The Jewish Community of Magnesia (Manisa)

It is believed that Jews first settled in Magnesia (modern-day Manisa), northeast of Izmir, Turkey, in the first century CE. Although the community flourished in the Byzantine period, following the Ottoman conquest the Jews of Magnesia were forcibly relocated to Istanbul. The community was rebuilt at the end of the fifteenth century, after Jewish exiles from the Iberian Peninsula began to arrive in Magnesia. In the sixteenth century a yeshiva flourished, together with various charitable societies (including one for ransoming captives and a burial society), and by 1575 the community numbered 117 families and ten bachelors. In the seventeenth century, attacks by plundering gangs and a plague led to a decline in the population, with many leaving for Izmir. By 1671 few Jews remained, and the impoverished community could not afford to pay the government taxes. Both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities existed in the town until the twentieth century: at the beginning of that century, the Jewish population numbered approximately two thousand. However, by 1970 no Jews remained in the town. Three Jewish cemeteries have survived, with tombstones dating to the seventeenth century. Likewise, many details of the communities’ regulations and customs can be found in responsa and other halakhic literature.