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I am in the council of representatives, once a month, or once every 15 days, a letter comes so we will participate in the meetings. The council of representatives meet at some places. Once at Or-ahayim[10], once in the building of the Grand Rabbinate, another time at Barinyurt. We would be approximately 50 – 100 people. Most of the times it was presided by Naim Guleryuz. Whoever wanted to speak spoke. I got up, talked about assimilation, come let’s tackle this problem together, I said. What more can we do for these people, we form associations, we will work at it, they say, nothing comes of it. Three months later, five months later, records are kept, nothing happens.
I gave a conference only at the council of representatives.
I wanted to take part in a social program voluntarily, I wanted to work together too. They called me, I gave a speech. Two or three years ago there was Ida Ben Romano, “Yasef you are an expert on the subject of the disabled, in this Jewish community of ours, there is no place for the disabled”. They wanted a conference from me. A school serving 2,000 people opened in a place like Edirne. I did not spend a penny out of my pocket. Our Turkish friends are very emotional about this. When I say I want to do something like this, a disabled children center opened in Edirne that is not only one of the few in Turkey but one of the few in the world. There are 2.000 disabled children. I am the administrator, the founder, there are 30-40 doctors working there. They are all under me. I didn’t know this business either, but I worked there voluntarily. Come. Let’s do something similar for the Istanbul Jewish community, I said. We also have very emotional people. Let’s start with one lira, I said. There are disabled children among us too. The families are ashamed, they don’t take them out. I wanted to work, Ida Benromano encouraged me in this, she helped me. A lot of people came, listened, it did not happen.
I gave a conference only at the council of representatives.
I wanted to take part in a social program voluntarily, I wanted to work together too. They called me, I gave a speech. Two or three years ago there was Ida Ben Romano, “Yasef you are an expert on the subject of the disabled, in this Jewish community of ours, there is no place for the disabled”. They wanted a conference from me. A school serving 2,000 people opened in a place like Edirne. I did not spend a penny out of my pocket. Our Turkish friends are very emotional about this. When I say I want to do something like this, a disabled children center opened in Edirne that is not only one of the few in Turkey but one of the few in the world. There are 2.000 disabled children. I am the administrator, the founder, there are 30-40 doctors working there. They are all under me. I didn’t know this business either, but I worked there voluntarily. Come. Let’s do something similar for the Istanbul Jewish community, I said. We also have very emotional people. Let’s start with one lira, I said. There are disabled children among us too. The families are ashamed, they don’t take them out. I wanted to work, Ida Benromano encouraged me in this, she helped me. A lot of people came, listened, it did not happen.
Location
/Edirne
Türkiye
Interview
Yasef Romano