On the island of Djerba, a chassid from Williamsburg discovered that time and place don’t separate

It’s a 198-square-mile island located in the Mediterranean Sea’s Gulf of Gabes, known for its date orchards, white sandy beaches, and sweeping deserts, hardly a likely location for a Satmar chassid in his twenties from Williamsburg to spend Purim. But when Moshe Klein found himself in North Africa in mid-Adar, the idea of spending Purim in Djerba, whose Jewish community is believed to have been established during the time of Churban Bayis Rishon, was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

Island of Tradition

Moshe Klein has a passion for documenting historic Jewish communities, both well-known and obscure, as well as those that live on only in the history books. His fascination with the past brings him to far-lung locales, and he uses these opportunities to lecture and strengthen the Jewish presence in the cities he visits. He’s visited Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, Kosovo, Thailand, Qatar, and even the United Arab Emirates, before the recent peace agreement made it the latest hot travel destination. A March 2020 foray to North Africa had Klein, his wife Esther, and two business associates considering celebrating Purim in France, but there was something about Djerba that called his name.

A rare pocket of staunch Judaism in a region dominated by Muslims, Djerba has the only Jewish community in an Arab country that is actually increasing in size. It has a long, illustrious history, dating back to Churban Bayis Rishon. According to the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, the construction of Djerba’s historic El Ghriba shul is said to include a door and a stone from the First Beis Hamikdash, salvaged by a group of exiled Kohanim who escaped to the island.

The kehillah, which is believed to have an unusually large concentration of Kohanim, but few, if any, Leviim among its population of 1,000, boasts several yeshivos, multiple shuls, a handful of kosher eateries, and a commercial matzah bakery, with the vast majority of its population employed in some aspect of the jewelry business. Chillul Shabbos is unheard of, kashrus is universally observed, and the entire community is fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. Djerba is also well known for its multiday Lag B’omer pilgrimages that have hundreds of visitors flocking to the island’s shuls, with women bringing kvittlach written on eggs to El Ghriba in the hopes of meriting a yeshuah.

The community shares a relatively peaceful coexistence with its Muslim neighbors, though like any other Jewish area, Djerba has seen its share of sorrow. Simchas Torah in 1985 turned tragic when a Tunisian guard at El Ghriba opened fire on mispallelim, killing five, and 21 people died in April 2002 when an Al Qaeda terrorist detonated a tanker truck full of propane gas outside El Ghriba. Still, Djerban Jews live in relative safety and when the Arab Spring began in 2011, locals erected metal barriers to protect the Jewish community, with police presence around the kehillah remaining in place today.

Given Djerba’s fascinating past and its present reputation as a Torah-true community in the unlikeliest of places, Klein wasn’t about to pass up a chance to spend Purim on the historic island once he was already nearby. Placing a reservation at a nearby hotel, Klein embarked on a Purim odyssey, spanning the 4,500-mile distance between Williamsburg and Tunisia and giving him an appreciation for a community that still clings to traditions that are centuries old.