‘Centuries-old’ Jewish prayer book with gold lettering recovered in Turkey
It was found by officers during when a car was stopped in the east of the country
Michael Daventry is Jewish News’s foreign and broadcast editor
Police in Turkey say they have recovered a tiny medieval Jewish prayer book from the boot of a car.
The officers found the tiny tome, which appears to contain Jewish symbols and handwritten Hebrew lettering in gold-leaf, when they stopped the vehicle.
The search took place in the eastern city of Ardahan, close to Turkey’s border with Armenia.
Officials impounded the book while an investigation into its ownership takes place.
It’s not the first time in recent weeks that apparently ancient Jewish texts have been recovered in Turkey.
In late October police officers seized a similar Tanakh with gold-leaf lettering in the southeastern city of Mardin.
Authorities said that book was at least a thousand years old.
One suspect was taken into custody in connect to the earlier discovery.
But there is also a flourishing trade in counterfeit Judaica in Turkey.
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