Erol Haker’s second book on Turkey’s Jews is the personal account of growing up during the 1930s and 1940s, when nationalist pressures on non-Turks were at their greatest.
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-61719-092-6
Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Jun 11,2010
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 297
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-61719-092-6
From Istanbul to Jerusalem is the memoires of Erol Haker, a Turkish Jew who has also written on his parents’ hometown in Once Upon a Time Jews Lived in Kirklareli. In this work, Haker describes his youth in Istanbul during the 1930s and 1940s. These were difficult decades for Turkey’s Jewry as the new nationalist government imposed measures on the non-Turkish population. Haker’s personal experience of the period involved conversion to Islam and then back to Judaism, a major theme in the book. Though an autobiography, Haker’s account ends in the 1950s when he finally leaves Turkey permanently for Israel. From Istanbul to Jerusalem offers a picture of the last years of Turkey’s Jewish population before large-scale emigration to Israel and other countries began.
