Leader Asks Jews To Return to Tunisia
The interim president of Tunisia called for its Jews to return, although it was not clear if he was reflecting the Islamist-led coalition.
President Moncef Marzouki met Monday with Haim Bittan, the chief rabbi to the country’s remaining 1,500 Jews, The Associated Press reported.
Under Tunisia’s previous constitution, the president held strong executive powers. Marzouki, who was elected last week by the first parliament to be chosen in free elections in decades, was picked more for his symbolic status as a longtime human rights campaigner, and it does not seem as if he would have strong executive powers.
The Islamist-led coalition has yet to begin governing formally, but its leadership has said Tunisian Jews will have equal rights.
Approximately 100,000 Jews lived in Tunisia before a broad North African exodus following the 1967 Six-Day War. Many of those who left went to Israel.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
