Anti-Semitic vandals scrawled graffiti on the wall of Turkish synagogue, accusing Israel of terrorism and praising Allah (God), Today’s Zaman reported earlier this week.  

The words “Terrorist Israel, there is Allah” was recently found on the outer walls of the Istipol Synagogue in Istanbul’s Balat neighborhood.

The synagogue reopened for a one-time prayer service earlier this month for the first time in 65 years. 

Ivo Molinas, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish Jewish community’s weekly newspaper Salom, expressed frustration over widespread anti-Semitism in Turkey as well as attempts to link the Jewish community to Israel. 

“I don’t know what to think, other than that people insist on connecting us to Israel,” he explained to Today’s Zaman in a phone interview. 

“Of course there are some connections between our community and Israel; members of our community have family that live there and might have emotional connections, but we have nothing to do with their political policies,” Molinas stressed. 

“Writing anti-Israel speech on the wall [outside] of a synagogue is an act of anti-Semitism. There is widespread anti-Semitism voiced in Turkey and it gets in the way of celebrating the richness of cultural diversity in this country.”

Balat is one of the historically Jewish quarters of Istanbul first settled in by Jews who fled from Spain in the early 17th century. There are nine synagogues in the area although only two of them are active.