Hammamet, Saturday, June 27, 2015 (afternoon) Dedicated to my dear friend Jacqueline Fochtman, née Chaltiel (d. 2017) After a few hours spent reading, writing, and ruminating in my room, I decided to go back to the lobby. It was more spacious, and I could order another qahwa. As soon as I passed by the reception, the phone rang. It was Neïla. She wanted to know if I was comfortable. I assured her that everyone was friendly and that the staff was looking after me. And no, I was not going to leave the hotel that day. I had just sat down to open my messages, when hotel owner Mr. Sahbi M’barek came by. Highly educated, open-minded, mild, and generous, he represented the finest of Tunisian culture. Although most tourists had cancelled their reservations, he did not fire any of his staff. Instead, everybody was to focus on maintenance and general cleaning. Mr. Sahbi, as everyone calls him, was a native of Nabeul and naturally intrigued by my story. I mentioned that my father had opened two hotels in Sousse and one in Nefta before becoming executive director of a Belgian company that oversaw four hotels in Nabeul. Mr. Sahbi knew right away the company and the names of the hotels. Hearing that I was working on a project on Tunisian philosopher, historian, and sociologist Ibn Khaldoun (d. 1406) and that I was going to partner with colleagues at the University of Tunis, Mr. Sahbi recommended that I also visit the IBLA library in the capital. It was specializing on Arabic and other north-African languages, literature, history, and archaeology. The acronym stands for Institut des Belles-Lettres Arabes, an educational institution founded on the margins of the medina (old city) in Tunis by the Pères Blancs (called ‘White Fathers’ because of the color of their robes). When I inquired whether this Catholic order still operated in Tunisia, the hotel owner said ‘But of course!’ He himself had received his education at one of their schools. Realizing how knowledgeable he was in cultural matters, I then asked Mr. Sahbi about a tradition in his own city. ‘What about Sidi Ma‘awiyya? Are people still visiting the shrine and donating food to the poor on Thursdays?’ For all he knew that tradition was well and alive. He smiled when I said that I planned to perform the pilgrimage on the following Thursday. Then Mr. Sahbi asked me if I knew about the annual Jewish pilgrimage that takes place in Nabeul. The pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba always receives international attention. According to local tradition, the synagogue there still holds a stone that is said to have been brought from Jerusalem’s second temple in 586 B.C., which makes it Africa’s oldest Jewish community. But a Jewish holy site in Nabeul? That was news to me. Mr. Sahbi told me the story of Yacouv Slama who used to be the Chief Rabbi in Tunis and had died while visiting his daughter in Nabeul in the 18th c. His humble tomb was already a pilgrimage site until Rabbi Slama appeared in a dream to a Mardochée (Mordekai) Karila in the 1930s asking that a shrine be raised above his tomb. Karila complied, and the site developed into a more significant pilgrimage destination to which both Jews and Muslims used to flock hoping for an intercession and a blessing, called brakha in Hebrew and baraka in Arabic. Two sister-languages, one word. Mr. Sahbi went on and on talking about the achievements of Tunisian Jews in and out of the country. André Barouch had fought for independence from France alongside Habib Bourguiba, the country’s first and most-respected president, and joined his cabinet as minister of housing and urban development to help modernize Tunisia in 1956. The previous Chief Rabbi of France Joseph Sitruk (b. 1944) was a Tunisian, and Tunisian Jews were making major contributions to Jewish scholarship in Israel. I watched Mr. Sahbi as he was joyfully sharing with me all he knew about Tunisian Jews. It was as if he was referring to dear relatives. I asked him how many Jews were left in Nabeul. Apparently, on the eve of Tunisian independence over a thousand Jews lived there. They became less and less mostly after the Six-Day War (1967) and The Ramadan or Yom Kippur War (1973). Today, only four families with all together 20-25 members remain. Mr. Sahbi even knew the names of the Jewish families who had once lived in his native city. He enumerated them with great ease: Chiche (pronounced Shish), Cohen, Guez, Haddad, Hayyoun, Karila, Koscas, Mamou, Parient, Perez, Seror, Slama, and Uzan. The Jews of Nabeul did not live in separate quarters and were not confined to specific professions. Their synagogue was built near the Grand Mosque. Jewish and Muslim families visited each other, and mothers in the two communities were known to babysit each other’s children. Mr. Sahbi mentioned how his own mother once had an emergency and left him as an infant with her Jewish neighbor without thinking twice about it. They were all Tunisians and, as native Hawai‘ians would put it, children of the land. Just as I thought we had exhausted the subject, Ms. Sabeh Mezhoud, the hotel’s assistant manager joined us. She enthusiastically added that there was a Tunisian synagogue in Israel that was a source of great pride and a testament to north-Africa’s ancient legacy. I wasn’t sure what she meant until I got on the internet. In no time I found out that there was, indeed, a 4-storey synagogue built by a Tunisian Jew and holocaust survivor in Acre that was covered in and out by mosaics including the ceilings and the steps. The mosaics illustrate the entire Jewish history with its major figures, texts, artifacts, rituals and maps as well as all of God’s creation. Like an encyclopedia made of millions of tiny stones. Not surprisingly, it took 54 years to complete. After I commented on the presence of figurative art in a synagogue, Ms. Mezhoud said 'What do you expect, it was designed by a Tunisian.' I guess that said it all. Tunisians, whether Muslims or Jews, have a mind of their own. When I went to sleep at the end of that day, I felt I had been on a journey without ever having left my hotel. Some useful websites: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/18/ghriba-synagogue_n_5348350.html http://livingandwritinginisrael.blogspot.com/2011/08/devotedly-decorated-synagogue-in-acre.html http://www.harissa.com/D_celebres/celebres.htm (This site lists accomplished Tunisian Jews, whether they are in or out of the country. I haven’t seen any other Muslim country maintain such a list.)
2 Comments
3/4/2019 01:52:49 am
There are so many projects where you are involved in. Well, this is quite challenging on your part since you are now carrying a bigger responsibility as you get the chance to so these projects with people who are known already in the industry where you also work in. Working with different philosophers and writers is indeed a chance that you should not miss; that's why I understand that you grabbed that chance. When you reached the hotel, I understand why you felt that way.
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10/6/2022 04:53:11 am
Property call admit authority fire blood. Single really week leader start.
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