Coexistence Tunisian Style
by Shirley Moskow, The Jewish Advocate, Boston

Ordinarily, I'd feel uneasy walking to synagogue on a street patrolled by armed Arab Muslim soldiers and policemen. But Tunisia is no ordinary place. These soldiers protect Jews.

Tunisia is home to the oldest continuous Jewish congregation in the world and the most vibrant Jewish community in an Arab country. After the fall of Jerusalem's first temple in 586 B.C., Jews sailed the Mediterranean until they reached the Island of Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia. They've lived here ever since.

Today Djerba is a popular resort. Travelers from around the world, including Israel, also come on a pilgrimage to El-Ghriba Synagogue, usually in the spring for the holiday of Lag B'Omer.

Narrow streets barely contain throngs of merrymakers, dancing and singing, following a Torah draped in colorful silk scarves as it is carried from temple to temple. Lag B'Omer -- an omer is a measure of barley -- is an agricultural holiday, but this observance honors ancient Talmudic scholars. Djerba Jews are skilled silversmiths and goldsmiths, not farmers.

Signs in Arabic and Hebrew identify their shops in Houmt Souk, the island capital. At one place, I chat with owner/artist Nessim Bittan. His family found refuge in Tunisia in the 15th century, after the Expulsion from Spain. He is one of five brothers and, typical of island Jews, each has four or five children.

Despite large families, fewer than 1500 Jews reside in Tunisia, which has a population of about 10 million Muslims. Tunisia had approximately 100,000 Jews at the end of World War II. After independence from France in 1957, more than 50,000 emigrated, most to France and Israel. Many more headed to Israel in 1967, during the Six-Day War.

There's a great synagogue in Tunis, the capital, but Djerba is the center of Jewish life. El-Ghriba, a Moorish style temple built around 1929, occupies the site of the oldest synagogue. Its name is variously translated as "the stranger" or "the miracle." According to local lore, it
commemorates the memory of a beautiful young woman who died in a fire that consumed her hut, but did not burn her body.

Over the centuries, many cultures have influenced Jewish customs in Tunisia, Like the Muslims entering a mosque, Jews remove shoes before going into the synagogue. Like Christians, they light candles in the sanctuary for wishes and prayers. Numidians, Berbers, Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals and Ottomans, among others, have left their imprint as they passed through the strategically situated country wedged between Libya and Algeria.

The synagogue's white cube exterior is almost indistinguishable from neighborhood homes lining the labyrinth of Hara Seghir's serpentine streets. Inside the sanctuary, however, a small opening is hollowed into the back wall. On my hands and knees, I crawled in, down a short, tight tunnel to where candles illuminate a niche filled with eggs and names written on them. Later, a woman explains the fertility rite. People wishing to conceive a child place eggs in the niche.

Here in Tunisia, Jews have experienced good times. In ancient Carthage, Jewish traders made important contributions to the prosperity of the Roman colony. They lived very well. Archaeologists have excavated a synagogue with fine mosaic floor. The inscription notes that a wealthy merchant donated the room for storing ritual objects.

Nearby, a cemetery dates from the same period, about 3rd century A.D. Shofars, seven branch menorahs and Jewish lamps ornament the headstones.

In 800, Arabs moved Tunisia's capital inland. The most important city in North Africa, Kairouan ruled western Algeria and part of Libya, too. It was a seat of learning for Jews as well as Muslims. Africa's first mosque, the Mosque of Sidi Oqba incorporated a synagogue for the Jewish minister of finance. The fourth holiest site in Islam, the mosque has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, and six-pointed stars continue to designate the entrance to the synagogue.

Except for Tunisia, Jewish communities mostly disappeared. Here, however, Jews and Arabs live as friends and a model for the world.