Rıfat Bali

Rıfat Nesim Bali (born 1948) is a Turkish historian specializing in Jews in Turkey. He is the managing director of Libra Books, an academic press based in Istanbul specializing in topics related to Turkish and Ottoman history.

Biography Bali was born to a Sephardic family in Istanbul in 1948. After receiving his primary education in a Jewish school in Istanbul, he attended Lycée Français Saint-Michel for secondary school and Lycée Saint-Benoît d'Istanbul for high school. He graduated from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne University.

Since 1996, he has been conducting research and publishing on topics such as non-Muslim minorities, particularly Jews, antisemitism, conspiracy theories as well as cultural and social change in Turkish society. His articles have been published in various journals, including Tarih ve Toplum, Toplumsal Tarih, Birikim, and Virgül. He has contributed articles to numerous compilations and encyclopedias and edited numerous books.

In 2005, he won the Yunus Nadi Award for his book From Anatolia to the New World (Turkish: Anadolu'dan Yeni Dünyaya) and again in 2008 with his book Sami Günzberg, the Chief Dentist of the Palace and the Republic (Turkish: Sarayın ve Cumhuriyetin Dişçibaşısı Sami Günzberg). In 2009, he won the Alberto Benveniste Research Award for his published writings on Turkish Jewry.

Personal life He is married and has two children.