Ahrida Synagogue: The Ship in the Prayer Hall
Why is it significant?
From the street you would never guess. A high wall, a plain gate, perhaps a guard, maybe a cat dozing on the step. Behind it stands Ahrida, the oldest synagogue in Istanbul. The name is the clue. Ahrida is how the Jews of the city pronounced Ohrid, a lake town in today's North Macedonia.
Key Facts
| Place | Ahrida Synagogue: The Ship in the Prayer Hall |
|---|---|
| Address | Kürkçü Çeşmesi Sokak No:9, Balat, 34087 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.03290, 28.94550 |
| Part of Walk | Neighbours of the Golden Horn: Fener, Balat and Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Bulgarian Quarters |
| Generated | Generated |
From the street you would never guess. A high wall, a plain gate, perhaps a guard, maybe a cat dozing on the step. Behind it stands Ahrida, the oldest synagogue in Istanbul.
The name is the clue. Ahrida is how the Jews of the city pronounced Ohrid, a lake town in today's North Macedonia. Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews from there founded the synagogue in the fifteenth century, before or around the Ottoman conquest. Then, in 1492, Spain expelled its Jews, and Sultan Bayezid the Second welcomed many of them into his empire. The Sephardim arrived with their Ladino language, their songs and their recipes, and over time they absorbed the older congregations, this one included.
Inside, in the middle of the hall, stands the teva, the platform from which the Torah is read, and it is shaped like the bow of a ship. Some say it recalls Noah's Ark; others say it remembers the ships that carried the exiles from Spain. Either way, you climb into a boat to read the scroll, which is a rather beautiful image for a community that arrived by sea.
And one more story. In the seventeenth century a self-proclaimed messiah, Sabbatai Zevi, set Jewish communities from Yemen to Amsterdam on fire with hope, and tradition says he once preached from this very teva. In 1666 he was brought before the sultan's court and converted to Islam, to the despair of his followers. Whether he really stood here, nobody can prove... but the story is told with relish.
The synagogue was restored in 1992, for the five hundredth anniversary of the Sephardic arrival. Balat once had many synagogues; only a handful survive, and the families who filled them now live in other districts or other countries. Continue along the lane past the little Yanbol Synagogue, named after a town in Bulgaria, and a few steps on you will find an Armenian church built over a holy spring.