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Synagogue, Tamezret, Tunisia
Set like a jewel in the desert of southern Tunisia amongst the undulating and desolate landscape sits the small Berber village of Tamezret. The village clinging on to several steep slopes of the Matmata Mountains looks out across the sea of hills to a mirage of the northern line of the Sahara. Only the white of a few houses and the bright blue outlining of the doors and windows stands out against the ocher hue of the surrounding environment. The houses crowd around each other and form the town’s narrow, steep, and sunny streets [1]. A small path between the houses takes you to one of the most beautiful community complexes preserved in Tunisia, the synagogue of Tamezret.
Description
The Jewish Synagogue of Tamezret
It is difficult to date the synagogue and also challenging to determine whether it was original or a residence that had been dug out previously and converted into a synagogue [2]. Southern Tunisian Jews considered the synagogue holy, and visited it on Passover and Sukkot [3]. The synagogue (or whatever its previous function) was built partly underground (the area of the hekhal gallery) and partly in drystone (the entrance). The synagogue is beautifully preserved, with arcades, two baths carved into the rock, the rabbi’s house, and outbuildings, all in whitewashed stone integrated into the surrounding environment [4]. The synagogue is currently still in use [5].
History of Tamezret
Tamezret or Tamazrat (Arabic: تامزرط) is a small Berber village located in the Gabès Governorate of southeastern Tunisia about 10 kilometers from Matmata and 40 kilometers southwest of the capital of the governorate of Gabès. The town’s name comes from mazra, meaning “I see” in Berber, which refers to the strategic position of the village, built on the four slopes of one of the highest hills in the Matmata Mountains around the 10th century [6]. In the past, Tamezret was an essential stopover on the caravan route leading travelers to the nearby town of Matmata [7]. The village is part of the network of historical troglodyte villages (or cave dwellings) in southern Tunisia, built as fortified villages (ksar or qsar, Maghrebi Arabic: قصر ) for defense [8]. Throughout the village, each house is connected to its neighbors by horizontal and vertical tunnels for further defense and protection [9]. In the late 19th century, Matmata became Tamezret’s commercial center and Gabès its spiritual center [10]. Today, the village life and economy revolves around herding and selling wooden shawls (bakhnoughs) [11]. The entire population of Tamezret speaks Matmata Berber, a Zentai Berber dialect speakers call Tmaziɣṯ or Eddwi nna (meaning “our speech”) [12].
Demography
The Jewish community of Tamezret dates from the end of the 19th century, although Algerian responsa indicated a Jewish presence in the 13th-14th centuries. Jews lived among the Matmata in Tamezret, although the community was small, never exceeding more than seven families. It is noted that the Jewish population lived in caves and earned their living as tailors and petty tradesmen in the area. In 1942, Germans took the town. The Jews provided them with food and goods, but were not forced into labor. Following liberation (1943) and the beginning of Israel’s War of Independence, relations with the Arabs became strained, prompting 39 Jews (five families) in 1952 to emigrate to Israel [13]. Currently, there is no Jewish population in Tamezret.
Sources
Footnotes
1. Giovanna Magi and Patrizia Fabbri, “Tamezret,” in Art and History: Tunisia (Italy: Casa Editrice Bonechi, 2008): 100.
2. Dominique Jarrassé, “Synagogues in the Islamic World,” in A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day, ed. Abdelwahab Meddeb andBenjamin Stora (Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013): 918.
3. “Tamezret,” The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z, ed. Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder (New York: New York University Press, 2001): 1287.
4. Jarrassé, “Synagogues in the Islamic World,” 918.
5. 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): 100-115.
6. “Cave dwelling and the world of the ksour of southern Tunisia (in French)” UNESCO, October, 1, 2020, http://whc.unesco.org/fr/listesindicatives/6444/; “Guide du Routard Tunisia 2021 (in French),” Routard (France: Hachette Tourism, 2021): 329; “Tamezret,” Archiqoo, accessed July 18, 2021, https://archiqoo.com/locations/tamezret_tunisia.php.
7. “Guide du Routard Tunisia,” Routard, 329.
8. “Tamezret,” Archiqoo, accessed July 18, 2021, https://archiqoo.com/locations/tamezret_tunisia.php.
9. “Guide du Routard Tunisia,” Routard, 329.
10. “Tamezret,” The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z, 1287.
11. Daniel Jacobs, The Rough Guide to Tunisia (United Kingdom: Rough Guides Limited, (n.d.)): 385.
12. “Tamezret (Tunisie) et son Dialecte Berbere (in French),” Atmazret, October 14, 2010, http://atmazret.nexgate.ch/.
13. “Tamezret,” The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z, 1287.
Bibliography
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.
“Cave dwelling and the world of the ksour of southern Tunisia (in French).” UNESCO. October, 1, 2020. http://whc.unesco.org/fr/listesindicatives/6444/
“Guide du Routard Tunisia 2021 (in French).” Routard. France: Hachette Tourism, 2021.
Jacobs, Daniel. The Rough Guide to Tunisia. United Kingdom: Rough Guides Limited, (n.d.)).
Jarrassé, Dominique. “Synagogues in the Islamic World.” In A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013.
Magi, Giovanna, and Patrizia Fabbri. “Tamezret.” In Art and History: Tunisia. Italy: Casa Editrice Bonechi, 2008.
“Tamezret,” Archiqoo. Accessed July 18, 2021. https://archiqoo.com/locations/tamezret_tunisia.php.
“Tamezret.” In The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
“Tamezret (Tunisie) et son Dialecte Berbere (in French).” Atmazret. October 14, 2010. http://atmazret.nexgate.ch/.
Further Reading
Dominique Jarrassé, “Synagogues in the Islamic World,” in A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day (2013), 918.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z (2001), p. 1287: “Tamezret.”
Write up prepared by Chloe Seifert on July 24, 2021.