March, 2015 Vol. 19, No. 6
Arriving at Ashkenazi Synagogue near the Galata Tower in Istanbul’s Karaköy neighborhood of Beyoğlu, morning prayer was about to begin. The attendance numbered only nine men plus one youthful worshipper. The Jews were one person short of establishing the minyan required to perform their religious obligations. Women, who are required to worship from the balcony, are not counted as part of a minyan, so I was directed to the stairwell.