DJERBA, Tunisia (JTA) — Anticipating the sun’s rapid ascent in the African skies, six barefoot men align themselves early in the morning in a drafty corridor of the still-cool interior of Africa’s oldest synagogue. Casually humming a biblical hymn in Hebrew, they and an Israeli journalist hold off on holiday prayers in the hope of…
(JTA) — A Tunisian anti-racism watchdog group accused promoters of a boycott against Israel of anti-Semitism after they protested the invitation extended to a Jewish comedian to appear at a local festival. The accusation Thursday by the Tunisian Association for Support of Minorities was over an open letter sent earlier this week to the Tunisian Ministry…
(JTA) — A Tunisian court has banned the showing of “Wonder Woman” because star actress Gal Gadot served in the Israel Defense Forces. Tunisia joins Lebanon, which banned the screening of the film as part of its ban on all Israeli products. Jordan also is considering a ban on the film due to Gadot’s Israeli…
(JTA) — Tunisia will seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the island of Djerba, the site of an annual Jewish pilgrimage. Tunisia’s culture minister, Mohamed Zine El-Abidine, made the announcement on Sunday, the last day of the traditional Lag b’Omer pilgrimage near the Ghriba synagogue on Djerba, an island off the coast of Tunisia. He…
Yves Meyer, a French Jewish mathematician, won the Abel Prize on Tuesday for his work on the “wavelet theory,” which has been applied in data compression, noise reduction, medical imaging and digital cinema. Meyer, 77, grew up in Tunis. He studied at the École normale supérieure de la rue d’Ulm (ENS) in Paris and got…
Tunisian Jews called on their government to discipline the president of a soccer club who is accused of making an anti-Semitic slur against a Jewish referee. Last week, the Jewish Community of Tunisia, or CJT, published its call and condemnation of Lotfi Abdennadher, head of the main soccer club in the city of Sfax, on…
Tunisia has increased security for a traditional Lag b’Omer procession on the island of Djerba. Additional police and military officers were assigned to the area and roadblocks were installed at entrances to the island and near hotels for the events on Wednesday and Thursday. About 500 foreign visitors are expected for the celebration, down from…
In the wake of the desecration of a Jewish sage’s grave, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi promised a European rabbinical body he would protect his country’s Jews. Essebsi, who won the country’s presidential election last year, made the pledge this week during a meeting with Rabbi Moche Lewin, who was in the country as a…
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