Image via Wikipedia//Beit Knesset on DjerbaFrom their first documented appearance in 2nd century Carthage to their current status as a tolerated minority, Tunisian Jews have been subject to shifts in regional and international politics that have dictated the relative security of their community.
A special center of Jewish spirituality
Today, the island of Djerba, ten hours from Tunis off the southeast of the country, is a particular center of Jewish spirituality, one of the few places where scribes still hand print the Torah and community elders chant the words of the Zohar. Most of the Djerban Jews still live as they have for centuries being active in metal working and jewelry-making, maintaining strict and spiritual Jewish practices. Some children still dress in a blusa under which they wear a small, mauve vest to protect them from the cold and belgha, goatskin slippers. Some women wear brightly colored jumpers in red, green or bronze – in public the young women wear futa, striped silk or cotton dresses. They keep their hair covered, in formal occasions, with a gold-embroidered coffia (headdress). In their long prayer robes and dark skullcaps, Djerban men appear to come from a time long past. Though contact with the secular West has begun to influence the younger generation’s dress and observances, the Djerban Jewish community is what some would describe as a living museum to the Judaism of their ancestors.
The Jewish community of Tunisia originated as home to scholars exiled from Palestine, from Talmudic sages of the 2nd to the 4th centuries to today’s Torah scribes. During the Byzantine period, Emperor Justinian excluded Jews from public life, prohibited their practice and ordering synagogues to become churches. Many Tunisian Jews fled into the mountains and the desert, joining secluded Berber communities there, and most remained there even after the Arabs conquered Tunisia in the 7th century, allowing Jews to practice again. Jews lived openly in Tunisia, albeit as second-class citizens, until the Spanish invasions of 1535-1574 chased Jews inland once again. The Jewish community returned to the coast under Ottoman and thrived under French rule until 1940, when Vichy subjected them to anti-Semitic laws. In 1942 Germans overran Tunisia, deported much of the Jewish population to labor camps and seized their property. The Tunisian Jewish community rebuilt itself through a decade of Allied rule until the country achieved independence in 1956. The new Muslim government eliminated the Jewish Rabbinical tribunal and Jewish community councils, destroying the Jewish quarter of Tunis. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Muslims laid waste to the Great Synagogue of Tunis; much of the Jewish population fled to Israel throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s, leaving a dedicated community of about 2000 Jews, primarily in Tunis and on the island of Djerba in the towns of Hara Keriba and Hara Sghira, where Jews have been worshipping at the El Ghirba Synagogue for almost 1900 years.
Today, the Tunisian government does appoint a committee which heads the community and manages most of its non-religious functions. There are five rabbis in Tunisia and several kosher restaurants in Tunis and on Djerba, which has been an active, practicing Jewish community for over two millennia, where most of the community members observe kashrut.
The seven hundred Jews who live on the island of Djerba have found themselves in the middle of the tourism industry. The main town of Houmt Souk isn’t on the beach, but it does see its share of tourists who fill its streets to purchase colorful Djerban pottery and locally made jewelry. Most Jews in Djerba live in Hara Kebira, a small town that sits about a kilometer south of Houmt Souk. Hara Kebira is a compact village filled by a labyrinth of narrow streets lined by white, square houses with turquoise doors and window shutters
Sephardic tradition and North African culture
Sephardic tradition met North African culture in Tunisia. Djerban Jewry shows this mix in much of its folklore and latent superstitions. Like many other North Africans, Djerban Jews venerate scholars from their community, paying homage to them by peppering their synagogue with photos of the learned, and by making “pilgrimage” to their graves on certain holidays, or on particular days of the year. Each family has its favorite departed sages; when a family member is facing a difficult time s/he may ask the sage for guidance.
Most Jews on the island of Djerba are middle-class merchants, jewelers or shop-owners. Some, like Alex Haddad, operate in the tourist economy, selling handmade jewelry to visiting Europeans in little shops on the Houmt Souk street, Rue du Bizertes (the street of jewlers). Other Djerbans cater their business to the local community, such as Dolly Haddad, who runs the kosher Comlombe Blanc restaurant, and her husband Danny who owns an electronics business.
Secular life in Djerba is becoming more and more modern. Djerban youth may buy fresh herbs for their mothers each day from a cart drawn by a donkey, but they also have motor bikes, carry cell phones and are fluent in several languages. Most Djerban youth have the opportunity to travel and/or study abroad. Some have moved away for good to places like Israel or France. Other remain but have as much in common with the globe-trotting Northern European tourists who frequent the resorts on the coast as they do with their more traditional parents and grandparents.
Sources:
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/tunisia4.htm
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