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Bet Yaakov Synagogue at Tunis, Tunisia
The Bet Yaakov Synagogue of Tunis is a modest building on a narrow, pleasant little street, la Rue de Loire, in the center of Tunis. The Synagogue lies flush with the rest of the buildings on the street, and distinguishes itself as a religious site only by a decorative Star of David on its facade, and a Hebrew inscription above the door, בית ׳עקב, Bet Yaakov. The inside of the building is similarly modest, and quite small, especially when compared to more grandiose Tunis synagogue constructions like the Great Synagogue of Tunis, consecrated in 1938. [1] The interior walls of the synagogue are thickly lined with framed portraits of respected ancient Rabbis, commemorations of events in Jewish history, and more. The wooden teba takes up a large portion of the room, but the tall building is made open and bright with tall ceilings and a women’s platform – an innovation for the time and place. [2]
Description
Bet Yaakov Synagogue of Tunis
According to architectural historians Colette Bismuth-Jarrassé and Dominique Jarrassé, the Bet Yaakov Synagogue is likely the oldest synagogue still extant in Tunis. The narrow white building was built some time between 1880 and 1890. [3] Much older synagogues were constructed, but all later destroyed. Historians of Tunisian Judaism explain this by noting that North African synagogues were often constructed of wood and bricks – weaker materials than the stone that often composed their European counterparts. [4]
The construction of the Synagogue was made possible by the contributions of Chalom Cohen, who himself lived in a palatial home several blocks away, on La Rue de Paris. Around the time of the synagogue’s construction, in 1882, there were approximately 30,000 Jews in the city of Tunis. [5] These Jews of the late 1800s were passing from a period of upheaval and persecution into a period of relative autonomy, and the Bet Yaakov Synagogue is an architectural expression of this historical experience.
Throughout the 18th century, the Dhimmi status of Jews in Tunis was strongly felt – all the more so because of its inconsistent enforcement. At the end of the 18th century, Tunisian Bey Hemmuda ben Ali aggravated these conditions by denying Jews the ownership of real estate, a right which they had already previously possessed. [6] This act, and other conditions like it, made Jewish life in Tunis seem precarious – especially when it came to buildings like synagogues. Such conditions were gradually removed as Tunisia came under French rule. But even as Jewish freedom increased, anti-Jewish riots spasmed through Tunis in the wake of the Dreyfus Trial (1894-1905). [7] Due to these conditions, there was a Jewish trepidation about being overly visible. They often shrunk into their hâra, the ghetto, rather than risk becoming subjects of persecution.
But the Synagogue of Bet Yaakov was constructed on the eve of great change. Despite aforementioned tensions, the French Protectorate stil alleviated somewhat the persecution to which the Jews had intermittently been subject under Ottoman rule. [8] With the French came the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a French-language school system that offered fairly advanced education to children across North Africa and the Middle East. Its first school in Tunis opened in 1878, almost simultaneous with the consecration of Bet Yaakov. [9] Increasing educational opportunities, decreasing taxation and discrimination, and a Jewish communal unification through Zionist discussion all gave Jewish communities the courage to produce more visible and characteristically Jewish places of worship. The construction Synagogue of Bet Yaakov falls right in the midst of this great transformation, which would produce beautiful and elaborate synagogues across the Middle East for years to come.
Sources
Notes
[1] Diarna Heritage Mapping, “Great Synagogue at Tunis, Tunisia”, Selected Sites In Tunisia, http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/493/.
[2] Colette Bismuth-Jarrassé and Dominique Jarrassé, Synagogues de Tunisie: Monuments d’une Histoire et d’une Identité, (Paris: Éditions Esthétiques du Divers, 2010), 27.
[3] Ibid, 236.
[4] David Cassuto and Mohammad Gharipour, “Synagogues in the Islamic World”, in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Edited by Norman A. Stillman. 2010.
[5] Paul Sebag, Tunis: Histoire D’Une Ville, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998), 280.
[6] Jean-Pierre Allali, Annie Goldmann, Paul Sebag et al., eds. Les Juifs de Tunisie: Images et Textes. (Paris: Editions du Scribe, 1989), 70-71.
[7] Irit Abramski-Bligh, “Tunis”, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: S-Z, ed. Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder, et al. (New York: New York University Press, 2001), 1343.
[8] Paul Sebag, Tunis: Histoire D’Une Ville, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998), 324.
[9] Richard Parks, “Tunis”, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman. 2010.
Bibliography
Abramski-Bligh, Irit. “Tunis”, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: S-Z. Edited by Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder, et al. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Accessed July 15, 2018.
Allali, Jean-Pierre, Annie Goldmann, Paul Sebag, et al., editors. Les Juifs de Tunisie: Images et Textes. Paris: Editions du Scribe, 1989. Accessed July 15, 2018.
Bismuth-Jarrassé, Colette, and Dominique Jarrassé. Synagogues de Tunisie: Monuments d’une Histoire et d’une Identité. Paris: Éditions Esthétiques du Divers, 2010. Accessed July 15, 2018.
Cassuto, David and Mohammad Gharipour. “Synagogues in the Islamic World”, in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. 2010. Accessed July 19, 2018.
Diarna Heritage Mapping, “Great Synagogue at Tunis, Tunisia”, Selected Sites In Tunisia, http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/493/. Accessed July 20th 2018.
Parks, Richard. “Tunis”, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Edited by Norman A. Stillman. 2010. Accessed July 15, 2018.
Pinkerfeld, Jacob. The Synagogues of North Africa, or בתי–הכנסת באפריקה הצפונית. Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 1974. Accessed July 15, 2018.
Sebag, Paul. Tunis: Histoire D’Une Ville. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998. Accessed July 16th, 2018.
Written by Madeleine Turner, July 2018.
Photos Courtesy of Chyrstie Sherman, Summer 2016
