Tag #125848 - Interview #97938 (Moiz Isman)

I never experienced any anti-semitic event, targeted at my family or myself. There was the issue of “Citizen, speak Turkish”, which scared us. [22] Like I said, our families at home barely knew any Turkish. They were harassed by people on the street, who heard them talk. Our Turkish had started with the foundation of the Republic, when the education at school started being in Turkish. Naturally, we were very much affected by the Wealth Tax and the slogan “Citizen, speak Turkish”. The Jews’ accents almost always differed from the Turks, due to the upbringing they had at homes, and due to the way their families used to speak. They used to make fun of us slyly. They would make remarks such as “Hoow are youuu, arre youu okaaay?’.  Another remark that was made, for me and my wife to be, Suzan, when we were going around in Kuzguncuk: “Sooo, now arre youuu goiing to Tarlaabasiii?”. Naturally we were sad, but these events were not as destrucrive as The Wealth Tax.

During the attack of the Neve Salom in 1986 [23], I was in Burgaz. We came to Istanbul at once and did whatever we could do. Those days were horrible.