Disclaimer
This entry contains information known to us from a variety of sources but may not include all the information currently available. Please be in touch if you notice any inadvertent mistakes in our presentation or have additional knowledge or sources to share. Thank you.
Archive
Synagogue and Cemetery, Medjez el Bab, Tunisia
Modern-day Medjez el Bab ( مجاز الباب), a dusty market town whose streets smell of rosemary, juniper, and tobacco, an indication of its role as a crossroads where merchants from every compass point meet to sell their goods. Elements of Rome, Byzantium, seventeenth-century Spain, and the carnage of the Second World War can be found in Medjez el Bab, whose name means "Ford by the Gateway" [1]. It is here amongst the fecund fields and stucco homes of the Medjerda River valley that a synagogue and cemetery sits, acting as a portal, much like the Medjerda itself, to a history still largely obscured.
Description
History of Majaz el Bab
Majaz al Bab, also known as Medjez el Bab, or previously as Membressa during the Holy Roman Empire, is a small town in northern Tunisia. It is located near the Jewish communities of Testour, Tebourba, Teboursouk, and Beja, in the Plaine de la Medjerda, thirty miles southwest of Tunis [2]. During the Holy Roman Empire, Majaz el Bab was a city-state of the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, and took on the name Membressa [3]. It was the site of the Battle of the Bagradas River (or the Battle of Membresa) in 536 CE where Byzantine forces under general Belisarius defeated the rebel forces under Stotzas [4]. During the Roman Empire Majaz el Bab had a high population of bishops, and the town was the seat of a Christian Bishop, Victor, in 649 CE [5]. There was also a Roman settlement outside of el Bab at Chaouach calle Suas.
Majaz el Bab has always been a place of great strategic importance, with General Hannibal
during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BCE claiming that "whoever has Medjez-el-Bab has the key to the door, and is the master of all Tunisia" [6]. Its strategic value derives from its position straddling the Medjerda River, providing rare access through to the mountain chain of the Eastern Dorsal which stretches southward towards the coast. The town is situated at the crossroads of Tunis, Béja, and the north of Tunisia. It was at this place once ruled by Ancient Carthage that during World War II Allied and Axis forces would first collide in North Africa, and it was around el Bab that much of the ensuing North Africa campaign revolved around. On November 8th 1942 the U.S. Army, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, invaded Tunisia as part of Operation Torch. Majaz el Bab was at the limit of this Allied advance and remained on the front line until the German Army counter-attacked and won a victory at Majaz el Bab, going on to occupy most of northern Tunisia [7]. There is a Commonwealth War Gravesite at Majaz el Bab, dedicated to those of the British Army, which includes those who died during the North African campaign (Operation Torch and the Tunisian Campaign) during World War II [8].
History of the Synagogue and Cemetery at Medjez el Bab
The known history of the synagogue and cemetery is that it became disused, was briefly converted back into a kouttab, then fell into disuse again [9]. More details regarding the history and functions of this space are yet to be made known.
Demography
The current population of the town of Majaz el Bab is just over 22,000, a significant increase from the 1975 population of roughly 7,500 [10]. The only official reported number of the Jewish population of Majaz el Bab was in 1921 with 99 individuals recorded, however, the exact current Jewish population is unknown.[11]
Sources
Footnotes
1. Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942- 1943 (New York City: Henry Holt and Company, 2002), 19.
2. “Medjez el-Bab, Tunisia,” Jewish Gen: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy, Accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-726754.
3. “Membressa (Medjez el-Bab),” Trismegistos Geo, Accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.trismegistos.org/place/17337.
4. Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, vol. IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896), 33.
5. “Titular Episcopal See of Membressa, Tunisia,” GCatholic.org, Accessed July 13, 2021,http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1132.htm.
6. Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, 19.
7. Ibid.
8. “Medjez-El-Bab War Cemetery,” Commonwealth War Graves, Accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/47314/medjez-el-bab-war-cemetery/.
9. Colette Bismuth-Jarrassé and Dominique Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie : monuments d'une histoire et d'une identité (Le Kremlin-Bicêtre: Editions Esthétiques du Divers, 2010), 222.
10. “Majāz Al Bāb,” City-Facts, Accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.city-facts.com/maj%C4%81z-al-b%C4%81b.
11. “Medjez el-Bab, Tunisia,” Jewish Gen: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy, Accessed July 13, 2021, https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-726754.
Bibliography
Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942- 1943. New York City: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.
Bismuth-Jarrassé, Colette, and Dominique Jarrassé. Synagogues de Tunisie : monuments d'une histoire et d'une identité. Le Kremlin-Bicêtre: Editions Esthétiques du Divers, 2010.
City-Facts. “Majāz Al Bāb.” Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.city-facts.com/maj%C4%81z-al-b%C4%81b.
Commonwealth War Graves. “Medjez-El-Bab War Cemetery.” Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/47314/medjez-el-bab-war-cemetery/.
GCatholic.org. “Titular Episcopal See of Membressa, Tunisia.” Accessed July 13, 2021. http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1132.htm.
Hodgkin, Thomas. Italy and Her Invaders, vol. IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896.
Jewish Gen: The Global Home for Jewish Genealogy. “Medjez el-Bab, Tunisia.” Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-726754.
Trismegistos Geo. “Membressa (Medjez el-Bab).” Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.trismegistos.org/place/17337.
Further Reading
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z (2001), p. 804: “Medjez el-Bab.”
Pinkas HaKehilot, Libya-Tunisia (1997), p. 390: “Medjez el-Bab.”
Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942- 1943 (2002).
Synagogues de Tunisie:monuments d'une histoire et d'une identité (in French) (2010), p. 222.
Tunisia Trip Summer 2016 Photos Courtesy of Chrystie Sherman
Write up prepared by Chloe Seifert on July 24, 2021.