Construction in Izmir has revealed remains of the city’s oldest Jewish cemetery, according to a report by the Dogan news agency carried in Hurriyet newspaper online.
The report said “graves and bones” were uncovered seven meters below the surface, during work on a subway tunnel near the Archaeology Museum. This means that the remains are from the earliest known Jewish cemetery in Izmir, the Masatlik, or Bahri Baba cemetery, which was used from the 17th century into the 19th century. In the early 20th century some of its gravestones were moved to the Gürçeşme Jewish cemetery, which opened in 1885 and functioned until 1928. (Click here for a detailed survey of the Gürçeşme cemetery.) Among the graves that were moved are those the rabbis Chaim Pallaggi (1788-1869), Avraham Pallaggi (1809-1899) and Rabbi Josef Escapa (1572-1662), among others.
The area of the Masatlik cemetery became the Bahri Baba park, where the Archaeology Museum is situated. According to Nisim Ben Joya, the chairmen of the Izmir Sefardic Heritage Association, some of the gravestones from the old cemetery were used in building construction in Izmir and can still be seen.
According to the news report about the discovery of the graves:
The bones were packed and delivered to Izmir’s Jewish community, while the gravestones were not removed from the ground. A letter requesting authorization for the removal and transfer of the gravestones was submitted to the Culture Ministry as it is the main relevant authority on the subject.
İzmir Jewish Community Chair Jak Kaya said they would bury the bones in Altındağ Jewish Cemetery following a religious ritual. “The excavations are ongoing. Since there is a possibility that more bones might be found, we are suspending the burials. We know that this cemetery had served during the 19th century. It remained open to burials until the Republican period, after which we began to use the Gürçeşme and Altındağ Cemeteries instead,” Kaya said.
3 comments on “Remains of ancient Jewish cemetery uncovered in Izmir”
It coming like surprise, but I know one abandoned cemetery – it is located in Backi Petrovac, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Vojvodina.
And no one care about it!
I can only add to the words of Samuel Gruber as this highlights the problems we face that local authorities think a cemetery is not in perpetuity and removing them and reburying them elsewhere in a “religious ceremony” is ok, these actions should be condemned and a clear message has to come to all local and national Governments that a cemetery is sanctified in perpetuity and they should not desecrate cemeteries, I hope that last weeks conference will serve as a wake up call and help that voice be heard and the message will reach all over Europe.
Similar to what happened a few years ago when digging a subway stop in Salonika, Greece. Just because gravestones were removed long ago doesn’t mean the cemetery has gone away. As was said at the recent conference on Jewish immovable property in Krakow last week “there is no such thing as a “former Jewish cemetery.”