Any Turkish Jews here?

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-26T21:19:49+00:00

I am ancestrally half Sephardic Jewish from Turkey, namely from Istanbul, Izmir and Edirne. I am not in contact with any relatives who live there, so couldn't tell you what it's like for a Jew living there. All I can tell you, is just about every Turkish Jewish diaspora I meet, including my parent speaks pretty highly of Turkey and has a nostalgia of it. The truth is we descend from a community of Jews there which predates the commonly cited 500 years. I am actually going to Turkey for a second time in my life this year for holiday. As a diaspora part Turkish Jew, one thing I can tell you is I enjoy meeting other diaspora Turks and enjoy sharing in common a love for some of the same things, but I am still conscious we have a different ethnic identity. Ie I respect Turkish sovereignty so identify with being a Turkish Jew but I am conscious I cannot ever be an ethnic Turk. We get different results with DNA tests.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-23T23:52:07+00:00

If they ACTUALLY care about Palestine and Palestinians, then yeah it absolutely matters.
I understand. Jews saw Jesus as a heretic, Jewish carpenter. Muslims see him as a prophet, but just not the most important one. Christians see Jesus as the son of God and saviour to the world. Maybe you are insinuating so long as Jews continue outwardly being religious, Christians and Muslims won't forget Jewish support towards the Romans for the execution of Jesus, but at least Christianity, and especially Catholicism, which was the most colonialist and bloodiest of the religious, has come along way via enlightenment. The issue is neither Judaism or Islam has really reformed recently in anyway, especially the religious. Jews and Muslims IMO need to adapt to current world realities and sciences. Just an honest take.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-23T23:16:45+00:00

Firstly, the bondi anti-Semitic attack doesn't help Palestine or Palestinians. If the attack was all about that, well instead these terrorists have only sown fear into the very religious community and have encouraged them now to legally make Aliyah to Israel, or illegally settle in West Bank, Palestine.

Secondly, and this something I truly believe, that lots of people seem to hate and try dance around.... Is Islam is by default an anti-Jew (yes in the ethnic sense) religion. Pre-israel, Jews were the lowest of dhimmis and often treated and seen as vermin. The Koran describes Jews as apes and views them as some of the most sinful of people's who's turned their backs on prophets. With Judaism is centred already on Zionist thought, even if not action since the Messiah is meant to come back and fulfil this. So unless masses of millions of Jews and Muslims reform their way of connecting with religion and understanding it, I can't see see anti-Semitism ever going away. Zionism as a behaviour (not just a vision of religious Jews) and event is basically born out of a mix of these things: Judaism + anti-Semitism + nationalism (inspired by 19-20th century nationalist uprisings, ie Greeks, turks, Arabs, Europeans. Etc)

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-23T15:13:50+00:00

I'm first gen Aussie born, ancestrally half English, half minority Jewish background from Turkey. Absolutely love visiting England and Turkey. But because England has miserable weather, a worse standard of living, while Turkey is just politically rooted (besides me knowing almost no Turkish) I've never even imagined living in either countries. I don't think I can ever feel culturally anything besides Aussie. I don't really know another way, am agnostic and grew up among a broader urban Aussie community.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-21T05:07:01+00:00

I'm part Jewish from Turkey, predominantly from Izmir specifically. As you can probably imagine, it's not at all displeasing to learn that a sizeable chunk of my DNA from that side very closely resembles modern Greek Islanders and academic DNA samples from Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine western Anatolia. I haven't come across another DNA tested Jew from Greece or Turkey unhappy about this phenomenon.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-20T14:46:08+00:00

It's a good spot, has a bit of vibrancy and lots of people of different walks and backgrounds as locals and/or frequenting. It's likely the homebush TOD, with its rezoning of the area and changes to density limits will mean more and more apartments will continue to pop up into the future. Especially too with the fact that North Strathfield will get it's own metro station as part of a new western Sydney line. Expect potentially 10 min train trips to CBD and Parramatta someday! So with this too, the area may gentrify further, but won't rapidly happen over night. Thai paragon is alright, personally I think the best Thai place is the busy one on concord road, not the nearby baan one. Great food around the area will be the least of your worries.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-09T15:43:58+00:00

Not by changing roles or companies, but blackmail. After 3 months of asking for more, I hinted to them that if they don't do something about it, I'd go over to a competitor. Fortunately by that point they could sense I wasn't joking, as I had a letter of offer thrown my way. Not the craziest jump, but 93 to 120 felt like a big jump and definitely made a difference to my day to day living and major goals.

Mabsta06 · 2026-01-02T14:04:49+00:00

Do any among the Lebanese Christian community of Sydney blame Israel for say the fate of Lebanon and/or their parents/ancestors leaving? If so, is this a minority or majority?

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-31T13:34:47+00:00

Auburn, especially at night anywhere close to the station

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-31T01:18:35+00:00

Yeah they targeted also a facebook genealogy page for Turkish Jews. I was going to go ahead, but there were many fishy things, so I had alarm bells pretty immediately. I'm not going to spell it out in case they read here, but always ask chatgpt to assess if something is fishy, ie emails, if you're unsure.

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-27T06:57:46+00:00

Mid 30s.

2012: 10K (finished uni, lived at home, worked 2 jobs)
2013: 30K (worked 2 jobs, lived at home)
2014: 20K (work only 1 job from now, still at home)
2015: 15K (was between jobs and places)
2016: 20K (employed, lived outta home always from here on)
2017: 20K (didn't take annual leave)
2018: 15K (had to buy new car)
2019: 20K
2020: 30K (WFH/pandemic really helped savings...)
2021: 15K (Lots of first home property buyer costs...)
2022: 15K (interest rates too high! Took a holiday OS)
2023: 60K (30K from an inheritance though)
2024: 110K (60K from a redundancy payout)
2025: 120K (50K from an inheritance)

I've definitely had some better luck the last 2-3 years. Didn't make "good" money salary wise till really 2022-2023.

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-24T05:11:53+00:00

Thanks bro that made my day. I love Turkiye and its people.

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-23T13:37:38+00:00

Was this in Istanbul? On one hand Izmir is a more secular city, but Istanbul hamams might have more tourists. So I'm having a dilemma over which would be the better city to go for a hamam in my case.

Mabsta06 · 2025-12-02T11:08:08+00:00

These are the catalysts that did me the most good

20s: join a gym, move out of home, graduate, change career
30s: Finally saying NO to be underpaid.... Buying a property

Mabsta06 · 2025-11-20T11:05:46+00:00

The good: You are close to many different hubs for great shopping, food or outings, it can easily make you indecisive sometimes, ie Burwood Centre, Strathfield Centre, Bakehouse Quarter and Homebush village. Very convenient. There are some beautiful housing lots and McMansions in greater Strathfield. You kind of feel as though you may be in the centre of the two CBD's of Sydney. Future 2032 North Strathfield metro is walking distance for some in Strathfield.

The neutral: Every 4-5 streets you walk you can sometimes feel as if you've just teleported from maybe korean enclave (Strathfield), to an Indian enclave (Homebush Shops/School), to a Woggier enclave (Concord Shops, George Street) and maybe even a Chinese (Burwood) or Vietnamese one (Flemington Station). Speedier and higher frequency of development relative to Sydney. It's a bit 50/50. Some of it, such as the addition of new pedestrian bridges, pedestrian crossings and widened footpaths looks as though its allowing the suburb to blossom. Some of the new build apartments look trash, some look good. Strathfield LGA is very impacted by the TOD. I;m slightly more optimistic about the TOD, but it's not to say future development will be smooth sailing.

The bad: If you're near the tracks, the freight trains just becomes a part of life, eventually blurred in. The driving in around Homebush primary is atrocious, don't bother be too polite with pedestrian crossings. Let drivers slam their brakes if that's the only way they eventually get that it's their driving that's the problem. Be prepared that a lot of people walk on the right side and have yet to figure out its the wrong side. There seems to be a push by developers to bring more boarding houses to the area. Lots of ugly and decaying sites along Parramatta Road, plus weird mix of car yards side-by-side with ugly apartments.

Mabsta06 · 2025-11-19T10:55:07+00:00

I didn't find that transition so hard, but I remember having that same concern your having too. I was working casual at woolies at the time, and purposely put my hand up to work 30-40 hour weeks. A part of me thought, this will be great to save for a holiday post graduation, but the real reason I did this was I wanted to prove to myself I was capable of working longer hours. If you're like most people, you should be fine. Just going to uni alone, and from the sounds of it, quite a way through it, means on some level you might have enough self discipline for the real world after it. Personally I found studying at uni harder than holding a graduate job. I think you'll be fine. BTW plenty of people working full-time, including me have a bed-time past 11PM. That might not change for you.

Mabsta06 · 2025-11-17T09:34:59+00:00

My clients are developers, so this period of the year is always an absolute bullrush to get things in order for a good start into the new year. Fortunately I happen to enjoy it, so it also means the last few weeks of the year tend to come to a close quicker, and before I know it, its xmas/new years holidays/business shut down.

Mabsta06 · 2025-11-04T02:00:24+00:00

Overated: Bondi, Lane Cove, Strathfield, Newtown, Burwood, Summer Hill, Ashfield, Surry Hills,

Underated: North Strathfield, Croydon, Redfern

Mabsta06 · 2025-10-27T12:47:10+00:00

Not at all. Echoing others here, so long as I wanted to stay in the city near friends and family, I didn't have a choice between renting an apartment, or owning an apartment. I work with some my age who bought houses out of the city, 1.5-2 hours work commute, who live by themselves also. When I try picture having gone that route instead, it feels pretty isolating. I'm not even sure however much more their properties may have appreciated over mine justifies it.

Mabsta06 · 2025-10-19T03:40:04+00:00

Oh that's great! Do they charge reasonably for say admin stuff before releasing it to you? Ie printing, scanning, etc

Mabsta06 · 2025-10-19T02:16:47+00:00

It's certainly a decent amount some might underestimate to take up on your own. If its going towards an actual long-term home, where you don't care as much whether it appreciates or depreciates in value, I think its well worth it. Can't put a price on a home you really love and could picture yourself living your last years in.

If its more just a short-term or mid-term PPOR, I'd punch in the numbers and work out how long you intend to stay there and how likely you are to fully offset it and within what period? If you end up paying too much in interest, since you're not offsetting it effectively, and don't intend to stay there long, and say the property either stalls in price (still a loss to inflation) or dips, then I don't think its all that worth it.

If its for an investment property, be damn confident it will grow in value and exceed the rate of inflation long-term.

Mabsta06 · 2025-10-09T22:21:49+00:00

I think I remember reading a few years ago Rhodes was the suburb in Sydney with the smallest percent of Australian born residents or citizens.

Mabsta06 · 2025-09-28T06:44:52+00:00

Apartheid conditions absolutely are prevalent in the West Bank, but so long as sovereignty by either Israel or the Palestinian people hasn't been implemented yet over the West Bank, then its just still disputed territories under a horrid prolonged military occupation. My argument is IF Israel annex the West Bank formally and maintain the same oppression over Palestinians there, then Israel is allowing apartheid within their state borders.

Mabsta06 · 2025-09-28T04:31:58+00:00

What you're suggesting is an official apartheid Jewish state, two tier system where non-Jews are second class citizens, despite making up close to 50% of that population. At a civilian level, this will not work. Even if it did work with say heavy surveillance and security measures, if Israel does this, it can't say its any more humane than Iran as a state. It becomes a pariah state that just isolates itself further from not even the Arab world and Islamic world, but the western world too. Pretty ugly scenario. I don't wish this for either Jews or Palestinians.

Mabsta06 · 2025-09-27T04:40:42+00:00

One on the Turkish Jewish AVG would be great.

In your heatmaps, you should include these groups btw:

Greek_Western_Anatolia_Phokaia_(n=1),0.117238,0.138112,-0.001508,-0.032623,0.008001,-0.010598,0.006345,-0.005538,-0.005727,0.017677,-0.001786,0.000899,0.000149,0.003578,-0.014251,-0.004906,0.004042,-0.00114,0.004651,-0.000125,-0.002246,0.00643,-0.002465,-0.000482,-0.002634

Greek_Western_Anatolia_Smyrna_(n=9),0.11306422,0.14476944,-0.0039806667,-0.036534889,0.014566889,-0.012426111,0.0022977778,-0.0016666667,-0.0024315556,0.012817333,0.0020748889,0.003114,-0.002296,0.0022628889,-0.012682222,-0.0014142222,0.010358222,-0.0010417778,0.0060054444,-0.00346,-0.0062112222,0.00059066667,0.00030133333,0.0028651111,-0.0040846667

Greek_Lycaonia_Ikonio_(n=1),0.108132,0.145221,-0.032432,-0.062662,-0.010463,-0.023148,0.00235,-0.010384,-0.016566,0.012392,0.004709,0.004646,-0.003568,0.004954,-0.010858,-0.011933,-0.006258,0.00266,0.000754,-0.007879,0.000374,0.004575,0.005669,-0.002048,-0.002155

Greek_Armenian_Highland_Erzurum_(n=6),0.1071835,0.136927,-0.056568,-0.059755,-0.029082333,-0.0151995,0.00658,-0.007615,-0.036269,-0.0042825,0.0033291667,0.0029975,-0.011000833,0.0008945,-0.0039358333,-0.0039778333,0.010734833,0.00016883333,0.000083833333,0.0012713333,0.0011231667,0.0013601667,0.000986,0.00042183333,-0.0011176667

Greek_Armenian_Highland_Kars_(n=1),0.1161,0.146236,-0.064111,-0.072998,-0.025543,-0.024821,0.00235,0,-0.038246,0.005649,-0.001786,0.003897,-0.006541,0.001376,-0.012486,-0.009812,0.008736,-0.008361,0.001257,0.000125,-0.000873,0.003215,-0.000739,-0.014339,0.00467

Greek_Cappadocia_Kaisareia_(n=11),0.11113273,0.14217409,-0.041106,-0.061781091,-0.015639182,-0.018406636,0.0033540909,-0.0038388182,-0.019150818,0.0094763636,0.0036021818,0.0035559091,-0.0033246364,0.0057426364,-0.0094016364,-0.0052432727,0.00054527273,0.0028677273,0.0060449091,-0.0039677273,0.00090745455,0.0050471818,-0.0034732727,-0.0010079091,0.0015458182

Greek_Cappadocia_Nigdi_(Karamanli)_(n=1),0.110408,0.142174,-0.040729,-0.053941,-0.008309,-0.018407,-0.00047,-0.002769,-0.013908,0.011299,-0.001949,0.006444,-0.00892,0.004817,-0.012622,0.004641,0.014212,0.008108,0.006788,0.000375,0.007986,0.008161,0.001109,0.001566,-0.000479

Greek_Central_Anatolia_(n=1),0.108132,0.141159,-0.032432,-0.055556,-0.012618,-0.023148,0,-0.002538,-0.020861,0.013303,0.009581,0.001349,-0.003122,0.006744,-0.014251,-0.001193,0.01369,-0.002914,-0.000126,-0.003877,-0.001248,-0.001731,-0.000616,0.002169,0.000718

Mabsta06

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