The forthcoming national elections, ordered by the Bey of Tunis, pose a serious problem for the Jews of Tunisia inasmuch as they fear to antagonize the candidates of competing parties.
The Neo-Destour Nationalist party has reiterated its position that Tunisian Jews are to be treated as fully equal Tunisian citizens–and it treats them as such. For their part, Jews here wish to retain their ethnic and cultural identity, and do not wish to become “lost in the Moslem community. They take not of the fact that Tunisia does not consider Zionism to be “subversive” as do other Arab states and no interference with immigration to Israel has been noted.
However, Tunisian Jews are disturbed by differences between Neo-Destour leader Habib Bourguiba and his opponent, Salah Ben Youssef. In general, Jews here favor M. Bourguiba, who has dealt with them sincerely and in a democratic spirit. But they fear that supporters of Ben Youssef will turn on them if they vote for Bourguiba candidates.
Meanwhile, figures released here showed a considerable reduction in the Jewish population of Southern districts of Tunisia due to emigration. The Isle of Djerba, which had 4,250 Jews in 1946 now has some 2,700–a drop of 45 percent. In the same period the Jewish population of Gabes fell from 3,663 to 1,200, while that of Gafsa was reduced from 796 to 400. The extreme southern territories showed similar losses of Jewish population.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
