Happy Passover (Tunisian kosher for passover recipe at the end)

So I just got back from Djerba, where I had gone for the seders. Djerdba has had a Jewish community for around 2500 years. Today, there are around 900 Jews remaining, and they all live in one community. There are 11 synagogues still in use on the island. They have their own school system, some people use only this, while others study religious subjects there and go to the government public schools for secular education.


The family I spent my time with switched between going to two shuls, one for morning services and one for evening. I think this is the first time I went to morning and evening services for both days of chag and shabbat.

The two synagogues I went to had similar layouts.

The seating is interesting, because since it extends to all four sides, in order to get a torah out of the ark you need to take off your shoes and stand on the cushions.

There were no women at the service. The first night my friend who came with me was offered to come to services, so I assumed that there would be a women's section. It ends up this meant sitting in the courtyard while we went inside.

On average there were around 15 people for morning services, and 30 in the evening. The service was pretty regular, not so much singing except for parts of hallel. Before the torah service, a man gets up and auctions off the aliyot, which I thought was kind of strange. They went for around a dinar a piece, and people usually do not outbid eachother. If there are any that are not bidded for they they are given out, so I got to have an aliyah on two of the days. After your aliyah, you have to go around and shake everyone's hand.

While I was there I saw a student's Hebrew workbook. Besides learning print and script letters, they also learn another kind which I had never seen before, which I guess is what they used in the times when they weren't allowed to write in Hebrew and so that non Jews wouldn't understand. Today I think there are few if any problems of anti Judaism on the island, and people feel comfortable walking around with kipot on.




Since there is no kosher alcohol available in Tunisia, many families make their own. The family I stayed with made two kinds, sweet and not sweet. It did not really taste like wine, and my friend who came with me informed me that it tasted like a very strong port. For the seders they mix it with a little bit of water for the four cups, and even still it is quite intense. My family also made their own Boukha, which tastes like Arak. For each of the four cups, the wine had to completely fill the glass, and you had to drink the entire thing at once.

Djerba has its own matza factories, and also imports matza from France. The Djerban matza is similar to shmura matza, except harder and thicker. My jaw hurt the next day from eating it. It tastes similar to Ak-Mak crackers. Most other kosher for passover food is imported from Israel, which was nice, since it meant I got to have Bisli and Doritos.

Being in Tunisia, where people already have dinner late, we started the first seder at 9:30 and the second at 10. For both seders they had the whole family over, which consisted of the parents, two sons, their wives and children, one daughter and her husband and child, and three more daughters who were not yet married.

The seder plate was a huge basket, which was necessary since the shank bone itself would have taken up our entire seder plate. Instead of using horseradish, Tunisians use romaine lettuce and endive. They dip their parsley in lemon juice instead of salt water. Then, they take balls of what looked like different fruits and nuts and dissolved them in the lemon juice to make haroset, which tasted more like salad dressing. There was no egg on the seder plate.

Before the seder began, one of the sons brought out a scale which I soon found out was to make sure you eat the right amounts of everything. It ends up in order to fulfill the mitzvah, you need to each quite a lot of matza, and a large salad's worth of maror. I was basically full before the meal began.

For Magid we went around the table reading the different sections, except for a few which are reserved for the head of the family. During Ha Lachma, the father picked up the seder basket and walked around with it above everyone's head. It was then repeated so that someone could hold it over his. He was also the only person to remove wine during his cup during the plagues, except instead of dipping his finger he poured it into a clay pot on the floor, and then refilled it. There was little discussion about the different parts of the seder.

The Afikomen was only symbolically hidden, and was brought back to the table without any drama after the meal.

On the second night, it is their tradition for magid to recite the entire seder in Hebrew and Arabic. They also do "who knows one" in Arabic, and what I thought is really cool, is that they use the same tune and representations of numbers as the Ladino version of the song. Maybe the song was translated when Jews came from Spain.

We ended the first seder at 2 and the second at 3:30.

The meals for the entire weekend focused around lamb, and I wouldn't be surprised if they purchased an entire lamb for the chag. On the second day they had a probably the largest meal, which was a huge lamb barbecue, which was seperated into different courses by part of the lamb. We started with the liver, then moved onto ribs, then brain, and then chunks of pure fat. The meal finished by eating the Shank bone from the seder plate. We ate the intestines and stomach the night before.

The grill they used looked like the top of a brick chimney on wheels. They put coals in the bottom and once it gets hot put skewers of meat inside vertically so they are leaning against the sides.

Being in the Jewish quarter was like being in Jerusalem. There were no cars and everything was closed, and the streets were full of people walking around or sitting and taking on the sides of houses. There were young guys walking around with the normal Tunisian tight pants and shirts and lots of gel, except they were also wearing Kipot.




One thing we ate as an appetizer were meat and potato balls. Here is how to make them:

You Need

Potatoes, cooked and mashed, maybe with a bit of margarine, salt and pepper
leftover cooked meat (we used lamb)
hard boiled eggs
uncooked eggs
matza meal

First cut the meat into very small bite sized pieces and cut the hard boiled egg into strips. next, beat the uncooked eggs in a bowl. Wet your hands, and take a small handful of the mashed potatoes and flatten it out in your hand. place a piece of meat and hard boiled egg in the center and fold the potato over it. Roll into and oval shape. Roll this around in a bowl of matza meal, and then dip it into the egg. Deep fry until golden brown.