Tunisia

secular life

Most Jews on the island of Djerba are middle-class merchants, jewelers or shop-owners. Some, like Alex Haddad, operate in the tourist economy, selling handmade jewelry to visiting Europeans in little shops on the Houmt Souk street, Rue du Bizertes (the street of jewlers). Other Djerbans cater their business to the local community, such as Dolly Haddad, who runs the kosher Comlombe Blanc restaurant, and her husband Danny who owns an electronics business.

Secular life in Djerba is becoming more and more modern. Djerban youth may buy fresh herbs for their mothers each day from a cart drawn by a donkey, but they also have motor bikes, carry cell phones and are fluent in several languages. Most Djerban youth have the opportunity to travel and/or study abroad. Some have moved away for good to places like Israel or France. Other remain but have as much in common with the globe-trotting Northern European tourists who frequent the resorts on the coast as they do with their more traditional parents and grandparents.

tunisia | history | the setting | religious life | secular life
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