Interesting Facts

The Turkish-Jewish Community and the Synagogue in Vienna

By Naim “Avigdor” Güleryüz* – Researcher
On November 16, 1885 in Vienna, during the ceremony for the establishment of a new synagogue in the Zirkusgasse Second District, No.22, the president of the Sefarad, Vienna Jew Marcos Russo spoke to the invitees as follows: “When his majesty Franz-Josef is the emperor of Austria and his majesty Sultan Abdulhamid II is the emperor of the Ottoman Empire, when Sadullah Pasha is the ambassador of Ottoman Empire in Vienna and Marcos Russo is the president of the Turkish-Jewish community…the construction of this building is started in order to meet the religious need of the Jews of Sefarad…”

October 6, 2009
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Hagia Sophia at the American Airlines Terminal

New York - In the year 532 AD, the Roman Emperor of the East, Justinian I, ordered the leading architect of the day to build a monument that would outshine all other religious buildings. The end result, which took five years to complete, was the Hagia Sophia, and it didn’t disappoint the emperor.

June 15, 2008
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Morris Schinasi and the Manisa Children's Hospital

Naim Güleryüz / Researcher-Writer - Mrs. Laurette Schinasi came to Turkey in 1930 to meet with Department of Health officials in order to present a petition to found a children’s hospital in Manisa in line with the last will and testament of her husband, Morris Schinasi; he had died three years previously in the USA. Construction began immediately, following approval by the Department, and the then International Moris Şinasi Hospital was commissioned in 1933; it still serves the public today, as the Moris Şinasi Children’s Hospital.

July 13, 2008
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Seven Geographical Regions, One Last Name: Turk

How many people with the last name of Turk do you think live around the world? Or in how many different geographical regions can people named Turk, or one of its derivations, be found?

July 15, 2005
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Following the Trails of Turkish Pioneers

Professor Sedat Isci of Aegean University continues to follow the trails of Turkish pioneers in America. During his research under the project titled “First Turkish Settlers in America: 1860-1921'' he identified five cemeteries in Detroit, and one in New York that belongs to early comers.

June 15, 2004
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First Turks in the U.S.

They started the long track to United States by leaving their homeland; most of them were from Harput (Elazığ). 1.2 million Ottoman citizens immigrated to United States between 1860 and 1921. 200,000 of them were from a Turkish and Muslim heritage and most of them returned back to their motherland since.

April 15, 2004
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From Anatolia to Appalachia

Kingsport, Tennessee is a small town around thirteen hours drive to New York. Tennessee, compared to the states such as New York, California and Florida where many immigrants live may be called “real America”.

September 15, 2004
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An Izmiri Camel Herder in The Wild West

The US, which was victorious in the Mexican War between 1846-1848, added what are now the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico to its lands. These new lands, which measured 529 thousand square miles, gained even more in importance when, in 1849, gold was discovered in the West.