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| Two Jewish girls on the beach in Tunis, Tunisia. "Jeune filles Juives" by Neurdein freres taken between 1860 and 1890. The girl on the right appears in the photo below, too. (Credit: Unless otherwise marked, pictures are from the Carpenter Collection, Library of Congress) |
In the 1940s the Jewish population in the Arab world numbered over one million families. They were integrated into their societies, over 2,500 years, although over history they were often subjected to religious persecution, violence and even pogroms. Some Jewish families were wealthy and owned considerable property.
Today, perhaps only one percent of that 1947 Jewish population remains in the Arab countries.
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| Postcard of Mother and daughter on Tunisia shore. "The woman’s robes and conical headdress are representative of the traditional dress of Jewish Tunisian women during the early 20th century." The woman also appears in the photo below. (credit: Yeshiva University Museum) |
Researchers for the Israel Daily Picture, searching through the Library of Congress/American Colony archives, unexpectedly came across 19th century pictures of some of these extinct or vanishing Jewish communities.
We present here pictures from the Tunisian Jewish community which numbered over 100,000 in 1948. Today, there are an estimated 1,500 Jews in Tunisia with two-thirds living on the island of Djerba.
The photos in the Carpenter collection of the Library of Congress were "produced and gathered by Frank G. Carpenter (1855-1924) and his daughter Frances (1890-1972) to illustrate his writings on travel and world geography," the Library explains.
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| Jewish woman on Tunisia shore, possibly on the island of Djerba. She appears to be the same woman in the photo from the Yeshiva University Museum. Is she holding a baby in both photos? (Jewish Postcard Collection) |
We came across a picture in Yeshiva University's Museum of a mother and daughter on a beach in Tunisia presented here. The Museum dated the picture from the early 20th century, but the girl is clearly the same girl in the Library of Congress picture above, photographed decades earlier.
View an incredible collection of antique postcards from Tunisia in Stephanie Comfort'sJewish Postcard Collection. The hand-colored picture of a young Tunisian woman is just one example of the amazing photos in the collection.
In the Comfort collection we also discovered another photo of a woman on a beach who appears to be the same woman in the Yeshiva University photo above. Comfort identifies the photo as taken on the island of Djerba. The woman appears to be holding a baby under her gown in both pictures. If the three photos are from a series of the same family, they were taken between 1860 and 1900 by the Neurdein brothers of France.
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| Young Tunisian Jewish woman. The picture was hand-colored. (circa 1900) (Jewish Postcard Collection) |
In the Comfort collection we also discovered another photo of a woman on a beach who appears to be the same woman in the Yeshiva University photo above. Comfort identifies the photo as taken on the island of Djerba. The woman appears to be holding a baby under her gown in both pictures. If the three photos are from a series of the same family, they were taken between 1860 and 1900 by the Neurdein brothers of France.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Below is a listing of some of the photo essays we posted in the past on vanishing or extinct Jewish communities. Click on the city to view the posting:
Jews of Aleppo
Jews of Alexandria
Jews of Constantinople
Jews of Damascus
Jews of Kifl, Iraq (Ezekiel's Tomb)
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| Tunisian Jewish Karouby Family (Jewish Postcard Collection) |
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| Tunisian Jewish couple (circa 1900) |
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| Keeners, hired mourners, at Jewish cemetery in Tunis (circa 1920) |
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| Two Jewish women in Tunisia (1900-1923) |
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I am self publishing a book. Could I use the picture above in it, if I reference your wonderful page? Young Tunisian Jewish woman. The picture
ReplyDeletewas hand-colored. (circa 1900)