Turkey
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A historic Jewish neighborhood in the province of Izmir in western Turkey will reopen as a museum.

The Jewish section of the Kemeralti Bazaar once had nine synagogues and a population of 30,000 Jewish residents, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

Today, the area’s Jewish have long since migrated elsewhere.

“The region inside the Historical Kemeralti Bazaar will be a focus of interest of the city’s faith and culture tourism,” said Nesim Bencoya of the İzmir Jewish Heritage Project.

The transformation of the historic community into a museum was funded locally and with donations from the EU.

“The whole place is a house of worship. We want to protect, restore and then open the region to tourism as an open museum,” Bencoya said. “Nowadays, the grandchildren of those who migrated from İzmir come and visit the region. Most want to find the houses their grandparents grew up in or the graves they rest in.”