FRANCO, GAD

FRANCO, GAD (1881–1954), Turkish lawyer. Franco was born in Milas, the son of Dardanelles Jewish community's chief rabbi and cousin of the journalist david fresco . He taught Turkish and French in 1901–02 at the Milas Jewish school. He started to publish his articles in the izmir newspapers Ahenk and Hizmet. In 1902 he moved from Milas to Izmir and started publishing the newspaper El Nouvellista with his cousin Hizkia Franco. Gad Franco was a fervent admirer of the Committee of Union and Progress and believed in the Ottomanization of the Jews. He graduated in 1909 from the Law School of Istanbul University and then went to Paris, where he graduated as a doctor of law from the Paris Faculty of Law. He returned to istanbul in 1923 and opened a law office together with two other Jewish lawyers, Henri Geron and Salamon Adato. Franco was a member of the Secular Council of Turkey's Chief Rabbinate and enjoyed very close relations with the Turkish Republic's leadership. In 1942, during the enforcement of the harsh capital tax law, he was unable to pay it and was sent to the labor camp of Aşkale. His works are Muallimlere İrfan ve Terbiye Bahisleri (1910), Yunan-ı Kadimde Terbiye Nazariyeleri (1910), Conférence Faite par Maître Gad Franco au Local de l'Ecole de l'Alliance à Smyrne (1910), Tetebbüat (1911), Jan Jak Ruso'nun Terbiye Nazariyeleri (1913), and Développements Constitutionnels en Turquie (1925). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R.N. Bali, Devlet'in Yahudileri ve "Öteki" Yahudi (2004), 109–160. (Rifat Bali (2nd ed.)