Friday 11 February 2011

Istanbul

Hello!

It's been about 3 weeks or so since I last submitted a post but I felt it would be worth waiting for something worth hearing about - such as my trip to Turkey and Istanbul.

Since we last met, I've arrived home in London and began sorting myself out. I had a number of interviews for various freelance positions which all went very well. With my current work set-up, I've had to register as self-employed since I'm working for a number of different organisations. I must say, I'm really enjoying being able to schedule my own work and structure my days and weeks. Over the next few months, I have a lot of different jobs and projects to keep me busy and the mixture and range of work makes it quite pleasing. It will see me doing everything from after school sports coaching, day-camp football coaching, sexual health seminars, healthy living workshops, interfaith education workshops and leadership training seminars. I sold my car before I went travelling, so since being home I have bought a scooter to get around on. At first I wasn't so keen on the idea but I'm getting quite into it now - I named it Chav!

The other thing that has been keeping me busy is marathon training. I've been sticking to a training programme that was put together for me and currently I'm up to 12 miles and feeling pretty good (or as good as you would expect for this sort of thing!). The flexible working hours have definitely helped with facilitating marathon training. Other than work and running, I've been catching up on everything I missed for 7 months: Visiting family, tv shows, karate training and seeing friends. Hazel is also back in the UK now and living in Basilden which isn't too far from me, so it's been nice being able to spend time with her while introducing her to my world.

This week, my Dad and I went away to Turkey. Aside from it being an opportunity for my Dad and I to spend time together, our main aim was to try and uncover some of the unknown Aboudara family history. My dad spent a period of weeks getting in contact with various people and doing a bit of leg-work for the trip. Unfortunately, it was hard to find much since none of the Jewish records in Turkey date back before 1910, but alas we gave it our best shot while being in Istanbul.

We arrived on Sunday 6th in the afternoon. After a horrendously long taxi journey, we settled into our hotel, which is glorious, and went for a wander around the local area. We're staying in Sultanahmet, the historical quarter of Istanbul, a stone throw away from the Blue Mosque. So much so, that the 6am call to prayer has woken me up every morning without fail. After having dinner that first night, we returned to the hotel to get some well needed rest.

The next day, we began our search. We took a long walk through The Bazaar quarter, full of busy market people in order to cross a bridge over the river and head towards the Galata Tower. We decided to follow a self-guided tour which took us through a whole load of historical monuments. We then visited the Neve Salom synagogue, which reminded me of any united synagogue in London. It was truly beautiful. One thing we began to realise was that any Jewish building in Istanbul is heavily secured and often you will require an appointment and passport identification in order to get in. The synagogue had no records to help us. From there we went onto visit the Jewish Museum, which provided a really interesting insight into how Jews came to live in Turkey. It turns out that following the Spanish inquisition and the Jews being thrown out in 1492, there were a number of countries that the Jews dispersed to, some more welcoming than others. Turkey was in fact very hospitable towards the Jewish people and continues to be today. Despite a 99% muslim population, there is almost no hostility felt here. The Turks in fact played a big role in protecting the Jewish people during the holocaust. In return, Turkish Jews have truly embraced the indigenous culture, incorporating Turkish emblems into sacred ornaments such as the bells on Sefer Torah scrolls. This visit told me nothing about my family, but it did provide the context for how the Aboudara's came to live in Istanbul. One thing my father and I did know from my grandfather was that his parents never spoke Turkish. It seems that while they were Turkish citizens, they continued to speak Ladino (as they would have done in Spain). Perhaps this would explain why they chose to move to Paris at the turn of the century.

The next day, we took a ferry over to the Asian side of Istanbul. Istanbul is quite a unique city in that it lies right on the border of Europe and Asia (or as much as such a border might exist!). Just being 15 minutes across the river, there was certainly a different feel in the Asian parts. It was quieter and a little more desolate. There was little English spoken and it felt less culturally diverse (perhaps because where we were staying was more touristy). We visited the Kuzguncuk synagogue which was a true marvel. It was so archaic with a really pure sefardi feel to it. The entrance had a plaque dedicated to Robert Abudara, a previous president who had passed away in 2010. This was obviously quite exciting to see. I'm sure you've noted the difference in spelling of Aboudara, but one thing my Dad and I were prepared for was that there would be multiple different spellings for our last name. The first time Aboudara would have been spelt in English text was when my great grandparents moved to Paris and this would have purely been based on one person's interpretation of how the Hebrew spelling should be converted into English characters. We had even been aware that because Aboudara in the Hebrew spelling had a 'heh' as the final letter, there were people with a surname of Aboudaram due to confusing the 'heh' for a 'mem'! Kuzguncuk has a cemetery with 650 years worth of history, so we felt it would be worth a visit. Our goal was to find the gravestone of David Aboudara (my great great grandfather), who would have died in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) between 1890 and 1910. We found a few newer gravestones of recently deceased Aboudara's (with different spellings) but unfortunately could not locate David's. It's hard to describe it without having seen it but the cemetery is in part, a mess. Any stones before 1940 are either illegible to read or somehow scattered across the mountainous terrain as though an earthquake has hit the place! With no records dating before 1910, we didn't really stand a chance.

The next day we decided to visit some of the cultural spots of Istanbul. We went to Hagia Sofia, an ancient church, turned into a mosque and The Blue Mosque. Both incredible pieces of architecture and beautiful to look around. That night, we had dinner at a restaurant that we had found the previous day, owned by a fellar who had lived in North London for a number of years. While we dined, we were treated to a performance of the Whirling Dervishes, a traditional Turkish dance and ritual. Look it up on youtube - It's worth seeing for yourself!

The next day, we began on the trail again, this time visiting another region of Istanbul. We went to check out the Haskoy cemetery. Having phoned the Chief Rabbi's office, we were told that they had no older records but we felt it might be worth visiting anyway. Unfortunately, Haskoy was in an even worse state than Kuzguncuk. It appeared as though the cemetery had dug up the older gravestones and cleared them to one side, to make room for more plots. The pictures I took are rather astonishing but after looking around for an hour, we knew there was no way of being able to locate David Aboudara's grave, even if it existed somewhere in this mess. This was the last lead we had, which made it rather disappointing for my Dad and I to not be able to find anything. I still feel that going to the effort was well worth it. If for nothing else, we managed to learn first hand how the Jews (and therefore my ancestors) came to live in Turkey and we saw evidence of Aboudara's (who will be somewhat distantly linked to us) having lived and still living in Istanbul. We also managed to establish that there are certain bits of family history which we may never be able to find information on, which is knowledge in itself.

Today we have decided to take it easy and enjoy the scenery. Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Topkapi Palace, which was the residence of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years. We'll also look around the various bazaars to try and find some interesting gifts worth bringing home. The following day, we fly back to London.

So although it's slightly disappointing to have not found out more about where we came from, It's been a wonderful experience doing the search and at least breathing the city that my ancestors grew up in!

Much love!

Sam