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Synagogue, Gabès (Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs, Gaps, ڨابس), Tunisia

Description

History of Gabès

Gabès (also spelled Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs, and Gaps) (Arabic: قابس) is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate and the 6th largest city in Tunisia [1]. Situated on the Gulf of Gabes (the Little Syrte), 404 kilometers (251 miles) south of Tunis and 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Gafsa, it is the last major port city in southern Tunisia before the Libyan frontier [2]. The current city is a conglomeration of four smaller towns: two ancient oases, Menzel and Djara; New Djara, dating from the end of the Arab conquest; and the port El-Bihar [3]. Founded by the Phonecians and valorized by the Romans who called the city Tacapa, Gabès was in ancient times a key merchant port with strategic importance. Rediscovered and refounded by the Arabs in the 7th century, the city became one of the most industrious and active commercial and industrial centers in the entire Mediterranean well into the 16th century. During the Middle Ages the town was also a way-station on the caravan route across southern Tunisia. The economy of Gabès during this time was based on trade and agriculture, benefiting from the town’s location by the sea and its connections to the interior. Agricultural export centered on palm tree cultivation and the production of henna, with alfalfa farms and the paper industry also being very important [4]. Under the French, Gabès became the key garrison point of the south, and both a massive fort and port area were built in the area [5]. After the destruction of World War II by the Allied bombings, the city’s commercial fortune survived unaltered. Today, Gabès is still known for its active, busy port and markets crowded with buyers and stocked with goods.  

History of the Jewish Community

Under Arab rule (7th century) the Jewish population of Gabès were farmers and manufacturers—weaving silk and exporting cloth to Sicily, the Orient, and the interior of Africa—they gained considerable wealth as a result of this trade [6]. The Ibn Jāmiʿ family excelled at building construction, and many Jews engaged in real estate [7]. During the Middle Ages the town was also an important Jewish intellectual and religious center, whose academy was of comparable importance to that of Kairouan [8]. Two of the most important rabbis of the town during this time were Abraham el-Qābsī and Abraham ben Moses Ibn Jāmiʿ (both of the 9th century). After the incursions by the Normans of Sicily (1117, 1147) the Jewish community was destroyed by the Almohads in 1159. During the following centuries, the Jewish population lived in peace, most of them engaging in commerce (wood, cloth, and jewelry). However, the community never returned to the importance it held during the Middle Ages.

Little is known of the Jews of Gabès until the French redeveloped the ports of central and southern Tunisia in the nineteenth century. In 1909 the French protectorate established a Committee of Aid and Charity (Comité d’Aide et d’Assistance) to oversee Jewish life in the town. The rabbis of Gabès took a favorable view of Zionism in the early to mid-nineteenth century, however, there was no organized Zionist movement until after World War I, when the first Zionist association HerutSion (Freedom of Zion) was founded. After World War II, Zionism began to play a more important role in the Jewish community of Gabès. Jewish-Muslim relations were relatively good, however, one notable exception was the 1941 Gabès riot, a three-day wave of anti-Jewish violence. Whether an isolated incident or a sign of increasing tensions among the communities, the riot made an impact on the collective memory of the Jewish community. An Alliance Israélite Universelle school was never opened in Gabès because of the opposition of the rabbis in Djerba, who had considerable influence in Gabès, which formed the periphery of Djerb’s influence. The community, which numbered about 3,200 prior to World War II, suffered under German occupation (1942-1943). Following the war, most Jews emigrated to France and Israel [9].

Demography

Benjamin II, who visited Tunisia between 1853 and 1854, estimated that one hundred Jewish families were living in Gabès, and noted that the Jews resembled Arabs in dress and customs. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, many notables and rabbis of the Jewish community had come from Djerba. Just after World War II, in 1946 the Jewish population comprised 18.2 percent of the total population, marking the highpoint of the community there. Postwar economic turmoil and the establishment of the State of Israel led to a mass immigration of the Gabès Jewish community to Israel. Only about 200 Jewish families still lived in Gabès in 1970 [10]. Currently, there are no longer any Jews in Gabès [11].  

Gabes, Tunisia

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