Hemdat Israel Synagogue
In the 1890s, the Jews of Haydarpaşa used a rented house as a Talmud Torah (Torah study institution) and a place of worship under the direction of the famous Rabbi Menahem Farhi. When those invited to solve financial problems did not respond to the invitation, there was no other option but to close the house. When the Jewish population of Haydarpaşa increased even more with the immigration following the great fire that completely destroyed the settlement center of Dağhamamı, the need for a new and spacious house of worship became inevitable. On January 14, 1896, the construction of a building of seven zira in height for the residence of the synagogue and the rabbi was started on a plot of land on Aziziye Street. In the meantime, Sultan Abdülhamid II, who learned from his personal ophthalmologist Elias Pasha that the local Greeks had been obstructing the construction of the synagogue, even to the point of bloody fights, sent a military unit from the Selimiye barracks to intimidate the troublemakers and took the construction of the synagogue under his protection.
