Anyos Munchos i Buenos – Turkey's Sephardim: 1492-1992

Text by Ayse Gürsan-Salzmann and photography bay Laurence Salzmann

In 1984, American photographer Laurence Salzmann and his wife Ayse Gürsan-Salzmann, a Turkish-born anthropologist, were invited by the Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora of Tel Aviv to create a photo-documentation of Jewish monuments throughout Turkey. In 1492, Sultan Beyazit II welcomed Jews to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, (now the Republic of Turkey), following their expulsion from Spain. But monuments could tell only a half of the story, so, the Salzmanns expanded their photo project to include an in – depth photographic portrait of the Jews of Turkey, now numbering 22,000, and a film that explores the ways in which the Jews have become a favored ethnic group amidst a largely Muslim population.

The photographs have been organized into a traveling show entitled Anyos Munchos i Buenos/Celebrating Turkey’s Sephardim: 1492-1992.

Book

Anyos Munchos i Buenos, meaning «Good Years and Many More,» in the Ladino of the Jews of Turkey tells the story of the present day Turkish Jewish Community of Turkey. The photographs are by Laurence Salzmann, with text and captions by Ayse Gürsan-Salzmann.

The Salzmanns’ work in Turkey began in the summer of 1984 when at the invitation of the Head Rabbi’s office of Istanbul and under the auspices of Beth Hatefutsoth Museum and the American Jewish Committee of New York, they were asked to go to Turkey to make a photographic documentation on the existing Jewish Monuments throughout the country. What began as a three month survey developed into a multidimensional project which took five years to complete.

During the first year Laurence and Ayse, made extensive trips throughout Thrace and Anatolia to document what remained of Jewish Life in the many cities where Jews had once lived. Several thousands of still photographs were made. Copies of them have been deposited in a photo archive that documents Jewish Communities in the Diaspora, housed at the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of Tel Aviv and at Harvard University.

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Fuente: laurencesalzmann.com