Turkish jews call it judeo, Turkish: Yahudhane / Aile evleri | Family home; Spanish: kortejo
After 500 years, Jewish family houses (kortejo) that indicates a life style specific to Izmir have become shelter for underprivileged Izmirian families. Kortejos where Jews without means who have migrated from Spain used to live in by supporting each other to adapt themselves to their new lives are now a new place for deprived families, unfortunate, lonely, and lost people. Most of them have similar stories. Young, old, women, men, children who have had significant difficulties in their lives are now living in the same courtyard and trying to survive. These people's lives have a common space, as well as a common destiny; it shows the possibilities of the future for us…
These deserted last examples of the family houses that gain their meanings with the underprivileged Jewish people who were living inside are now telling different stories.
It is thought that Izmir kortejos have started with the arrival of Spanish Jews in Izmir. It means that these kortejos exist for about 500 years. According to the interviews with some of the habitants of kortejos, these houses were used by Jewish people even in 1940's. However, the amount of kortejos has started to decrease in 19th century because Jews have moved to better houses for better living conditions. The first kortejos were shelter for Sephardic Jews who were in need. They had a common language, traditions, and foods. Kortejos, or Yahuthane as Izmirian people call it, were also secure places for people with different backgrounds. According to the expression of some old Jews, kortejos were emptied in the 50's. This situation can be explained by the fact that underprivileged Jewish people in Turkey have migrated to Israel in 1948. There were not many people wanting to live in such places anymore. There were more kortejos in Thessalonica than in Izmir where Jewish people were living.
In recent years, Turkish people coming from the east started to settle in these houses. Migration in Turkey has gradually increased in Turkey starting from 50's until the 70's. Because of this reason, underprivileged Turkish immigrants have settled in these kortejos. The rents for the rooms are very low and living conditions are quite poor. It also means that protecting kortejos are no longer possible. Some kortejos give interesting although inadequate clues about old lifestyles. Most of the people who can give information on this subject have migrated to Israel.
[1] The Kemeraltı Cortejo: Five examples of cortejos were identified in an area around the Roman Agora in the Kemeraltı Conservation Area.
A cortijo is a type of traditional rural habitat in the Southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha. Cortijos may have their origins in ancient Roman villas, for the word is derived from the Latin cohorticulum, a diminutive of cohors, meaning 'courtyard'. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands.
In certain Anatolian towns, in Izmir [Smyrna] and Aydin for instance, an important part of the Jewish population lived in cortijos, vast enclosed yards. Sephardic Jews migrated to the Ottoman Empire from the Iberian Peninsula and while migrating they brought along their culture, which developed in those land as well as their traditions, and residential architecture, which was shaped by their lifestyle in that region. They lived in family homes, known as Cortijo in Spanish, or Yahudhane by locals, where a courtyard, which also serves as a guest room and a where a central fountain is placed, is surrounded by rooms. Cortijos were built in Ikicesmelik, the first settlement of Jews in Izmir. One of Izmir’s most recognizable person, a very popular singer from Izmir, Dario Moreno, has grown up in on of these cortijos.
Life in cortijos have blended with Izmir's food culture and served the people of Izmir as "boyoz" and the "subiya" (a sherbet drink made of melon seed).
Family homes or cortijos allowed crowded families to live together in a type of housing forming an inward life. Central courtyard with its surrounding two-storey structure created an intimate residential environment.
Jewish homes, as seen in the examples of cortijo, served the needs of coexistence of Jews who prefer to be discreet by hiding from the society they live in as a minority population.
Unfortunately, cortijos, which date back to the early years of Jewish settlement in Izmir, did not survive to the present day. Only five or six cortijos exist out of 27 cortijos counted in 1982. Cortijos, which were built in later periods, give us an idea about the architecture of this type of housing. All existing cortijos are located in Tilkilik Namazgah neighborhood.
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