raise the level of education and culture of Jews living, mostly, in the Balkans and Middle East. The first Alliance schools were founded in the 1890s, but with the rising nationalism of the host countries, there were growing difficulties keeping them open. After World War II and the creation of the State of Israel, more schools were closed as the Jewish population in many places decreased. The closure of these schools led the Alliance to focus on Israel, where, to this day, the organisation helps with the absorption of new immigrants and education.
The Chicago Sentinel - The Chicago Sentinel, a weekly newspaper for the Chicago Jewish community, was one of the longest continuously published Jewish weeklies in the United States. The first issue of the Sentinel was published on February 4, 1911. The newspaper focused on cultural events and included many eye-catching illustrations and photographs. It also published short stories and reports about events in the various Jewish communities. The Sentinel differed from many other English-language, often highbrow, Jewish weeklies, because it reached out to the Zionist immigrants who preferred to read in English and not Yiddish. The Sentinel is a treasure trove for social, cultural, and religious historians who are interested in American Jewish life outside of New York during the twentieth century.
