FULL DAY JEWISH HERTIAGE ISTANBUL EXCURISION

Your professional tour guide and a deluxe air-conditioned vehicle will meet you and your party at the Istanbul Cruise-Ship Pier or your hotel. You will be experiencing some of Jewish Istanbul: Begin your tour of Sephardic history at the Galata Quarter, a region which had been almost completely Jewish for more than 400 years. Today, Galata is known throughout the world by its huge tower, built in 1303 by the Genovese; your excursion includes a visit to the Galata Tower. The Office of the Chief Rabbinate is also located in Galata. There are currently 16 synagogues that are still in use in Istanbul; the tour will first visit the Neve Shalom Synagogue which is used for most of the community functions today, as well as the Ashkenazy Synagogue; the latter dates from the nineteenth century and is the only Ashkenazy synagogue in Istanbul, originally built by Austrian Jews. The group will then stop at the Zulfaris Synagogue, which has also served as The Turkish Jewish Museum since 2001. The name of this synagogue derives from the street in Karakoy, which at one time was called Zulf-u Arus (present day Percemli Sokak), meaning “bridal curls” in both versions; it was here that the brides, over the centuries, would walk by to go to the synagogue to get married.

You will have a stopover for Lunch, before driving on to Balat, a Jewish working-class district on the shores of Kagithane River, or Halic (The Golden Horn), which absorbed many of the settlers in the fifteenth century who were escaping from Spain. You will visit the recently restored Abrida (Achrida) Synagogue, which was originally built in the 15th Century and which is the earliest synagogue in Istanbul. The original 20-foot long oak bimah (teva), shaped either like Noah’s Ark, or like the Ottoman ship which brought the Sephardim from Spain to freedom in Turkey, can still be seen. Then, you will visit the Jewish Cemetery. There will be a shopping opportunity before returning to your Cruise Ship or your hotel.

Note: We will need to have, in advance, full name, birthday, and passport numbers of tour participants in order to obtain the special permission for visiting the Synagogues in Istanbul.