Jews of Tunisia: One of Africa's Oldest Jewish Communities

An Ancient Presence

Long before Tunisia was Tunisia — before it was Ottoman, before it was Arab, before it was Roman — Jews lived there. Jewish settlement in North Africa predates the destruction of the Second Temple, and some traditions push it back even further, to the time of Solomon or the Phoenician colony of Carthage.

The evidence is fragmentary but suggestive: ancient tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions, references in Roman-era sources to Jewish communities in the province of Africa (roughly modern Tunisia), and a continuous oral tradition that connects the Jews of Djerba to the priestly families who fled Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE.

Whether or not that specific claim is historically verifiable, the antiquity of Tunisian Jewry is beyond question. This is one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world.

The El Ghriba Synagogue

No discussion of Tunisian Jewry can begin without Djerba — the island off Tunisia’s southeastern coast that has been home to a Jewish community for at least two millennia. And on Djerba, the heart of everything is the El Ghriba synagogue.

El Ghriba (the name means “the marvelous” or “the stranger” in Arabic) is traditionally dated to 586 BCE, making it one of the oldest synagogues in the world — if not the oldest still in use. According to local tradition, priests fleeing the destruction of Solomon’s Temple brought a stone (or a door) from the Temple and incorporated it into the synagogue’s foundation.

The current building dates to the nineteenth century, a beautiful structure of blue and white tiles, arched columns, and an atmosphere of deep sanctity. Its inner sanctuary houses ancient Torah scrolls and is considered so holy that visitors remove their shoes before entering.

Every year, on Lag Ba’Omer (the 33rd day of the Omer count), thousands of Jews — many of them Tunisian emigrants and their descendants — make a pilgrimage to El Ghriba. It is one of the great Jewish pilgrimages of the diaspora, a homecoming for a scattered community.

Life Under Various Rulers

Tunisian Jews lived under a succession of rulers, each bringing different conditions:

Roman period: Jews were part of the broader North African Jewish population, engaged in agriculture, trade, and crafts. The Jewish community survived the destruction of Carthage and continued under Roman and Byzantine rule, though Byzantine-era restrictions were harsh.

Arab conquest (7th century): The arrival of Islam brought the dhimmi system — Jews were protected religious minorities who paid a special tax (jizya) but could practice their faith. Conditions varied with different dynasties. Some periods were marked by tolerance and intellectual flourishing; others brought restrictions and occasional violence.

Ottoman period (16th-19th centuries): Tunisia became an Ottoman province in 1574. The period brought relative stability. Sephardic refugees from Spain and Italy arrived, creating a social divide between the established local Jews (the Twansa) and the newcomers (the Grana, from Livorno/Granaata). The two communities maintained separate synagogues, cemeteries, and even rabbinic courts for centuries.

The French Protectorate (1881-1956)

France established a protectorate over Tunisia in 1881, and the French period transformed Jewish life. French culture, education, and language became aspirational for many Tunisian Jews, who saw French civilization as a path to modernity and equal rights.

The Alliance Israélite Universelle — a French Jewish organization dedicated to modernizing Jewish communities worldwide — opened schools in Tunisia that taught in French and introduced secular education alongside Jewish studies. Gradually, French replaced Judeo-Arabic as the language of educated Tunisian Jews.

A Jewish middle class emerged, concentrated in Tunis and other cities. Some Jews entered the professions — law, medicine, journalism. Others prospered in commerce and industry. But the old community on Djerba remained largely traditional, maintaining its ancient customs, Judeo-Arabic language, and rabbinical authority.

The French period also brought antisemitism. The Vichy regime’s anti-Jewish laws were applied in Tunisia, stripping Jews of rights even before the German occupation.

World War II: Six Months of Terror

The German occupation of Tunisia lasted only six months — November 1942 to May 1943 — but it left deep scars. German forces immediately imposed anti-Jewish measures: forced labor, confiscation of property, collective fines, hostage-taking, and the requirement to wear the yellow Star of David.

About 5,000 Jewish men were sent to forced labor camps, where they worked under brutal conditions building fortifications and roads. Dozens of Tunisian Jews were deported to concentration camps in Europe. Allied bombing raids killed Jews and non-Jews alike.

The brevity of the occupation saved Tunisian Jewry from the fate of European Jews. The Allied forces — British and American — liberated Tunisia in May 1943. Had the occupation lasted longer, the infrastructure for mass deportation and murder was being prepared.

The community emerged traumatized but intact. The war, however, planted seeds of change: many Tunisian Jews, having experienced Nazi persecution firsthand, began to look toward Palestine — and later Israel — as a refuge.

Independence and Exodus

Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956 under Habib Bourguiba. The new government was generally tolerant toward Jews, and Bourguiba himself maintained good relations with Jewish leaders. But the political reality was shifting.

The Suez Crisis of 1956, the creation of Israel, and rising Arab nationalism made life increasingly uncomfortable for Jews in an Arab country. While there was no mass expulsion — as occurred in some other Arab states — a steady stream of emigration began.

The 1967 Six-Day War was the tipping point. Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Tunis, with synagogues and Jewish businesses attacked. The Great Synagogue of Tunis was burned. Most of the remaining community left — about 40,000 to Israel, 20,000 to France, and smaller numbers to other countries.

The Community Today

Fewer than 1,500 Jews remain in Tunisia today. The largest concentration is on Djerba, where several hundred families maintain an active community centered on the El Ghriba synagogue. Smaller numbers live in Tunis and other towns.

The Djerba community is remarkable for its traditionalism. Men wear distinctive blue-and-white clothing. Women maintain traditional dress. The community follows strict Orthodox observance. It is, in many ways, a living museum of North African Jewish life — not frozen in time, but deeply rooted in ancient practice.

The annual El Ghriba pilgrimage continues, though security concerns have sometimes disrupted it (a terrorist attack in 2002 killed 21 people at the synagogue). The pilgrimage draws thousands of Tunisian Jews from Israel, France, and elsewhere — a yearly reunion of a scattered people.

Legacy

The Jews of Tunisia carried their heritage to new homes. In Israel, Tunisian Jews (like other Moroccan and North African Jews) initially faced discrimination from the Ashkenazi establishment but gradually integrated, contributing to Israeli culture, politics, music, and cuisine. Tunisian Jewish food — brik (fried pastry), ojja (eggs in spicy tomato sauce), and couscous — has become part of Israeli culinary life.

In France, Tunisian Jews joined the large North African Jewish community that transformed French Jewry from a small, assimilated population into a vibrant, diverse community of over 500,000.

And on Djerba, the faithful still come to El Ghriba. They light candles, inscribe eggs with wishes, and pray in the synagogue that tradition says has stood since the priests fled Jerusalem. The community may be small, but the chain is unbroken.