By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Motti Seligson, Director of Media of Chabad.org, was one of the people who visited the Turkish Consulate in New York City to express solidarity with the nation following the devastating earthquake.
The Mw 7.8 earthquake on 6 February 2023 caused widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities in southern and central Turkey, as well as northern and western Syria. It was the deadliest earthquake in modern Turkey since the country’s creation in 1923.
Signing the guest book, Seligson said he “shared a message today of friendship and solidarity with the people of Türkiye.” He also discussed the state of the local Jewish community and the efforts of Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, Chabad Shliach and Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Istambul.
“It felt like I was closing a loop, because 15 years ago, under the direction of Rabbi Chitrik, I visited the Jewish communities of Turkey including Antakya as part of Chabad’s Roving Rabbis program,” Seligson tweeted.
“One of the people we met in the historic and very unique Jewish community was Azur Cenudi. Azur’s brother, Saul, who led the Antakya Jewish community, and Saul’s wife, Fortuna, died in the earthquake.”
The visit one one of the several that Chabad representatives have been paying to Turkish officials in recent days.
Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky, the chief rabbi of Hamburg in Germany, was scene lighting a candle in memory of those killed. “Hamburg mourns the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria,” he wrote.
Visits to embassies and consulates were made by Rabbi Sholom Ber Stambler of Chabad of Poland, Montenegro Chief Rabbi Ari Edelkopf, EU activist Rabbi Levi Matusof, and Rabbi Shalom Hazan of Milan, Italy.
Rabbi Chitrik himself, who has been involved in rescue efforts, briefs Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli and Julie Eadeh, U.S. Consul General in Istanbul, about recent developments and needs.
