Thousands of Jews attend annual Ghriba pilgrimage in Djerba

[piccolomondo]

Thousands of Jews, mainly from France, Italy and Israel attended the annual Ghriba pilgrimage from Wednesday (May 2nd) through Saturday on the Tunisian Mediterranean island of Djerba.

The event took place at the El Ghriba synagogue, North Africa's oldest synagogue, which was destroyed in 2002 by a terrorist attack that killed 21 people. It commemorates the end of a plague 2,000 years ago that killed thousands of Jews, but also pays homage to the Talmudic Grand Master Shimon Bar Yashai, who lived there 4000 years ago, and to the eminent kabbalist Rabbi Meyer Baal Nich.

Some 2,000 Jews currently live in Tunisia, in addition to the 1,000 that live on the island of Djerba.

According to Perez Trabelsi, president of the Jewish community on Djerba, the Ghriba pilgrimage is a symbol of peace, tolerance and dialogue between Arabs and Jews.

[source]

[Bent_Bladi]

wow - i never even knew about this before... thanks for sharing