Sephardi Turkish Patriot - by Anthony Gad Bigio (Paperback)

About the Book

This book explores the life of Gad Franco (1881-1954), a prominent Sephardi journalist, then a lawyer and a jurist, who worked relentlessly for the Jewish community's acceptance as part of the national Turkish polity, and for the consolidation of the rule of law.

Book Synopsis

This book explores the life of Gad Franco (1881-1954), a prominent Sephardi journalist, then a lawyer and a jurist, who worked relentlessly for the Jewish community's acceptance as part of the national Turkish polity, and for the consolidation of the rule of law.

Review Quotes

Anthony Gad Bigio's excellent book illuminates the multifaceted life of Gad Franco, situating it adeptly amidst the historical events of his time. This work is more than a biographical account of a figure marked by tragedy. It also provides a sensitive exploration of the complex conditions and hurdles that Turkish Jewry experienced during the shift from imperial rule to nation-state.

By focusing on a particular--albeit particularly active-individual life, Anthony Gad Bigio guides us through the complex events of the late Ottoman Empire and early Republic of Turkey. His account of his grandfather's life balances large-scale, national history with intimate details of family life. In doing so, he helps us connect grand historical narratives with their effects on the lives of actual people.

Exile, broken identities, nostalgia: is this the inheritance that Franco left to his descendants? Is the history of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa forcibly characterized by the melancholic longing for a world that went by? Books such as that of Bigio testify that the legacy of what is perceived as a lost world has not vanished entirely: the memories of it - or the memories of its absence - remain and pass from one generation to the other, even beyond the Jewish world.

This is not the first monograph about Gad Franco, but it is the first one published in English. As Bigio indicates in his many footnotes and lengthy bibliography, he benefitted greatly from a work published by historian Rifat Bali in Turkish in 2013. This book is very different, not only for its comprehensive history, but also for being aGad Franco family memoir. As the grandson and namesake of Gad Franco, Bigio had access to correspondence from family members and photographs, which he includes in the book in appropriate places.These expound on the elder Gad's personal situation within his family and his relationship with his brothers, children, and other members of his family and add to our understanding and identifying with the humanity ofFranco.

Who, or what, could turn an Ottoman-Turkish patriot into a repenting Zionist? The Turkish state. In this biography of Gad Franco, his grandson reveals the destiny of a lawyer, an intellectual, and an activist, whose enthusiasm for his native land in late Ottoman and early Republican times ended in utter disappointment under the shameful policies of the 1940s.

About the Author

Anthony Gad Bigio, an architect and urban planner, has worked internationally and served as senior urban specialist at the World Bank for two decades. Subsequently a graduate professor of urban planning, he now advises international agencies and pursues his personal writing projects.