The head of a small Turkish Jewish community and his wife were feared dead after their apartment building collapsed during Monday’s devastating earthquake in southern Turkey and neighboring Syria.
Rescue workers were working to find Saul and Fortuna Senudioglu in the rubble of their home in the southern Turkish city of Antakya on Tuesday. He has not yet been declared dead, but is believed to have been killed during the tremors.
“Sadly, the president of the Jewish community in Antioch, Saul Cenudioglu, and his wife were apparently killed in the disaster,” Ambassador Erit Lilian told Channel 12.
Mendel Chitrik, a prominent rabbi in the Turkish Jewish community, said the local synagogue in Antakya “is not in good condition, but it is not completely destroyed. There are cracks and dramatic damage.”
Chitrik posted a video of himself helping to remove Torah scrolls from the damaged synagogue so that they could be saved.
A picture posted on Twitter by another user shows a damaged Torah storage room.
User wrote, “End of 2500 year old love story.”
Rescuing ancient Torah scrolls from the earthquake-damaged synagogue of Antioch – home to a Jewish community for 2500 years … #unkydeprem pic.twitter.com/ZsHzVKdHWZ
— Rabbi Mendy Chitrik (@mchitrik) February 7, 2023
End of 2500 years old love story????#unkydepremi pic.twitter.com/cu64N97B4P
— Ishak Ibrahimzadeh (@ishak5723) February 7, 2023
There has been a Jewish community in Antioch for more than 2,500 years, although only 12 elderly members are believed to have survived, with a couple missing.
Chitrik has reported that, as far as he knows, there were no other fatalities or missing people among Turkish Jewish communities, although some were rescued from collapsed buildings.
Lilian said the embassy is still trying to verify whether any Israelis were injured, but noted that Israel does not go much to the areas most affected by the earthquake.
“As far as we know, there has been no call for help from the Israelis,” he told Channel 12.
Lilian said that almost immediately after the earthquake, international aid had arrived in Turkey. Israel also sent a delegation of IDF emergency response units on Tuesday.
“There’s a very high level of accountability,” she said.
Lillian said local authorities have experience dealing with earthquakes but the cold weather is a challenge. When the Israeli aid delegation arrived there was deep snow on the runway, he noted, and snow is blocking access roads to disaster-hit areas.
Lillian also commented on Israeli aid that would go to Syria, a country at war with the Jewish state.
“In times of emergency, everything is put aside,” she told Ynet. “The saving of human life comes before everything else.”
A call for help from syria Allegedly made through Russian intermediaries. Israel will send tents, medicines and blankets.
Israel’s Ambassador to Turkey Irit Lillian (Foreign Ministry)
Alon Lavi, a foreign ministry representative with the Israeli aid delegation, said on Tuesday that forces would move directly to the epicenter.
“We will focus on aid and rescue in this phase,” he added. “In the second phase, we will try to help with tents, blankets and coats. The first and foremost step is to save lives, then medical aid as well as humanitarian aid in the form of providing blankets, coats and other things sought by Turkey.
The death toll in both countries has passed 5,000 after a strong tremor struck near the Turkey-Syria border – the largest of which measured 7.8-magnitude. Tremors were also felt in several areas of Israel on Monday, although there were no injuries or significant damage to buildings.
Earthquakes continued on Tuesday, with the Euro-Med seismological center reporting a series of smaller tremors in the pre-dawn hours.
At least 17 earthquakes have hit the region in the last 24 hours, the center said.
Turkish and Syrian disaster response teams report that more than 5,600 buildings have been leveled in several cities, including many multi-story apartment blocks that were filled with sleeping residents when the quake first struck. Many thousands of people were injured in the earthquake.
Agencies contributed to this report.
