ARAB JEWISH PEOPLES - Education Support

Jews have been in Tunisia for so long, no one really knows with certainty when they first arrived in the small area of North Africa. Their history there is a story of targeting and torment. The terrible level of discrimination and hardship the ancient People have suffered in their homeland can be understood by looking at their numbers. In 1948, the Jewish population was estimated at 105,000, but by 1967, most Tunisian Jews had left the country for France or Israel, and the population had shrunk to 20,000. There are now less than 900 Jews in all of Tunisia. They are isolated into tiny communities, with 650 on the island of Djerba, 30 in Sousse and Sfax and 95 in Tunis. 

Tunisian Jews began to suffer targeted discrimination as early as the 4^thcentury as the popularity of Christianity grew. Anti-Jewish laws were created in 534 during the Byzantine Empire and persecution became harsher after the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 8^thcentury.

In 1159, the Almohad Dynasty conquered Tunis, killing all inhabitants who refused to convert to Islam. Most Jews converted or fled. The descendants of those who hid and survived were classified as inferior beings and forced to pay additional taxes and wear badges and identifiable clothing. When the Nazis invaded Tunisia in 1942, Jews were sent to forced labor camps near the front line or military camps along battlefields. Their property was confiscated and the buildings they owned were repurposed.

Thousands of Jews remaining in Tunisia after WWII immigrated out when Israel formed in 1948. Since then, those remaining have suffered murders, beatings, and other hate crimes, as well as terrifying national anti-Jewish riots. Tunisian Jews are caught in a frightening situation between two violently opposed cultures. They are Arabs who have lived in North Africa for millennia, but they are Jewish in faith, not Muslim. Being Arab Jews, they feel considerable discrimination from the Israel community as being less pure than other Jews. Their unique and touching story drew the attention of members of the Inti Raymi Fund.

IRF originally attempted to work with the Jewish community in Djerba, but we were unable to communicate our honest intentions of assistance. We have been able to work with the Jewish leaders in Tunis to help fund the preservation of their one remaining school by providing needed money for educational material and equipment for their children.

The gentle Jewish people of Tunis feel in their hearts that they are Tunisian; they are Arabs, and they are Jews. They believe that they are caught in the crosshairs of a global war machine far greater than themselves. They love their community and their country of Tunisia and do not wish to relocate. When IRF approached them with an offer of help, asking, “What do you need?” and “How can we help?” the leaders immediately turned their focus to the children of their community and to their one remaining school. In recent years, funding for the small school has been sporadic and unreliable. Attendance has dwindled down to only 27 children, and 54 parents. There are currently 8 teachers, of which only three are Jewish.

WHAT THE INTI RAYMI FUND PROVIDED

Our interaction with the Tunis Jewish leadership has been one built of great Respect. We admire them as human beings and as gracious victims caught up in a situation of abuse of power and hatred. With ever increasing religious pressure and a precariously declining Arab Jewish population, only time will tell the future of these disappearing People.  We hope and pray for their safety and solace as they apply our $25,000 grant towards making a better future for the remaining children of this Tunis Jewish Community. For obvious security reasons, the photographs shown below were strictly limited to exterior photography only with no personal imagery or interior shots.