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PlacesPeople & PlacesLiving · since 1600

TURKEY · 38.4°N 27.1°E · CITY

Izmir (Smyrna)

Smyrna

Smyrna - 17th-century Sephardic boomtown, birthplace of Sabbatai Zevi (1626), and home of the unique Havra Sokak synagogue row now under restoration.

Modern locality anchor

Izmir (Smyrna)

Turkey · City · 38.4°N 27.1°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

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Where is Izmir (Smyrna)?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Izmir (Smyrna)?

1600–1800

17th-century Sephardic boomtown

1665–1666

Sabbatean movement (1665-66)

1800–1922

Modern community; 1922 Great Fire (Greek/Armenian quarters destroyed; Jewish quarter partly spared)

1923–present

Republican-era small community

Today

Today

~1,000-person community; synagogue-row heritage project.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Izmir (Smyrna) sound like?

Izmir (Smyrna) Jewish Community
Ladino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)

Ladino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Izmir (Smyrna)

~1,000-person community; synagogue-row heritage project.

  • Havra Sokak synagogue cluster

    synagogue row · historic site

    Unique cluster; Izmir Jewish Heritage Project restoration - described as ongoing project.

  • Beth Israel Synagogue

    synagogue · public landmark

  • Asansor (historic elevator)

    landmark · public landmark

    In the former Jewish quarter.

In Israel & the diaspora

The community's story continued elsewhere — these places carry it now.

ToledoCordobaSevilleLisbonThessaloniki (Salonika)IstanbulSafed (Tzfat)FezAlgiersTunisVeniceFerraraAmsterdam

In memory

Texts and figures that carry Izmir (Smyrna) forward.

Ladino press & literature

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Toledo

Spain

The "Jerusalem of the West" of al-Andalus memory - translation-school city whose two iconic synagogue buildings (Santa Maria la Blanca, El Transito) survive the 1492 expulsion.

Open the place story

Cordoba

Spain

Umayyad-caliphate golden age: Hasdai ibn Shaprut's court, the flowering of Hebrew grammar and poetry, and the birthplace of Maimonides (1138).

Open the place story

Seville

Spain

Castile's richest juderia, epicenter of the 1391 massacre that destroyed its old community; the Santa Cruz quarter and three synagogues-turned-churches carry its memory.

Open the place story
Guided story · 7 stopsThe Jewish MediterraneanFor 400 years, a Jew could sail from Venice to Izmir and pray in the same language at every port. What knitted the sea together?Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)

    Macmillan Reference USA · 2007

  • Turkey - Virtual Jewish History Tour

    Jewish Virtual Library · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Ladino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →