About 3,000 Jews are expected in Djerba Monday for the annual pilgrimage to the ‘Ghriba synagogue’ on the island in the south of Tunisia, according to the organizers.

• Pilgrims come from Israel and Europe (Germany, Italy, Great Britain), but the largest contingent will come from France for this traditional pilgrimage called ‘Ziara,’ on the site of the oldest synagogue in Africa.
  
  Approximately 2700 beds were reserved Saturday in kosher hotels in Djerba, a tourism island where the pilgrims stay in vacation before performing the rites of the pilgrimage on 11 and 12 May
  
  Tunisia has no direct connection with Israel, and Israelis had to pass through Jordan and Europe to go to Djerba.
  
  This pilgrimage to the ‘Ghriba’ is the largest Jewish gathering in Tunisia after the war in Ghaza, and organizers were expecting a rush ‘somewhat reduced’ this year because of tensions in the Middle East.
  
  A record number of participants was established in 2000 when 8000 Jews made the trip to Djerba before a fall with 200 pilgrims from the outside in 2002.
  
  On 11 April 2002, the Ghriba synagogue was the target of an attack claimed by El Qaeda killed 21 people including 14 German tourists, two French and five Tunisians.
  
  Since then, stringent security measures surround the pilgrimage rituals which are followed by the local Jewish community, a thousand people, mainly residing in the Hara (Jewish quarters) of Djerba.
  
  Tunisia had 100,000 Jews at the independence in 1956, but this community has significantly reduced, its members preferred to settle in Israel and France.
  
  On the sidelines of the ritual of the pilgrimage, the Tunisian Minister of Tourism will welcome the pilgrims. A conference on the history of Jews in Tunisia will be moderated by French historian Claude Nataf.
  
  
  
  Ennahronline/ M. O.

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