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JewishHistoryעברית

Istanbul synagogue bombings

Date
15 November 2003Hebrew date: 20th of Cheshvan, 5764
Location
Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues, IstanbulTürkiye
Then part of
Republic of Turkey
Perpetrators
  • Al-Qaeda (Terror organization)
Killed (estimate)
23[1]People killed in the 15 November synagogue bombings. The Neve Shalom foundation gives 18 dead at Neve Shalom and 5 at Beth Israel, totaling 23, with more than 600 injured. The BBC, two days later, gave at least 23 killed and more than 300 wounded, and stated that most of the dead were Muslim Turks passing by and that six Jews were among the dead. Al Jazeera's same-day report gave about 23 killed. Figures of 58 dead in later trial coverage include the 20 November attacks on the British consulate and HSBC, which are outside this event.
Locality

0.075% – 0.077% of the Jewish population of Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues, Istanbul[5]

Country

0.096% of the Jewish population of Republic of Turkey (c. 1979)[65]

Worldwide

0.00017% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 2000)[6]

Category
Terror attack
Confidence
High

Summary

On Saturday 15 November 2003, truck bombs exploded outside the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Beyoğlu and the Beth Israel Synagogue in Şişli during Shabbat prayers. Twenty-three people were killed; most of those killed were Muslim residents nearby. A Turkish group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, claimed the attacks the same day; a statement attributed to al-Qaeda was also reported. In 2007 an Istanbul court sentenced members of a Turkish al-Qaeda cell to life imprisonment for the November 2003 bombings.

Sources

  1. Terrorist Attacks. Neve Shalom Sephardi Synagogues Foundation
  2. Turkish synagogues bombed. Al Jazeera (2003)
  3. Turkey probes al-Qaeda bomb claim. BBC News (2003)
  4. Dan Bell, Turkey jails al-Qaida cell for consulate bomb. The Guardian (2007)
  5. Istanbul. Encyclopaedia Judaica

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,575,000[6]c. 2000
  • Republic of Turkey: 24,000[65]c. 1979AJYB 1981 (1979 estimates): 24,000 Jews in Turkey (reply to 1980 inquiry / chief rabbinate). Near Neve Shalom 1986 and useful mid-point before Istanbul 2003.
  • Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues, Istanbul: 30,000 – 30,831[5]Jews in Istanbul in the 1965 census (30,831) and an estimate of 30,000 in 1970, thirty-three to thirty-eight years before the November 2003 synagogue bombings.

Sources for population estimates

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