In 1984, American photographer Laurence Salzmann and his wife Ayse Gürsan-Salzmann, a Turkish-born anthropologist, were invited by the Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora of Tel Aviv to create a photo-documentation of Jewish monuments throughout Turkey. In 1492, Sultan Beyazit II welcomed Jews to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, (now the Republic of Turkey), following their expulsion from Spain. But monuments could tell only a half of the story, so, the Salzmanns expanded their photo project to include an in - depth photographic portrait of the Jews of Turkey, now numbering 22,000, and a film that explores the ways in which the Jews have become a favored ethnic group amidst a largely Muslim population.

The photographs have been organized into a traveling show entitled Anyos Munchos i Buenos/Celebrating Turkey's Sephardim: 1492-1992.