Religious tolerance flourishes on Tunisia's Djerba Island

2008-06-06

On Djerba Island, Muslim and Jews attend the same school and a Muslim woman supervises a Greek Orthodox church. This spirit of coexistence and tolerance earned Djerba the title of "Island of Dreams".

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 06/06/08

[Jamel Arfaoui] Jewish and Muslim schoolboys study and play together at the Essouani School on the Tunisian Island of Djerba, where religious co-existence is the norm.

Eliza Wazzen was playing in the middle of the school yard with her cousin Gael and friend Ahlam Chehibi when scores of visitors appeared. The children didn't understand anything about what was going on around them or why all these strangers were taking pictures. For Eliza and her friends, Essouani School in Houmt Souk is where they go to learn, but to the Jewish pilgrims visiting Djerba Island and the journalists documenting their trip, it is a truly unique and extraordinary place.

Essouani School is the only school in Tunisia where Jewish and Muslim students study together. Their different religions do not prevent them from taking the same classes in sciences, arts and history. Students sit side by side and receive the same classes—except on Saturday.

Saturday is the sacred day for the Jews. For this reason, the school management organised the class calendar to accommodate the needs of the two groups. On Saturdays, Muslim students attend Islamic education lessons while their Jewish classmates attend classes on religion at a Jewish school in Djerba's Al Haret Al Kabira.

"We wanted to send a message that divine religions have nothing to do with what's going on in the world in terms of conflicts and rejections of others," says Zeinab Jandali, an inspector in primary education. The government school, she continues, is "an example of fraternity and co-existence". In the minds of the students, she says, "there are no ethnic or religious motives".

"All of them are Tunisians, and children's innocence brought them together," she adds.

Britain's chief rabbi, touring the school as part of the Djerba pilgrimage, comments softly, "They are practicing co-existence without speaking about co-existence. My hope is to one day see all the schools of the world move on the same track."

The school, which was built in 1974, includes 480 students, 120 of whom are Jewish. Djerba Island itself is home to the majority of Tunisia's Jews.

According to Gabriel Kabla, a Jewish physician born in Djerba who now lives in France, "Tunisia is the only country in which the number of Jews is increasing." Last year, there were 900 on the island. Today, there are 1080.

Jews came to Tunisia for the first time in the 6th century BC, when Babylonian King Nebuchadrezzar expelled them after destroying their first temple. Tunisian Jews were given protection by rulers and religious leaders such as Sidi Mehrez Ben Khalef, to whom Tunisians built a shrine they visit to this day.

The Jewish population also received protection from Tunisian citizens during World War II, especially after the Nazi Army invaded. Even now, people tell stories about their grandfathers' heroism.

Last year, the Yad Vashem Institute for Jewish Victims of the Holocaust honoured a resident of Tunisia's coastal areas for his heroic defiance of the Nazis by concealing Jewish children in his home.

Today, Jews on Djerba Island live alongside Muslims in the large and small haret, two open districts.

[Getty Images] Two Israeli rabbis walk in one of Djerba's open districts. One local resident said Djerba "deserves to be called the Island of Tolerance".

"It's true that the tourism people call Djerba Island the Island of Dreams, but I think it deserves to be called the Island of Tolerance," says Habib Ben Younes, a man in his sixties. "It included, and still includes, different religions and sects, such as Sunnis, Shiites, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Jews," he adds.

Numerous stories detail Tunisia's co-existence with its Jewish population. Gabriel Kabla tells Magharebia that three female students from Djerba Island went to the President in the early 1990s and asked him for a special favour. The timing of the baccalaureate exams coincided with a sacred day for the Jews. The students' request to reschedule the bac was met and one of them now works as an advisor for a French ministry.

On Djerba today—more than a decade later—educator Farida Rajbani keeps a calendar of Jewish holidays in her office in order to respect Jewish students' religious events and schedule their exams accordingly.

The people of the island also share their religious events and exchange gifts. Mrs. Miriam, a lady in her 70s, recounts how during Jewish Passover receives meshabek cakes, sweets, and chicken stuffed with eggs and meat.

Every year, the island's Gharbia Synagogue is visited by thousands of Jewish pilgrims from around the world, including Israel. Although the two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, Israeli Jews who hail from Tunisia can return to Tunisia without any obstacles.

During the last pilgrimage, Perez Trabelsi expressed his hope that Tunis and Tel Aviv would open a direct air link to accommodate the pilgrimage to the Gharbia Synagogue, "so that we may see at least 20 thousand visitors". More than 6,000 Jews came to the island for this year's celebrations in May, including 1,500 from Israel. Most of them were born in Tunisia.

Home to 338 mosques, 39 synagogues and both Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, the island's religious diversity is legendary. The Orthodox Church is exemplary, not only because of its decorations and ancient architecture, but also because it is supervised by a Muslim woman.

When you arrive at the church's main gate, you see her: the church's protector. Om Moubaraka is a slim woman with a wrinkled face which tells you her age. Her countenance, which hints at a passionate youth years gone by, offers comfort. When Moubaraka was widowed more than 25 years ago, she inherited the church from her Greek husband.

She has taken care of it ever since.

She takes pride in being a Muslim, and holds no embarrassment in taking care of a Christian church, which, according to her, is like a part of her own flesh. "It is a part of me because it is the dearest thing left to me by my husband, and I'm proud of that," she says.

"I respect all religions," she adds. "Everyone is free to choose whatever religion they like as long as they don't attack others. All divine religions teach us that."