Paul Sebag Prize 2023

The Society for the History of the Jews of Tunisia, wishing to pay tribute to the memory and work of Professor Paul Sebag, who played a fundamental role in the study and knowledge of the history of the Jews of Tunisia, and anxious to encourage academic research on the history of the Jews of Tunisia, has decided to create a prize to reward research on this subject carried out at a French or foreign university, whether a doctoral thesis or a Master 2 dissertation.

This prize rewards a distinguished piece of work on the basis of its quality, its originality and its contribution to knowledge of the history of the Jews of Tunisia.

It is intended to be awarded every two years to a laureate selected by a jury composed of academics appointed by the board of directors of the Society for the History of the Jews of Tunisia and a representative of Paul Sebag’s family.

For the 2022-2023 academic year, the jury, chaired by Mrs Mireille Hadas-Lebel, professor emerita at the Sorbonne, was composed of Catherine Nicault, professor emerita at the University of Reims, Valérie Assan, president of the French Commission for Jewish Archives, Dr Renée Sebag, and Claude Nataf, Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun and Jérémy Guedj, respectively president and vice-presidents of the SHJT.

The jury awarded the prize to Mrs Marie-Anne Guez of Panthéon-Sorbonne University for her thesis on « les Juifs de Tunisie dans l’armée française durant les deux guerres mondiales », a brilliant thesis already honoured with the International Prize for Military History. A special mention was awarded to Mrs Meriem Ben Mansour of the University of Tunis for her study of Michel Valensi’s novel, « l’Empreinte, une histoire sépharade d’exil ».

Our congratulations to the brilliant laureates, who will undoubtedly have fine careers in historical research; we hope that the Paul Sebag Prize will encourage young researchers in the future to explore this field of historical research that is North African Judaism.