Last week Egyptian Sheikh Wajdi Ghonim, during a visit to Tunis, addressed an audience of 7,000 gathered at a stadium located in one of the Tunisian capital's poorest neighborhoods. The Muslim audience shouted antisemitic slurs, such as "death to the Jews" and "the Messiah's legion has set out."
In a video published online, a Tunisian attorney says the police cut short the speech by the Egyptian guest due to the danger of serious clashes between the Islamicists inside and a group of 500-700 moderate secularists gathered outside. The anti-Jewish demonstration joins a string of similar events that took place during the visit by Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to Tunisia in early January.
During the Arab Spring, Israeli Minister Silvan Shalom said that all Tunisia Jews should move to Israel to ensure their personal safety. Hundreds of thousands of Jews once made their home in North Africa and the Middle East before the founding of the State of Israel. The suggestion that the small remaining Jewish communities should disband has not been hailed by the Jews themselves.
In a small family kitchen on the northern outskirts of Tunis, a good-natured, moustached man advanced in years puts the finishing touches on a chocolate mousse. The range of Middle East and Mediterranean foods does not differ from any other restaurant, but a close look at the faded photos covering the walls shows family events and joyous moments in a community that is just a tiny remnant of what it once was.
Yaakov Laloush runs the country's last kosher restaurant. He is proud of both his Jewish and Tunisian heritage. He says the two identities do not contradict one another or create any problem. He claims he does not feel any pressure to leave his homeland, and even ran as an independent liberal in the historic elections held in October.
"Where would I go, to Europe? Come on, I'm not stupid. To Israel? Same thing," Yaakov told a BBC reporter as he prepared the restaurant for opening. "It's important that a Jew can run for elections here, but it's not a problem. Nobody really cares."
The majority of the Jewish community lives on the southern resort island of Djerba, which has a famous ancient synagogue called El Ghriba that has been in continuous use since the first century A.D. Mostly elderly Jews continue to buttress the small kehilloh in Tunis, praying at the large central synagogue in the center of the city. This beis knesses was built in the 1930s when the Jewish population in the country numbered 100,000. Today the building still stands tall and proud, with fabulous interior furnishings. But nowadays it's hardly in use; services are held in a small adjacent room.
Armed guards stand at the entrance to the synagogue and the occasional threats are taken very seriously. The Jews try to remain optimistic. The kehilloh that has survived for thousands of years and has all intentions of persevering is now hoping the country will become more tolerant and stable, and is even encouraging Jews who left to return.
