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Synagogue in Matmata, Tunisia

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Synagogue at Matmata

The Matmata, who became famous for their troglodyte habitats, were a tribe that Jews were actively involved in for a very long time. The Jewish community at Matmata developed and adopted the local habitat mode and installed a semi-troglodyte synagogue that still remains today. It is built in local stone and half-buried into the earth, with its integration into the astonishingly barren landscape of the valley punctuated with cavities being remarkable. The synagogue is only identifiable by the skylight, which acts as a portal to the space underground [1].

Lacking archives and testimonies, we are forced to ignore the circumstances and conditions surrounding the creation of this synagogue. The buried portion, which accommodates what is the equivalent of a holy ark, is a mysterious setting, with niches arranged for hanging lamps and soot covering the walls. To access it you must take a vaulted gallery down with walls marked by Berber patterns, chevrons, hands, and writings, attesting to the fact that this cave perhaps previously served as a dwelling. Preceding this entrance, there is a square room comprised of four large pillars and supporting arches surmounted by the skylight. The courtyard precedes the building, and on the left sits a second courtyard which leads to two pieces of the structure partially underground as well. The local stones used, the massive buttresses that support parts of the building, the skylight that seems to emerge from the ground, all of its features give the synagogue its exceptional character [2]. 

Its function as a synagogue is verifiable, in addition to local testimonies, by the presence of the arches of the lantern of stars of David [3]. This building's existence is extraordinary, remembering that the synagogues of the same type in Libya have all but disappeared. The synthesis of Berber and Jewish motifs is rare and this is one of the only places it is found [4].  

History of Matmata

Matmata is the name of a Berber tribe, a mountainous region in southeastern Tunisia, and the name of a Berber-speaking mountain town in the region that is distinguished by its underground (troglodyte) dwelling caves. The village is set in the hills at the easten edge of the Sahara desert. After the French occupied Tunisia in 1881, they built a military base in the area as part of a policy to strengthen the southern frontier with Libya [5]. The French also encouraged people from elsewhere in Tunisia, including Jews, to settle in the village [6]. 

History of the Jewish Population

While a Jewish presence in the region was recorded as early as the fourteenth century, the Jewish community of the town dates from the early nineteenth century, when a small number moved there in search of business opportunities. After the French Protectorate was established in 1881, a small Jewish community developed. Jews from Djerba and Gabès moved to the region in search of opportunities in the fabric and alafa plant trade, increasing the population of the already existing Jewish community in the area. The Jews of Matmata depended on Djerba and Gabès for their religious needs, and there was only one synagogue in the village [7]. 

During World War II, the Germans took over the village but were mainly interested in defending the famous Mareth Line against the British. The direct Nazi occupation of Tunisia prompted many Jews from Gabès to take refuge in the caves of Matmata in order to escape the warfare. After the war, the prosperity of the Jewish community resumed, but with the creation of the State of Israel and the increase in Muslim political activism in the Tunisian struggle for independence, most Jews emigrated to Israel [8].

Matmata, Tunisia

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