An Over 100-Year-Old History of Turkish Sephardic Jews in Seattle

Temple de Hirsch exterior, 15th Avenue and E. Union St., Seattle, ca. 1908-1914. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division)
According to the M.A. thesis of Albert Adatto, a student of University of Washington in 1939, (“Sephardim and the Seattle Sephardic Community”), the first two Sephardic Jews Jack Policar (d. 1961) and Solomo Calvo (d. 1964), arrived in Seattle from the island of Marmara, Turkey in 1902. The first Turkish Jew to arrive in Seattle is thought to have been David Levy in 1900. In 1904, they met Nissim Alhadeff, who had arrived that year from the Isle of Rhodes, between Greece and Turkey, in a Seattle Greek Café.
- Published in Case Studies
- Written by Admin TOA