Kosher and Jewish Life in Tunis

The history of the Jews in Tunisia goes back to the Punic era between the dates of 7th to 3rd centuries BCE. As of 2011, 700 Jews were living in Tunis and 1,000 on the island of Djerba. A tradition among the descendants of the first Jewish settlers was that their ancestors settled in that part of North Africa long before the destruction of the First Temple in the 6th century BCE. The ruins of an ancient synagogue dating back to the 3rd-5th century CE was discovered by the French captain Ernest De Prudhomme in his Hammam-Lif residence in 1883. In the 7th century CE, the Jewish population was augmented by Spanish immigrants, who, fleeing from the persecutions of the Visigothic king Sisebut and his successors, escaped to Mauritania and settled in Byzantine cities. The Jewish community in Tunis operates three primary schools, two secondary schools and a yeshiva. The Jewish community in Djerba operates one kindergarten, two primary schools, two secondary schools and a yeshiva. There is also a Jewish primary school and synagogue in the coastal city of Zarzis. The Jewish community also has two homes for the aged and several kosher restaurants. Tunisia's first Jewish museum opened in 2012.