Jews of Tunisia
Jews have lived in Tunisia for 2,000 years. During the Expulsion few Spanish Jews settled in Tunisia. Under Charles V, Spain occupied part of the Tunisian coast between 1535 and 1574, and abused those Jews who fell into their power.
In 1685 Jews from Livorno organised a community in Tunis. They held themselves superior to the established community and tended not to mix with them. These new settlers were know as the “Grana” in Arabic or Gorneyim (גורנים – derived from the Arabic for “from Leghorn”) in Hebrew. They wore wigs and spoke Spanish and Italian. The native Jews were called the “Touensa”, wore appropriate clothes, and spoke a dialect of Arabic. Both communities lived in the Hara (the Jewish quarter) but generally did not get on. A modus vivendi was not agreed between the two communities until 1741.
Red coral from the Tunisian coast was traded through the Sephardic network for diamonds from Golkonda in India.
A French protectorate was created in 1881. Jewish people were largely driven out of Tunisia after that country won independence from France in 1956. The majority of the community seem to have settled in France and Israel, and perhaps the genealogical societies in those countries are best positioned to help.
Genealogy of the Sephardic Jews of Tunisia
Three of the ten registers of Kettubot were rescued and, edited by Robert Attal and Joseph Avivi, republished in Israel by the Ben Tzvi Institute. The Registres matrimoniaux de la communaute Juive Portugaise de Tunis XVIII-XIX has been put online by Bob and Francine Cassuto.
A subsequent book, La communauté juive portugaise de Tunis dite livournaise ou Grana : registres matrimoniaux 1812-1844 et 1872-1881 (avec notices généalogiques) by Gilles Boulu & Alain Nedjar is available for sale from the Cercle de Généalogie Juive. They also have a number of publications covering the period of French rule in Tunisia.
I am aware of a book by Paul Sebag entitled Les noms des Juifs de Tunisie, but haven’t seen it. It was published in Paris in 2002. Harissa.com, the French-language Tunisian-Jewish website.
French civil records from Tunisia are now in the Archives nationales d’outre-mer.
Travel Report on the Jews in Tunis, 1818
Extract of a Letter from Dr Cleardo Naudi of Malta to the Rev. C. S. Hawtrey, June 20, 1818, printed in the The eleventh report of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.
He reports that there were around 12,000 Jews in Tunis, divided between the Leghorn [Livorno] Jews and Tunesian (sic) Jews. Tunis had been the main African market for French goods during the Napoleonic Wars, and the Jewish community had done well. There was little interaction between the two communities and the Livornese looked down on Tunisians.
“The first, or Leghornese, do not exceed the number of seven hundred. They are governed by three Parnassi or Massare, and like those of the Jews of Leghorn, are elective, and have no duties but such as related to their religious ceremonies. Their liturgy is that of the Spanish synagogue; they are for the most part natives of Tunis, and consider themselves the descendants of the exiled families of Spain during the persecutions in that kingdom. They wear the European dress, and those how have not the means of doing so wear the hat for distinction. They have no dealings with the Tunesian Jews, and, during a period of seven ages, they count but four inter-marriages – in an event of this nature taking place, the party is excluded from their synagogues, and considered as one who has degraded himself. – They have also a separate market. Corporal punishments seldom occur, as is daily the case with the Tunesian Jews. Theirs are generally of a pecuniary nature.”
They did not “consider” themselves the descendants of the exiled families of Spain. That is exactly what they were!
I like the idea of the poorer community members in Arab clothes and tricorn hats.
Jews of Djerba, Tunisia
The island of Djerba off the southern Tunisian coast has an ancient Jewish community. By tradition, some of the population arrived after the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Others are believed to descend from – apparently pre-1492 – Jewish refugees from persecution in the Iberian peninsula. As far as I know, there is no evidence of Sephardic ancestry, but maybe DNA research will eventually answer the question.
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