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The Jeff Malka Sephardic Collection

Chief Rabbis of Turkey

Under Ottoman Rule and the Turkish Republic (1454-2007)

When the Jews expelled from Spain accepted the generous offer of Bayazid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and chose to settle in Turkey, the existing local Jewish community was already well organized and had a Chief Rabbi (Hakham Bashi in Turkish), the well know Rabbi Moshe Capsali in function from 1454 to 1497. After his successor Elia Mizrahi who was in the position during the years 1497-1526, most of the subsequent Turkey Chief Rabbis were descendents of the newcomers, the Sephardim.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the tremendous contributions and lifelong dedication of Mathilde Tagger, z"l who made this index available. For many years, and right until her untimely death, Mathilde Tagger was a very close friend and collaborator with Jeff Malka. Together they worked to promote Sephardic genealogy research and educate the public about its enormous potential. Mathilde compiled this information based upon the original source material: Klarsfeld, Serge. Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France. Paris, 1978.

In addition, we express our grateful appreciation to Dr. Jeff Malka for his monumental ongoing effort to collect and make accessible Sephardic genealogical information, and for his generosity in contributing his extraordinarily valuable collection to JewishGen.

Search the Database

This collection can be searched by via the JewishGen Turkey Database, the JewishGen Jeff Malka Collection or the JewishGen Sephardic Collection