One last day in Istanbul

July 30th

So our friends are on a plane back to Canada but we have one more day in Istanbul.

This morning Sheryl and Samantha did a tour of the Jewish district. Below are some photos which Sheryl has commented on.

Samantha really wanted to do a new tour called the Jewish District so we headed off in the morning.  There are not many Jews left in all of Istanbul (if I can remember only 20,000 remain) This tour allowed us to go inside the last Ashkenazi synagogue.  It was beautiful.  Samantha loved the stained glass windows and chandeliers.  An interesting fact is that this synagogue houses 21 torahs since the other 2 Ashkenazi synagogues closed.  Apparently we learned that Ashkenazi synagogues are supposed to have 7 torahs each.

  

We passed (but couldn’t go in) the synagogue above that experienced two attacks, one in the 1940’s and the other in 2003 (Al Qaeda took responsibility for this one).  It is only identified by megan davids on the on the outside.

We were taken to a monument that was built in honour of the 37 dead (34 Jews and 3 Muslims) and they explained that the 3 hands symbolize Muslims, Jews and Christians united.  To this day, all the shops in the area close for a moment of silence on the anniversary of the bombings. In this picture you can see two of the three hands and the word Baris which means peace.

There is a beautiful but small museum that have many artifacts from unique torahs, pointers, clothing and letters from several famous people.  We were not allowed to take pictures of anything inside.

 

Samantha signing the guest book.

In the afternoon I did a Turkish coffee tour. The tour was ok. I Saw the oldest coffee house in Istanbul and the oldest candy store. The tour ended with me making a cup of turkish coffee.

Tomorrow we return to Canada.