Around Taksim

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Jewish Museum at the Zulfaris Synagogue The Jewish Museum, at the Zulfaris Synagogue.

A small but very well-kept museum. It's a minute's walk from the Galata Bridge and Tower, but can be really hard to find. We walked around it for about forty minutes before stumbling upon it, and that was with the help of at least three people on the street.

The museum used to be a synagogue, but was converted into a museum a few years ago. The focus of the place is on the synagogue's history (lots of photos of old wedding parties) and, more so, on the history of the Jews in Turkey, which started in 1492 when the Ottomans invited to their empire the Jews kicked out of Spain. There's still a Jewish community in Turkey but I think most of the Jews here moved to America or Israel throughout the 20th century.