History of the Jews in Tunisia

Tunisian Jews

יהדות תוניסיה‎
Jews of Tunis, c. 1900
Total population
50,000–300,000
Regions with significant populations
Israel, Tunisia, United States, Canada, France
Languages
Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, Berber
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Jews, Maghrebi Jews, Mizrahi Jews

The history of the Jews in Tunisia dates back nearly two thousand years to the Punic era. The Jewish community of Tunisia grew following successive waves of immigration and proselytism^[1] before its development was hampered by the imposition of anti-Jewish measures in the Byzantine Empire in late antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Tunisia, Tunisian Jews experienced periods of relative freedom or cultural apogee^[2] which were followed by periods of more marked discrimination and persecution;^[3] under Muslim rule, Jews were granted legal status as dhimmi, which legally assured protections of life, property, and freedom of religion, but imposed an increased tax burden on them. The community developed its own dialect of Arabic, but the use of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has declined due to the community's relocation from Tunisia.^[4] The arrival of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, often through Livorno, greatly influenced the community's composition, inter-group relations, and customs.

The economic, social and cultural position of the community was significantly compromised during the Second World War due to the occupation of the French protectorate of Tunisia by the Axis powers.^[5]

The Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948 and the ensuing 1948 Arab–Israeli War provoked a widespread anti-Zionist backlash in the Arab world, to which was added nationalist agitation, the nationalization of enterprises, the Arabization of education and the Arabization of part of the administration. Prior to Tunisian independence in 1956, the Jewish population was estimated at 100,000 individuals.^[6] These Jews lived mainly in Tunis, with communities also present on the island of Djerba. Jews left Tunisia en masse in subsequent years due notably to the Bizerte crisis in 1961 and the Six-Day War in 1967.^[7] The population had declined to 1500 by 2017.^[8]

The Jewish diaspora of Tunisia is divided between Israel and France, where it has preserved its community identity through its traditions, mostly dependent on Sephardic law and customs, but retaining its own specific characteristics.^[9] Djerbian Judaism in particular is considered to be more faithful to tradition because it remained outside the sphere of influence of the modernist currents.^[10] The Tunisian Jews who have relocated to Israel have switched to using Hebrew as their home language.^[4] Tunisian Jews living in France typically use French as their first language, while the few still left in Tunisia tend to use either French or Judeo-Tunisian Arabic in their everyday lives.^[11]