https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc_fw69XUAE_fx9.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdLj8nJWsAY6afw.jpg:large
The ground level propaganda is very sophisticated.
July 4, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I have to correct the claim made in the previous post so that your readers are not misled.
It simply is true that some Doenmeh in Salonika appealed to the Jewish authorities there to be recognized as Jewish (between 1912-24) and that they were REFUSED by the rabbis who claimed that the Doenmeh were "mamzerim." (legally defined bastards)
The following verse from Deuteronomy 23: 3 was brought forward to deny them their Jewish status: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation
of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation
of the Lord.”
The foremost Turkish Jewish scholar, Abraham Galante, wrote about this historical incident in his book: "Nouveaux documents sur Sabbetai Sevi; organisation et us et coutumes de ses adeptes, 1935"
And how do I know all this; because I am a Doenmeh in 2009 who is STILL refused his Jewish status based on this nonsensical verdict…
Just because you haven't read anything about this historical fact (or that you were unaware
of it) doesn't make the statement false.
By the way, this ruling, ironically saved almost all the Doenmeh from becoming victims
of the Holocaust, as they were forced to immigrate to Turkey in 1924, less than 20 years before the Nazis took over Salonika and wiped out %96
of the Jews there.
Unintentionally the rabbis saved us from total extinction by not recognizing us as who we actually were!
Jacob was correct that Dan would survive by means impossible for the educated to fathom.
Those who recently escaped Turkey knew what was coming.
Most
of today’s Doenmeh are descendants
of 20,000 Doenmeh residents
of Salonica who were exiled to Turkey in the 1920s as part
of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Their exile came in the wake
of a ruling
of that city’s rabbis, who refused to recognize them as Jews, something that would have allowed them to remain in Greece as a minority. The historical irony
of that decision is that it actually saved their lives; nearly every member
of the Jewish community
of Salonica was ultimately annihilated in Auschwitz or Majdanek.
"A Scapegoat for All Seasons: The Doenmeh or Crypto-Jews
of Turkey” (Isis Press, 400pgs, $45) is by Rifat Bali
