The International Izmir Sephardic Culture Festival preserves, shares and introduces the Sephardi culture that has shaped Izmir since the sixteenth century. It brings the city’s Jewish heritage into public view through concerts, exhibitions, talks, guided encounters, film screenings and Hanukkah gatherings.
A public celebration of Sephardi Izmir
Music, memory, food, language and shared city life
Sephardi Jews who arrived from the Iberian Peninsula carried their own language, songs, cuisine, rituals and forms of making. In Izmir, these traditions absorbed the sounds and habits of a port city where different communities lived side by side.
The festival turns that layered culture into a living programme: local and international artists, researchers, musicians and audiences meet in synagogues and civic venues across the city.
- When: around Hanukkah, usually in December
- Format: exhibitions, concerts, talks, guided visits, film screenings and candle-lighting events
- Founding director: Nesim Bencoya
- Support: Konak Municipality; Jewish Community Foundation of Izmir
- Current programmes: announced by the festival organisers each year
Festival Films
3rd Izmir Sephardic Culture Festival, 2021
A film record of the third edition, held between 28 November and 6 December 2021 with synagogue visits, exhibitions, talks, concerts, film screenings and a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony.
4th International Festival, 2022
The fourth edition expanded the festival programme with guided synagogue visits, concerts, film screenings, heritage talks and public events across Kemeraltı and the wider city.
2022 Edition
The 4th International Izmir Sephardic Culture Festival took place from 18 to 27 December 2022. Its programme brought together guided synagogue visits, the screening of Ramona, concerts by Selim Atakan, Buket Berat and Ziki Merenkaya, a PechaKucha evening on cultural heritage, a French-Turkish trace workshop, talks on Jewish women and Sephardi memory, Portuguese fado, and a Hanukkah ceremony.
Earlier Editions
First festival
The festival opened a public route into Izmir's Sephardi heritage through music, cultural memory and encounters with the city's historic Jewish landscape.
Growing public visibility
The second edition continued the work of making Sephardi culture visible to local audiences and visitors through events rooted in Izmir's Jewish memory.
Synagogues, talks and Hanukkah
The third edition included guided synagogue visits, Barbara Yoaf's Bat Mitzva exhibition, talks by Siren Bora, Nesim Bencoya, Mine Tanaç and Sara Pardo, concerts and a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony.
The fourth international edition
Held from 18 to 27 December, the fourth edition connected music, film, food memory, women's history, fado, guided visits and civic cultural partnerships.