History of the Jews in Djerba

It is one of the best-known North African Jewish communities due to its longlasting survival, with many making an annual pilgrimage to the El Ghriba Synagogue on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer.

Yet, some traditions among the community give credence to a pre-Medieval Jewish presence on the island, such as their liturgical customs of the Kiddush on Passover, or the reading of certain Prophets on specific days of Shabbat.

[3] Dighet, the village in which the synagogue is location, is believed, through this story, to be a corruption of the Hebrew דלת, delet, meaning "door".

The first written record of the story dates back to 1849, in the book HaShomer Emet, published by Rabbi Abraham Hayyim Adadi of Tripoli.

Another states that local Jews are descendants of survivors who fled Jerusalem following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D.[1] The first concrete historical evidence of a Jewish community in Djerba dates to the 11th Century.

Other letters from the same timeframe showcase the role of Djerbian Jews in Mediterranean trade routes during the time of the Byzantine Empire.

A letter in 1060 is addressed to a Jew named Khalaf ibn Farah al-Zjerbi, living in Egypt and set to depart to Sicily.

A letter dated to 1136 documents the arrival of a ship in Alexandria carrying captives whose freedom was bought by the local community.

He stated:"Be warned about some people who live in the western region called al-Zirbi which designates localities in the lands of Barbary, because they are stupid and rough [...] God is my witness and judge that they seem to me like the Karaites who reject the oral law.

They refuse to see the ritually impure woman, do not look at her face or clothes, do not talk to her and do not tread on the ground on which she has set foot.

"[5]As supported in Maimonides' quote, there was often a clash between religious groups due to characteristics of the Jewish community in Djerba, such as the existence of multiple rabbi-judges (dayyanim).

Arab geographer Al Idrissi, a contemporary of Maimonides, notes the propensity in the Djerbian community to exaggerate the requirements of ritual purity.

Persecution of the Almohads were briefly mentioned in a Hebrew poem where it is stated that the communities of El Hamma, Gafsa, and Jerba are "annihilated in the fullness of exile".

Over the next few centuries, there are instances of Djerban Jews found in the responsa across the Maghreb, such as that of Salomon Duran of Algiers.

He forbade the consumption of lousts, which until then had been considered kosher in the town, and instituted the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

Djerban rabbis excommunicated any member who cooperated with the AIU,[10] because they perceived a decline in knowledge and religious practice following secularization.

[14] Prior to the introduction of the printing press to Djbera, the community had to import religious works via trading necessary for the study of Judaism.

The works of sages of previous generations in the region were also published, and there were as many as five printing presses belonging to Jews on the island.

[13] In 1985, a Tunisian soldier stationed in Djerba open fired into the Ghriba synagogue compound, killing five people, four of them Jews.

[citation needed] A synagogue in Houmt Souk is named after its founders, the Parientes, a family of Granas [fr] Jews from Italy.

On the wings of the hekhal are silver plaques in the shape of a fish, a hand, and a censer on which are inscribed the names of deceased members of the community, along with candles lit in their memory.

[22] The Jewish community on the island of Djerba is of particular interest to researchers, with traditions dating back to the time of the destruction of the First Temple.

The Manni's study suggests it is unlikely that there was an early colonization of Djerba, while Lucotte states that it is difficult to determine whether the high frequency of J represents an ancestral relationship with pre-exile Jews.

Both studies suggest that the paternal genetic heritage of North African Jews in Djerba mainly comes from the middle east, with a significant minority of Berber DNA.