Overview
The places we will see are Galata Tower and Square, Serdar-ı Ekrem Street and the English Church of the Crimea, 500th Anniversary Jewish Museum and Neve Shalom Synagogue, the building of Podesta, the director of the Genoese, and St. Pierre Han, Ashkenazi Tailors Synagogue (Scneidertemple Art Centre), British Naval Hospital, Raymondo D’Aronco Laleli Fountain, Austrian Ashkenazim Synagogue, old Hamursuz Bakery, Lunch Break, Ottoman Bank Building, Karaköy Underground Mosque, Karaköy Russian Roof Churches, Karaköy old inns, Fatih Bedesten and Karaköy Arap Mosque, and many more on our way buildings…
Important notes:
– There are 2 synagogues that will be visited during our trip: Tailors Synagogue and Neve Shalom Synagogue.
– We are not traveling to the top of the Galata Tower with our group. If our guests who want to go up to the Galata Tower arrive at the meeting point at 8:45, our guide can help them to go up to the Tower until the meeting time.
– It may not always be possible to enter some of the buildings in our itinerary, as they do not have the qualification of a museum.
Deluxe Private Jewish Heritage Istanbul Tour Program
We are starting our tour of the Jewish heritage of Istanbul with a visit to the Galata district of Istanbul and the Ashkenazi Synagogue. it was built in 1900 by Austrian Jews and is the only active Ashkenazi Synagogue in the city. From there, we will take a short walk to the Neve Shalom Synagogue*, built by two young Turkish-Jewish architects in 1930 to meet the demands of the growing Jewish population in the neighborhood. 15. it is in the former Zulfaris Synagogue, built by Italian Jews during the rule of the Republic of Genoa over the Galata region as a semi-autonomous region in the XVII century. Then we will take a stroll along the breathtaking Golden Horn to the Balat quarter, once the most important Jewish quarter of Istanbul, as evidenced by the magnificent architecture of Jewish houses and the Ahrida, the oldest synagogue in Istanbul. First built in the 1400s, the building has been extensively restored and reflects architectural styles from various eras. It houses an impeccable collection of carved wooden furniture, including a pulpit resembling the bow of a boat – probably a reference to Noah’s Ark.
Then there will be a pleasant tour of the village, which has an attractive combination of well-preserved historical wooden houses and charming local boutiques. the Etz Ahayim Synagogue, which was rebuilt as a result of a fire in 1941, will explore Ortakoy’s Jewish roots with a view of the Bosphorus Bridge.