# Anti-Jewish Riots in Tunis (1967)

URL: https://allhistories.com/tunisia/timeline/1967-anti-jewish-riots-in-tunis
Location: Tunis, Tunisia
Themes: main-event

Tunisia's Jewish community, present since antiquity, numbered about 100,000 at the end of the Second World War, concentrated in Tunis, Djerba and the coastal cities. After independence many left for France and Israel, encouraged by economic changes, the decline of the French presence and tensions over the Arab–Israeli conflict, although Bourguiba's government guaranteed their civil rights and Jewish ministers sat in the first governments of autonomous and independent Tunisia. On 5 June 1967, as news of the outbreak of the Six-Day War reached Tunis, crowds demonstrated in the city centre, attacked and looted Jewish-owned shops and set fire to the Great Synagogue of Tunis on the Avenue de la Liberté; the British and American cultural centres were also attacked. Bourguiba publicly condemned the violence, apologised to the Jewish community and had those responsible prosecuted. Despite the president's response, the riots accelerated emigration, and within a few years only a few thousand Jews remained in Tunisia, mostly in Tunis and on Djerba, where the ancient community around the El Ghriba synagogue continued its traditions. The episode marked the effective end of large-scale Jewish life in the country. At this point in the timeline (5 June 1967), the President of Tunisia was Habib Bourguiba (25 July 1957 – 7 November 1987).

## Why it matters
The riots precipitated the departure of most of Tunisia's remaining Jews, ending a presence of some two thousand years.

Ruler at the Time: [Habib Bourguiba](https://allhistories.com/tunisia/rulers/habib-bourguiba)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — History of the Jews in Tunisia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Tunisia)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Jews in Tunisia](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Jews+in+Tunisia)
- [Wikipedia — Six-Day War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War)
- [Wikipedia — Bourguiba And Ben Ali (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_modern_Tunisia)