Programme of the SHJT International Conference, 16-18 April 2023

SHJT International Conference

Jews and the Law in Tunisia
– from the Protectorate to Independence (1881-1956) –
Between Historical Progress and Religious Resilience

Monday 17 April 2023

9:45 am

OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE

First session
10 am – 12 pm

GENERAL PERSPECTIVES: THE LEGAL AND
RELIGIOUS STATUS OF THE JEWS OF TUNISIA THROUGH THE PRESS, JOURNALS AND WRITINGS

Chaired by:
Habib KAZDAGHLI
Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Arts of Manouba (Tunisia)

« Les Israélites de Tunisie : leur condition civile et politique », by Jacques Chalom (1907): an attempt at a political and cultural reading
Jérémy Guedj
Université Côte d’Azur

Legal norms and religious order in the journal « La Tunisie judiciaire »
Abdelkrim Allagui
University of Tunis

The Jewish press in Tunisia as an expression and a driver of modernisation
Haïm Saadoun
Open University of Israel

Second session
2 pm – 3:30 pm

JEWS FACING MODERNITY: HASKALAH AND FRENCH INFLUENCE

Chaired by:
Jean-Louis HALPÉRIN
Professor, Université Paris-Nanterre

The Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic Haskalah in Tunisia: an attempt at an assessment
Joseph Chétrit
University of Haifa

The lawyers of Tunisia and the extension of the jurisdiction of the French courts before the First World War: cross perspectives
Jean-Marcel Nataf
C.F.J.T

The influence of the French presence in Tunisia on the activity of the Rabbinical Court under the authority of Chief Rabbi Israël Zittoun (1898-1921)
Yuval Haruvi
Tel Aviv University

Third session
4 pm – 5:30 pm

A TURNING POINT AND A CIVILISATIONAL CHOICE FOR THE JEWS OF TUNISIA: NATIONALITY, NATURALISATION, IDENTITY, JURISDICTIONS
Chaired by:
Jean-Claude KUPERMINC
Director of the Library of the Alliance Israélite Universelle

Granting French nationality and changing jurisdiction in interwar Tunisia: the case of the French naturalisation of Tunisian Jews
Jihane Ben Salah
EHESS-ENS

The nationality of Jews in colonial Tunisia: French law and rabbinic law
Jessica Marglin
University of Southern California (USC)

From one tricolour to another? The French naturalisation of the Italian Jews of Tunisia: legal and social trajectories (1881-1956)
Martino Oppizzi
École française de Rome

Tuesday 18 April 2023
Fourth session
9:45 am – 11:45 am

OPENINGS: INDEPENDENCE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Chaired by:
Joseph CHÉTRIT
Honorary Vice-Rector of the University of Haifa

A reasoned reading from a tormented memory: Charles Haddad’s recollections of the years of transition in the status of the Jewish community in Tunisia (1954-1958)
Habib Kazdaghli
University of Manouba (Tunisia)

The organisation of Jewish worship in Tunisia during the colonial period and its evolution from 1958
Afef Mbarek
University of Manouba (Tunisia)

On the extension of the Code of Personal Status to Tunisian women of the Jewish faith
Faten Bouchrara
University of Manouba (Tunisia)

The abolition of rabbinical jurisdiction and the dissolution of community bodies
decided in Tunisia after independence: a political will to integrate a religious minority through law?
Claude Nataf
S.H.J.T.

11:45 am – 12:15 pm

CLOSING SESSION

Concluding report:
Rémy Scialom
Aix-Marseille University