Judeo-Arabic Signage in Djerba

I recently came back from a week-long trip with my wife to Djerba, Tunisia. I’ll write a longer post about the trip in general, but for now I want to focus on one thing that kept catching my eye—and ear: the Judeo-Arabic used around Hara Kabira. Most people talk about Jewish languages outside Modern Hebrew as if they were relics. In Djerba, Judeo-Arabic is not a museum piece. It’s printed on signs, written on walls, and spoken by the people who live there.

As a teenager, I remember being surprised to learn that hundreds of thousands of Jews still speak Yiddish as a first language. Djerba gave me the same kind of jolt: a reminder that Jewish languages aren’t just things academics write books about. They’re still alive in the most ordinary, mundane ways.

I’m not getting into debates over what counts as “real” Judeo-Arabic versus Arabic simply written in Hebrew letters. I’m just sharing examples of what I saw.

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Yeshiva Ohr Torah Donations

I removed the phone number because this is the internet—but if you’d like to donate, contact me and I’ll give you the number.

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Donations to El Ghriba

Here are some other images at El Ghriba, just for fun: