Oldest Synagogue in the World

One of the weekend get-aways our little group of Arabic grad students took in Tunisia in the summer of 1976 was to the island of Djerba, right off shore from Tunis. We spent the weekend in a luxury beachfront hotel, listened to West African High Life (then very new and exotic to the Mediterranean coast), and, one afternoon, visited this synagogue. It is the oldest in the world, reportedly built right after the Second Temple was destroyed in AD 68 by the Romans. The Tunisian Jewish community, already being beseiged in 1976 by anti-Israel feeling, loved this synagogue. But in order to placate the European Jewish tourists, they installed pews and benches for the foreigners to sit on while worshipping. The locals preferred to sit on the many rugs spread around the room.

Djerba Synagogue Worshipper 1976 Originally uploaded by Michael Banister.