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TOUR ITINERARY:
Your English-speaking, professional tour guide and your AC
deluxe vehicle will meet you in Istanbul.
Experience Jewish Heritage Tour in Istanbul:
Drive
to Balat, a Jewish working-class district on the
shores of the Golden Horn, which absorbed most of the
settlers in the fifteenth century from Spain. Visit
the recently restored Abrida (Ahrida) Synagogue, (we
need your full name, birthday and passport number in order
to get the special permission for visiting the Synagogues in
Istanbul), originally built in the 15thcentury
and 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 to freedom from Spain to Turkey, can still be
seen.
Then proceed to Galata District.
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 it’s tower, built in 1348 by the
Genoeses. The Office of the Chief Rabbinate is also
located in Galata. Today, there are 16 synagogues in
Istanbul that are still in use. First, visit the Neve
Shalom Synagogue used for most of the community
functions today, also visit the Quintcentenial Foundation
Jewish Museum recently located near the Synagogue.
The walk to Ashkenazy Synagogue dating from
the nineteenth century and the only Ashkenazy synagogue in
Istanbul, originally built by the Austrian Jews. After
synagogue visits free time for lunch then walk to
Schneidertempel Art Gallery (depending the exhibition
schedule) and walk to Kamondo steps built in 19th
century.
Neo-Baroque and early Art Nouveau styles were fused here in
the 1870s to create this curvaceous thoroughfare up one of
Istanbul’s steepest hills. Abraham Salomon Camondo, of the
wealthy Sephardic Jewish Camondo family, funded the
construction. He inherited the banking and business success
of his forefathers and went on to become the prime banker
for the Ottoman Empire in the district of Galata where the
stairs are located.
Jewish Cemetery
may be visited depending your timing. Back to the starting
point. End of our services.
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