Dating back to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the Jewish heritage of Izmir exhibits aunique character with its dominant Sephardic traditions of religion and culture.Some preserved and some in ruins, examples of magnificent synagogues built during theprevious centuries in Izmir, remain today within the First Juderia. They constitute a livingtestimony to community’s life in Izmir, which was one of the most spectacular of its kind andhad the most spiritual and cultural influence on all Jewish diaspora communities in the 17thand 18th centuries.