Foreign Visitors Return to Annual Jewish Pilgrimage at Tunisia Synagogue
The annual Lag B’Omer pilgrimage to the El-Ghriba Synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba drew about 500 attendees this year, including visitors from France, China, Ivory Coast and Italy. The event took place from April 30 to May 6 under tight security measures following a 2023 attack that killed five people.
Abc NewsThe annual Jewish pilgrimage to the 26-century-old El-Ghriba Synagogue in Tunisia drew about 500 attendees this year, including a modest return of international visitors from France, China, Ivory Coast and Italy. The gathering on the Mediterranean island of Djerba ran from April 30 to May 6 to mark the Lag B’Omer holiday and occurred under tight security following a deadly attack during the 2023 festival.
A national guardsman shot and killed five people at the synagogue soon after the 2023 event, an incident that included two French citizens among the victims.
France’s ambassador to Tunisia attended this year’s pilgrimage, which participants described as a symbolic step after the previous violence. Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times, and the pilgrimage remains central to the country’s small Jewish community. Inside the synagogue the atmosphere combined devotional observance with social exchanges.
Worshippers lit candles, read sacred texts and wrote wishes on eggs that were later placed in a sacred cave, a tradition believed to bring blessings. Within Djerba, security was concentrated in the main Jewish quarters of Hara Seghira and Hara Kebira.
Despite the security concerns, the traditional Minara procession took place for the first time since the 2023 attack. The Minara, a pyramid-shaped tower of gold and silver, was placed at the center of the synagogue where women draped it with colorful scarves associated with good fortune, fertility and marriage.
A symbolic auction of paintings and Jewish religious items followed as a fundraiser for the synagogue’s maintenance.
