Death of the Grand Rabbi of Tunisia
Obituary/Article on the death of the Grand Rabbi of Tunisia, one of the last rabbis of a community of Jews living in an Islamic land.
(PRWEB) December 10, 2004 -- The Tunisian Jewish community lost their grand
rabbi on December 3, 2004 after a long battle with illness. Rabbi Haim Madar
passed away early in the morning at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Although buried in Jerusalem, services were also held at the Beit Mordekhai
Synagogue in La Goulette, Tunis, and the Ghriba Synagogue on the small island of
Djerba off the coast of Tunisia. Djerba is the city where Rabbi Madar lived for
most of his life, it is ten hours from Tunis where most Jews still live as they
have for centuries, surviving by metalworking and jewelry-making, maintaining
strict and spiritual Jewish practices.
Rabbi Madar was an “exceptional
figure” known both in Tunisia and throughout the world for his tremendous
knowledge of the Torah and Jewish law. He was also a skilled scribe who in his
younger days expertly manufactured Jewish ritual items such as tefillin and
mezuzot. He was the leading and most revered rabbi in the country whose Jewish
community is as old as the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem (586
BCE). The Jewish community of Tunisia has received over time an influx of
successive waves of immigration, mostly from Spain and Portugal at the times of
the Inquisition and then from Italy.
“The Grand Rabbi has left us after
a long and painful illness,” said a Tunisian Jewish community announcement
published in Arabic and French language newspapers. Tunisian President Zine el
Abidine Ben Ali sent his sympathy to the family of Rabbi Madar as well as sent a
message of condolences to Haim Bitan, Grand Rabbi of Djerba, in which he
conveyed to all members of the Tunisian Jewish community his sincere expression
of sympathy.
Today as many as 11 synagogues remain and the Jewish
population numbers between 500-1500. Most live in Tunis but some live in small
communities, mainly in Djerba, Sfax, Sousse and Nabeul. The Tunisian Jews are
quite religious and are free to practice as they wish. Yet, in the past they
faced many anti-Jewish acts. In the last few decades, a small but deadly number
of attacks have occurred. In 1985 four worshipers were murdered by local Arabs
inside the ancient synagogue and in 2002 a tanker truck used as a bomb crashed
into a wall next to the synagogue killing several tourists. Recognized to be
isolated attacks, not state sponsored, the Islamic government assures freedom of
worship to the Jewish community and even pays the salary of the Grand
Rabbi.
Annually in April, the Jewish community holds an international
pilgrimage on the holiday of Lag B'Omer to Djerba. As the centerpiece of Jewish
life in the country, the community looks forward to making this important
journey. Unfortunately, Rabbi Madar was unable to attend this year due to
illness. As the leader of the community, Rabbi Madar gained the respect of the
Muslim leadership, and on the occasion of this pilgrimage, Tunisian Minister for
Tourism, Abderrahim Zouari, addressed the pilgrims acknowledging that the
Tunisian Jews played an important role in “the construction of its culture and
its civilization.”
As late as 1946, Tunisia had 105,000 Jews. Today,
most Jews born between 1900-1950 live in France and Israel, immediately
departing North Africa after its Independence in 1956. In 1958, Tunisia's Jewish
Community Council was abolished by the government and ancient synagogues,
cemeteries and Jewish quarters were destroyed for “urban renewal.” Even so, the
Jewish community of Tunisia has gotten stronger and remains one of most
significant—and last— in the Arab world. Upon announcing the death of their
leader, the Tunisian Jewish community stated they had lost “a man of great piety
and great culture.”
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb187237.htm