Jewish, Tunisian (Tunisia)

Tunisian Jews are one of the oldest Jewish communities of North Africa. Djerba's Jews trace their origin to priests who fled the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC; a synagogue of the 3rd-5th century AD was excavated at Hammam-Lif near Tunis in 1883, and Jews settled in Carthage and Tunis after the fall of the Second Temple (Pray4Tunisia). Under Islamic rule they lived as a protected minority in their own quarters (hara). From the 17th century the community was divided between the Twansa, the native Arabic-speaking Jews, and the Grana, Jews of Livornese (Italian) origin with their own synagogues and council in Tunis.

About 100,000 Jews lived in Tunisia in the 1950s. After independence in 1956 the Jewish Community Council was abolished and old quarters and cemeteries were razed; riots during the 1967 war and attacks in 1982 and 1985 drove further departures, so that about half went to Israel and most of the rest to France (Pray4Tunisia; Hebrew Wikipedia). Today about 1,500 remain, most on Djerba, where a strictly Orthodox community with large families and yeshivot has outlasted the cosmopolitan community of Tunis. Their speech is Tunisian Arabic with Hebrew words (the Judeo-Tunisian Arabic of ISO code ajt, merged into Tunisian Arabic in 2022); they read Hebrew from childhood and learn Arabic and French in school. Tunisian Jews call themselves Twansa; in France they are Juifs tunisiens, in Israel Yehudei Tunisia.

On Djerba, Jewish life centres on two villages near Houmt Souk: Hara Kebira (the big quarter, with most families and about a dozen synagogues) and Hara Sghira (Er-Riadh), home of the El Ghriba synagogue. Families are large, often eight or more children; boys study in yeshiva and many join the family jewellery trade in Houmt Souk, while women traditionally marry young and keep house; a girls' school, Kanfei Yonah, now teaches Hebrew, English and secular subjects (Religion News Service 2016; J. Weekly 2023; JDC 2025). Jews may not marry non-Jews, and the community keeps to itself while trading daily with Muslim and Amazigh neighbours (Pray4Tunisia).

The year turns on the Jewish festivals and on the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to El Ghriba, when pilgrims light candles, leave eggs inscribed with wishes in the grotto under the ark, and carry the menara, a domed float, in procession; about 7,000 came in 2023. Food is Tunisian: couscous, brik, fish, and the Sabbath stew t'fina (dafina), cooked kosher. Tunis has a smaller community with Jewish primary and secondary schools, a home for the aged and the Grand Synagogue; Zarzis keeps a synagogue rebuilt after arson in 1982 (Pray4Tunisia; Zarzis Synagogue).

Tunisian Jews practise Orthodox rabbinic Judaism in Tunisian and Djerban rites, with their own liturgical melodies and customs. Djerba is among the most observant Jewish communities anywhere: kashrut, strict Sabbath, daily prayer in one of about 20 synagogues, five of which house yeshivot (JDC 2025). Tunisia's chief rabbi, Haim Bittan, sits in Tunis, with a rabbi on Djerba. Veneration of holy men is strong: the Ghriba pilgrimage at Lag BaOmer honours Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and pilgrims seek healing, marriage and children by lighting candles and leaving eggs in the grotto; in Israel and France, Tunisian families keep hillulot at the graves of sages such as Hacham Haim Houri in Beersheba. The Kisse Rahamim yeshiva, founded in Tunis and moved to Bnei Brak, carried the Tunisian rabbinic tradition to Israel under Rabbi Meir Mazuz (died April 2025). In the diaspora many are traditional rather than strictly observant; in Tunisia, community leaders and Pray4Tunisia describe almost all as observant.

The Hebrew Scriptures are read daily; the New Testament exists in Hebrew, French and Arabic, including Tunisian Arabic (2022), and IMB lists Bible, Jesus Film and audio as available. No outreach aimed at Tunisian Jews in Tunisia is known; JP rates them 0% evangelical (frontier). The community's closeness, the rule against marrying out, and the history of persecution make any Christian approach sensitive; Pray4Tunisia asks that the gospel not be heard as anti-Semitic.

Each spring at Lag BaOmer, pilgrims from Tunisia, France and Israel gather at El Ghriba in Er-Riadh. The building dates from the 1920s on a site held to be much older. Rites include lighting candles, writing wishes on eggs placed in the grotto under the ark, auctions for honours, and a procession of the menara through the village. About 4,500 came in 2022 and 7,000 in 2023, before the attack of 9 May 2023; the pilgrimage was confined to the synagogue in 2024, to residents in 2025, and reopened to about 200 foreigners in 2026.

From the late 17th century Tunis had two Jewish communities: the Twansa, native Arabic-speaking Jews, and the Grana, Jews from Livorno of Iberian origin who spoke Italian, followed Western Sephardic customs and kept separate synagogues, rabbis and burial grounds until the French protectorate. The Djerba community, isolated from both, kept its own Twansa customs and a reputation for learning.