July 31, 2022
The Jewish Story of Izmir, Turkey
Evidence of Jewish life in Izmir dates back to Hellenistic and Roman times. Regional archeological findings point to a thriving Jewish community in this coastal city, then known as Smyrna. While this Romaniot community seems to have enjoyed considerable importance in antiquity, its presence started declining in the late Byzantine period, as Jews got settled in surrounding towns, rather than Izmir itself. It appears that in the year 1424, when the Ottomans conquered the, by then, small and relatively unimportant town, Izmir no longer had an organized Jewish community.