With relations tense between Turkey and American Jews, this week saw a rare attempt at appeasement as a senior Turkish parliamentarianl asked to attend a Chabad event to honor the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
The event kicked off with meetings between Chabad representatives from all over the world and U.S. lawmakers, continued with more meetings at the White House and wound up with a dinner attended by much of Washington's diplomatic corps.
Ties between Jews and Turks have been uneasy since Israel's May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, in which nine pro-Palestinian activists – eight of them Turkish – were killed.
Murat Mercan, Chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s Commission of Foreign Affairs, asked to attend the event in order “to mend fences”. Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of American Friends of Lubavitch, accepted the request.
“Our gesture was a response to a positive step”, Shemtov told Haaretz. “I hope it will be effective."
Shemtov added that he hoped the message of conciliation would be relayed to Ankara, boosting relations between the Turkish government and the nation's small Jewish community, which includes a Chabad mission.
"If anything happens to our rabbi there, it will be on their hands, because of this recent rhetoric," Shemtov said, referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's virulent condemnations of Israel since the flotilla raid, which have left ties between the countries near extinction. "Normally Turks don’t hurt Jews."
"We have representatives in eight Muslim countries, and I believe that respect is a big deal and it takes away lots of antagonism," he said. "We hope [Mercan] took this message to Ankara and reconciliation will follow, but if it doesn’t happen, we won’t take any further steps."
