During a visit to a synagogue that had been bombed 10 years ago, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said Tunisia is committed to the security of its Jews and that they are equal citizens under the law.
In December 2011, the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia, a body elected to govern the country and draft a new constitution, elected Marzouki as the interim President of the Tunisian Republic.
Marzoukis visit was part of a ceremony to mark the 10-year anniversary of the 2002 Al Qaeda truck bombing attack on the El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba.
Some Jews in the country have been unsettled by demonstrations in Tunisia over the last three months in which ultra-conservative religious Salafi groups with alleged ties to Al Qaeda called on Muslims to kill or wage war against Jews.
Local Jewish community leaders applauded Marzoukis visit to the synagogue and said they were optimistic about the future of Tunisias 2,600-year-old Jewish community.
It is a blessing to live together as Tunisians. Muslims and Jews, our bonds challenge the hatred of the Salafists, said Perez Trabelsi, president of the El Ghariba Synagogue and the Jewish community of Hara Segira, Djerba.
The day-to-day living situation for Jews has not changed since the revolution, and we hope it will never change. We dont live in fear. I am sure the government will put an end to these hateful speeches that we have seen in videos, he aded
Relations between Tunisias educated and politically engaged citizens and the countrys 1,500 Jews have always been mutually beneficial. As long as there are Jews in the world there will be Jews in Tunisia, said Jacob Lellouche, owner of the only kosher restaurant in the Tunisian capital.
But more than a year after Tunisia became the first Arab country to overthrow its dictator through a popular, nonviolent uprising, two religion-inspired political movements are challenging Tunisias cosmopolitan political and social attitudes, and are threatening to reverse the countrys long-standing moderation toward Israel and the Jews.
Ennhada is a moderate Islamist political party. After the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali collapsed in the wake of the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Tunisias interim government granted the group permission to form a political party. Since then it has become the biggest party in Tunisia, so far outdistancing its more secular competitors.
Located just 80 miles off the coast of Sicily, Tunisia has been colonized by foreign powers from the Roman Empire to modern France. But unlike other countries with a long colonial history, Tunisia has historically been a place where Middle Eastern and European values and ideas have converged, reinforcing one another without causing conflict or social discord.
Educated Muslim Tunisians acknowledge that the Jews are a crucial part of this history.
The Jews came to Tunis and developed commerce and trade here, and many came after they were expelled from Iberia, said Abdel-Hamid Larguech, a history professor. These were factors in how Tunisia became more cosmopolitan.
Modern Tunisia has had a history of moderation on Israel-related issues. In 1965, Habib Bourguiba, the president from 1957 until 1987, caused a brief crisis in relations between Tunisia and several other Arab governments when he outlined a plan for recognizing Israel in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Official diplomatic contact between Israel and Tunisia, established in 1996, lasted just four years.
Travel to Israel is fairly routine for the countrys Jews. Tunisia is also one of the few Arab countries accessible to Israeli passport holders, despite the lack of official recognition.
Yet, since Ben Ali was overthrown, there have been hints that Tunisias moderationand its moderate position toward Israelcould be eroding.
When the Islamist Ennahda party won 43% of the vote in Tunisias first post-uprising parliamentary elections, they wanted to put Islamic law in the countrys new constitution; it didnt happen. Many Tunisians still fear that the party could take the country in an uncomfortably radical direction.
Party co-founder Rached Ghannouchi has publicly praised the mothers of suicide bombers and spoken about the extinction of Israel.
Walid Bennani, vice president of Ennahdas parliamentary contingent, says his party believes that peaceful relations with the Jewish State would be possible as soon as Israel makes peace with the Palestinians.
The constitution is not the place to legislate relations between countries, he added.
However, Ghannouchi said that there could be no normalization with Israel. Tunisians problem is with Zionism, not with Judaism, he reportedly said.
Tunisia also has a growing and increasingly vocal Salafist movement. Tunisias Salafists are Islamic fundamentalists, inspired by Saudi Arabias restrictive version of political Islam, who felt oppressed by the secular, republican character of the Bourguiba and Ben Ali regimes.
Every major political party, including Ennahda, condemned the Salafists.
So far, Tunisias moderate and secular political culture has kept the Salafists on the social and political fringes while frustrating Ennahdas ambitions for an overtly Islamic constitution. And as far as the Jews are concerned, Tunisian moderation has endured during the transitional period.
In Tunis itself, Jewish life is more developed than in most other Arab capitals. Although only 500 Jews remain in the city, it boasts a Jewish school, a yeshivah and a kosher food service, as well as the Grande Synagogue de Tunis, a 1930s art-deco masterpiece still topped with a colossal, gilded Star of David. The southern island of Djerba has more than 350 students in Jewish schools.
The post-revolutionary sense of openness has yielded one major gain for Tunisias Jewish community: After Ben Ali stepped down, Lellouche launched Dar el-Dekra (House of Memory), which he describes as the first Tunisian organization aimed at celebrating and promoting the countrys Jewish heritage.
Ben Ali used to instrumentalize the Jewish community, Lellouche said. Ben Ali wanted to say to France and America that the Jews live until now in Tunisia because he wants them to live here.
With Ben Ali gone, theres a new opportunity to develop Jewish life in Tunisia without contributing to the public image of a widely despised autocrat, said Lellouche, who also is planning a Jewish museum.
Still, he remains wary. The Salafists have chanted death to the Jews during their marches three times.
