The first Jewish settlers to North Africa settled before the destruction of the First Temple in the 6th century BC. The ruins of an ancient synagogue dating back to the 3rd-5th century AD was discovered by the French captain Ernest De Prudhomme in Hammam-Lif in 1883. After the fall of the Second Temple, many exiled Jews settled in Tunis and engaged in agriculture, cattle-raising, and trade.

After Tunisia gained independence in 1956, a series of anti-Jewish government decrees were promulgated. In 1958, Tunisia’s Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and ancient synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish quarters were destroyed for “urban renewal.” The increasingly unstable situation caused more than 40,000 Tunisian Jews to immigrate to Israel. By 1967, the country’s Jewish population had shrunk to 20,000. During the Six-Day War, Jews were attacked by rioting Arab mobs, and synagogues and shops were burned. The government denounced the violence, and President Habib Bourguiba apologized to the Chief Rabbi. The government appealed to the Jewish population to stay, but did not bar them from leaving. Subsequently, 7,000 Jews immigrated to France.

In 1982, there were attacks on Jews in the towns of Zarzis and Ben Guardane, and in 1985, a Tunisian guard opened fire on worshipers in a synagogue in Djerba, killing five people, four of them Jewish. Since then, the government has sought to prevent further tragedy by giving Tunisian Jews heavy protection when necessary, particularly during Jewish holidays. Today, the Tunisian Jewish population comprises the country’s largest indigenous religious minority.

Despite heightened protection from the government, the political climate in Tunisia is uncomfortable for Jewish residents currently, with anti-semitic attacks and vandalism on the rise over the recent years. Over 100 Jewish gravestones have been plundered and desecrated since the beginning of 2013, and in May 2014 the Beith El synagogue in Tunisia was violently vandalized in an anti-semitic attack.