The Jewish schools in Turkey will have to keep open on Saturday under a new order issued by the Ministry of Education to all minority schools, notifying them that in future they will not be permitted to close two days in the week, as hitherto, on Friday, the Moslem day of rest, and on Saturday in the case of the Jewish schools, and Sunday in the case of the Christian schools. All schools will have to close henceforth only on Fridays, and will have to keep open all the other six days of the week.
At the same time the Government Party is conducting a campaign to make the Turkish language compulsory among the minorities. At present a large number of the Turkish Jews speak Spagnol, the language of the Sephardim.
It was reported about a year ago, in December 1930, that the Turkish Government had prepared a bill which would have the effect of compelling all children of Turkish nationality in Turkey, Greek, Armenian, or Jewish, as well as those who are Turkish, to attend Turkish elementary schools between the ages of 7 and 12, prohibiting them from attending their own minority schools, or any foreign schools.
The non-Moslem minorities protested against the measure, on the ground of the rights guaranteed them under the Treaty of Lausanne in respect of language and education, and the foreign missions and other institutions engaged in educational work in Turkey also opposed the measure.
The movement to restrict non-Turkish schools in Turkey has been going on for several years. As far back as the early part of 1924, the Constantinople schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the schools of other religious institutions in Turkey (Roman Catholic, etc.) were closed down. At that time the diplomatic representatives in Turkey of the Allied Governments submitted to the Turkish Government a Note pointing out the difficulties caused by the restrictions, and contending that restrictions affecting specially the schools supported by foreign organisations were not in accordance with the Lausanne Treaty guaranteeing the rights of the minorities and religious bodies. Several thousand Jewish children were affected by the closing of the schools at that time.
Two years later, in March, 1926, the Government in Angora sent instructions to the authorities in Constantinople, where most of the minorities of Turkey live, that elementary education should in future be given only in Turkish schools and in the Turkish language. The order carried a step further a decree which had been issued a month before by the Ministry of Education, providing for the gradual replacement of other languages of instruction by Turkish, beginning with the lower classes and working upward, so that within a period of a few years, Turkish would be the only language of instruction taught in the foreign and minority schools.
THE JEWISH MINORITY RIGHTS
The minority rights guaranteed under the Treaty of Lausanne were solemnly renounced by the Jews of Turkey at a meeting of the Jewish National Assembly held in Constantinople in August 1926, which declared them to be “redundant and unnecessary in a free Republic which accords equal treatment to all citizens”. The late Louis Marshall attacked the Turkish Jews vehemently at the time for renouncing their minority rights, declaring that “the Beace Treaties conferred their rights of citizenship, which cannot be taken away by the Turkish Government, and other fundamental rights which cannot be abdicated by the Jewish notables of Turkey, without the consent of every individual Jew in Turkey, and not even then without the consent of the League of Nations, which is the custodian of those rights”.
The Turkish Ministry of the Interior issued a statement last year to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency declaring that “all citizens within the Turkish Republic enjoy to an equal extent the full rights to which they are entitled by the present legislation of the country, and in the administration of these laws Jews do not receive treatment different from that accorded to other Turkish citizens”.
JEWS ARE PERMITTED COMPLETE CULTURAL AUTONOMY IN THEIR SCHOOLS FORMER TURKISH MINISTER OF FINANCE SHUKRU BEY TELLS J.T.A. WHILE VISITING UNITED STATES: ONLY SECULAR JEWISH SCHOOLS PERMITTED: TEACHING OF RELIGION PROHIBITED IN ALL SCHOOLS JEWISH OR NON-JEWISH
The Jews are permitted complete cultural autonomy in their schools, Saradjagen Shukru Bey, former Turkish Minister of Finance, who is now on a mission in the United States for the purpose of promoting Turkish trade, declared in an interview with the J.T.A. representative in Washington a few days ago, with the exception, he added, that they are required to teach the Turkish language together with the other languages of instruction. When this requirement was initiated three years ago, the Jewish community readily acceded, he said.
The only type of Jewish schools permitted to function are secular in character, Shukru Bey went on. The teaching of religion as such is prohibited in all schools, Jewish or non-Jewish. Jews are permitted to attend the free public schools without restriction or distinction. The Jewish secular schools are supported by the Jews themselves without State financial aid. Religious instruction, while barred from the Jewish secular schools, is permitted without restraint in the synagogues and within the family. Synagogue instruction is not considered “school instruction”, Shukru Bey explained.
There were not many Jews in Turkey till recently who mastered the Turkish language, Shukru Bey pointed out, but, nevertheless, he said, a considerable number of Jewish intellectuals have been noted exponents of Turkish, particularly the late Grand Rabbi Bejanano, one of the greatest authorities on the Turkish language, who participated in the revolution of 1908 and who played a leading role in the Turkish Nationalist movement.
No antisemitism or oppression of the Jewish population exists or has existed in Turkey, Shukru Bey continued. The sentiment of friendship between the Jews and the Mohammedan Turks is an ancient tradition, he said, and antisemitism has never appeared in Turkey. In fact Jews who have not left Turkey to travel abroad, are totally ignorant of antisemitism. We Mohammedan Turks treat the Jews as our brethren. There is absolutely no distinction or discrimination of any kind.
The Jews have achieved great progress in Turkey since the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid, he went on. Although there has never been any antisemitism, the social and general status of the Jewish community, owing to the backwardness of the country under the old regime, was very low twenty years ago. The present condition of the Jews represents an immense improvement economically, culturally and socially. They have in particular availed themselves of educational opportunities, and there are among the Jews many prominent university professors, lawyers, physicians and financiers. In the last two decades, he concluded, the Jews have surpassed all the non-Mohammedan elements of the population, including the Greeks and the Armenians.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
