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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent his well wishes to members of the Jewish community on the occasion of Hanukkah.
In his message issued for Hanukkah, Erdoğan said, “I congratulate our Jewish community members on the occasion of Hanukkah and wish them well-being.”
Hanukkah is celebrated by Jews worldwide for eight days and nights and falls on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, which coincides with late November to late December on the secular calendar.
In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” as the holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem following the Jewish victory against the Seleucid monarchy in 165 B.C. Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional food, games and gifts.
Members of the Jewish community in Türkiye are mostly descendants of Sephardic Jews who took shelter in the Ottoman Empire after fleeing Spain centuries ago. Their numbers, mainly concentrated in Istanbul nowadays, dwindled due to a pogrom decades ago and migration to Israel. In 2015, the community publicly celebrated Hanukkah for the first time in decades in a ceremony held in Istanbul, where two synagogues were the target of terrorist attacks in 2003.
