A four-day stay in Tunis, organised by our Society and attended by 25 of our members, took place from Monday 27 May to Thursday 30 May 2019.
This trip had a twofold objective:
– to take part in a research seminar with Tunisian historians and students, and
– to discover or revisit certain historic places and sites, with guidance enabling us to better situate them within the city's history and their social function.
Monday 27 May
Shortly after our arrival and check-in at the hotel, we visited two emblematic sites of memory of Tunisian Judaism:
– the Great Synagogue on Avenue de la Liberté (formerly Avenue de Paris), and
– the Borgel necropolis, a site once on the outskirts and now fully part of the city of Tunis.
These two visits were special moments of contemplation and prayer for some of us, but they also allowed us to place the construction and development of these sites within the history of the community and to reflect on the intentions of their founders.
We continued on our way to La Marsa, where we were fortunate to receive historical explanations about the town from Abdelkrim Allagui, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Letters of Tunis, who showed us around the Al Abdalliya Palace, a palace built in 1500 by the Hafsid ruler Abu Abdallah Muhammad, recently restored and the only surviving example of civil architecture from the Hafsid period.
Tuesday 28 May
The seminar was held in the morning. It was organised by three parties:
– the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC), a French research centre in the humanities and social sciences under the CNRS and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, headquartered in Tunis and one of the 27 French research centres located abroad,
– the Heritage Laboratory of the University of Manouba, and
– our Society, the SHJT.
We were warmly welcomed at the premises of the IRMC by its director, a friend of our Society, and her team. Before a large audience of Tunisian researchers and students, the six speakers (Dean Kazdaghli, Afef Mbarek, Faten Bouchrara, Thierry Samama, Claire Rubinstein and Claude Nataf) addressed various topics in the history of the Jews of Tunisia; there were stimulating exchanges among the participants and avenues for future research were identified.
The afternoon was devoted to Carthage, where a fascinating tour led by a specialist in ancient history from the University of Manouba took us from the Byrsa hill and the Punic remains to the sites of the Tophet of Salammbô, the Punic Ports and the Roman Cisterns.
A Ramadan-style evening brought us together at our hotel, where we hosted those who had helped make our trip possible, as well as professors and students from Manouba. Mr René Trabelsi, Minister of Tourism in the Tunisian government, honoured us with his presence, and we discussed our future work and our Society's next conference, to be held in December in Paris.
Wednesday 29 May
We visited the Villa Erlanger and then Dar El Annabi in Sidi Bou Saïd, with lunch and a sightseeing walk through the village. We were then the guests of Mr Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, French Ambassador, at the Residence in La Marsa, Dar El Kamila, where a guided tour of the gardens and reception rooms was arranged for us.
In the evening, after dinner in a traditional restaurant, we visited palaces and other historic places in the Medina, illuminated for Ramadan, guided by Mohamed Alouani, member of the Association for the Safeguarding of the Medina and president of the professional association for cultural tourism.
On Thursday 30 May in the morning, our guide Mohamed Alouani kindly organised a fascinating tour of the European city, where we admired listed buildings and protected façades.
A final lunch brought us together in a restaurant housed in an old colonial house in the Belvédère district, before our departure for the airport.
In conclusion, this trip to Tunis was a true discovery and took place in a friendly atmosphere that we all enjoyed.
It also fostered high-quality study and exchanges between Tunisian and French students and historians, paving the way for our next international conference, to be held in December 2019 in Paris on the theme:
“The Jews of the Maghreb Protectorates and France from the Late 18th Century to the Present Day”.
We look forward to seeing many of you there.
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