Member LoginMember Login - User registration - Setup as front page - Add to favorites - Sitemap Tunisian Jews scale back annual pilgrimage to ancient synagogue because of security concerns !

Tunisian Jews scale back annual pilgrimage to ancient synagogue because of security concerns

Time:2024-05-22 02:39:18 source:Culture Capsule news portal

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Jewish Tunisians who organize an annual pilgrimage to one of the world’s oldest synagogues are planning a scaled-down event next month, citing concerns about security less than a year after a deadly shooting there shook their community.

Thousands regularly make the journey to Djerba — the North African island where many of Tunisia’s remaining 1,500 Jews reside — to celebrate the Jewish holiday Lag B’Omer. But this year, the community has decided to limit them to the 26-century-old El-Ghriba synagogue instead of the island-wide events traditionally held.

“Those who come to visit are welcome and they can hold religious rituals, light a candle, inside the synagogue,” Perez Trabelsi, the head of the island’s Jewish community, told The Associated Press.

The decision comes more than six months into the Israel-Hamas war, which has reverberated throughout the Middle East and North Africa, inciting mass street protests from Morocco to Iraq. In Tunisia, most of the protests have been peaceful but in October, demonstrators desecrated a synagogue in Al-Hammah on the mainland.

Related information
  • Sophie Morgan suddenly quits ITV show Loose Women as she reveals plans for emigration
  • PICTURED: Mother
  • Chinese scientists invent ultrathin optical crystal for next
  • China's new
  • Tamara Ecclestone is criticised as her daughter Fifi, 10, heads out wearing heavy make
  • 2023 Beijing Culture Forum to be held
  • China launches construction of biomedical platform for disease research
  • Chinese researchers uncover secrets behind adult fireflies' light organs
Recommended content
  • Colton Herta shows speed as Honda fights back in penultimate Indy 500 practice session
  • OJ Simpson's brain will not be donated for CTE research, family spokesperson says
  • Scientists develop new artificial leaf
  • Medical brain
  • MPs' fury at 'virtue
  • Momofuku backs down from 'chile crunch' trademark war