Turkish Jewish Community Honorary Chair Bensiyon Pinto loses his life

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The Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation has announced that Turkish Jewish Community Honorary Chair Bensiyon Pinto has lost his life.

Losing his life at the age of 85, Bensiyon Pinto served as the Chair of the Turkish Jewish Community for 10 years in total between 1989 and 2003 and he was the first and only honorary chair of the community.

Several politicians and public officials such as Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın, Presidency's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu have expressed their condolences to his family, loved ones and the Jewish community.

Şalom Newspaper Editor-in-Chief İvo Molinas has written, "Turkey has lost a fatherly, friendly and nice person who always used the language of the reasonable and peace, sought the unity in differences' shared spaces, was a communication guru and in love with his country."

About Bensiyon Pinto

In 1976, Bensiyon Pinto chaired the finance department of the Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation, which is the center of the Turkish Jewish Community. In 1979, he served as the Deputy Chair of the Rabbinate Counselors. He was the Chair of the Turkish Jewish Community for 10 years in total at different times from the year 1989 to the year 2003.

His autobiographical work, My Life as a Turkish Jew: Memoirs of the President of the Turkish-Jewish Community 1989-2004, was published in 2008 and translated into German and English

The first and only Honorary Chair of the Turkish Jewish Community, Bensiyon Pinto was married to Ester Eti Pinto. (HA/SD)