In 1984 Laurence Salzmann an American photographer and his wife Ayşe Gürsan-Salzmann a Turkish-born anthropologist were invited by

the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of Tel Aviv to do a photo-documentation of Jewish monuments throughout Turkey.

But monuments could tell only a partial story so the Salzmanns expanded their project to include a photographic portrait of the Jews of Turkey

and a film that explored in detail the ways in which the Jews had become a favored ethnic group among a predominantly Muslim population. The film entitled

Turkey's Sephardim: 500 Years tells the story of Turkey's Sephardic Jews in the mid-1980s.

This book brings in full circle the work begun by the Salzmanns twenty-five ago and offers stories and reminiscences from a past not likely to

be encountered again!